Cream Cheese

[doni_dyke01]

Hullo. I was wondering if any of you fine folks had any tried and true recipes for making cream cheese from silken tofu. Looks like dairy is off the list of things I'm allowed to eat and I really don't want to spend nearly $4 on an 8 oz tub of vegan cream cheese. Any ideas?

Comments

[little_e_]

Real cream cheese is actually made of cultured cream, kind of like a yogurt. So I imagine you'd want to look into using a similar culture for your tofu.
Good luck :)

[doni_dyke01]

I'll have to do some research. Thank you.

[kamaliitaru]

I haven't tried this recipe, but I have tried one of the recipes on her blog, and it's pretty good. So, if you are up to experimenting http://www.laurafriendly.com/2011/11/vegan-cream-cheese.html may help point you in the right direction.

[doni_dyke01]

It's certainly a start, but the cashews would have to go. They're, unfortunately, $8 a pound here and price is part of the problem.

[kamaliitaru]

Ugh, that's expensive. And, thinking of nuts that are that creamy and my mind is sort of blank on things that wouldn't cost so much. They aren't the type of nuts I keep in the house for baking, so I had no idea they were so pricey. You may be able to try with peanuts or sesame seeds, or a smaller amount of oil. If you used oil, I'm sure you would have to play around with it until you got the right consistency (maybe add a bit more xantham, for eg). You could try with different kinds of fats and see, but experimenting can get expensive too.

[doni_dyke01]

I don't keep nuts around the house at all, really. But, maybe I could find them cheaper somewhere else? And, maybe ditto on the xanthan gum, too? I mean, yikes.