Deeply gratifying homemade pumpkin spiced yogurt cream cheese on toast with raisins.
Have you ever wanted to make cheese? Not a cheese ball, mind you. I’m talking about honest-to-goodness homemade cheese.
Thankfully, you can. And it’s easy.
The simplest methods of cheese-making produce soft cream cheeses, so that’s what I’m showing you today — a simple yogurt cream cheese, jazzed up with pumpkin and spices just in time for holiday festivities.
It’s delectable served over sprouted-whole grain toast, or it can be served as a dip with apples.
YUM. Now let’s make some cheese!
This recipe is cross-posted over at www.cheeseslave.com. If you haven’t been to Anne-Marie’s site yet, go check it out!
You’ll need:
1 quart of plain yogurt (where to find yogurt & starter cultures)
1/2 C pumpkin puree
3 T. unrefined sugar (sucanat) (where to buy sucanat)
2 T. raw honey (where to buy raw honey)
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. ginger
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. allspice
(where to find bulk, organic spices)
1 bowl, an elastic rubber band, and a sanitized (as in never used!) dish towel, handkerchief, or thin cloth diaper
You begin with a mixing bowl.
Drape a towel over it (cheesecloth, handkerchiefs, or cloth diapers work, too), and attach around the edges of the bowl with an elastic rubber band.
Now, pour that quart of yogurt into the towel and let it drip into the bowl.
Once the dripping slows, string up the towel to let the whey continue to drip. Leave it until it stops dripping. The time will vary based on the weave of your towel.
You'll be collecting whey. Don't throw this liquid gold out! It has SO MANY uses in traditional food preparation techniques. Put it in a jar in your fridge to use later.
You've done it! When the towel stops dripping, what's inside is about 8oz. of yogurt cream cheese.
Now, add in your pumpkin and spices.
Blend together, and you're done!
Spread on toast with raisins, and it's ambrosial.
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Wow, this looks fantastic! And REALLY easy. AND I have all the ingredients already. I will try this today. Thanks.
Let me know how it turns out!
Found your site through Ann Marie. I will be coming back. Great blog!
Awesome! And so easy. What are some estimate times for how long it needs to drain? i know you said it varies but are we talking minutes… hours… days?
The SoG
Son of Grok
Hi SoG — Generally it takes hours. The most it would take is dripping overnight. It just depends on how thick your towel/cheesecloth is.
hi, I’m wondering if you could use greek yogurt (like fage) for this recipe or if only regular yogurt is the way to go?
Gayle — If you use Greek yogurt, you don’t need to drain it (it’s already drained). So, just skip right to the step where you add the yumminess.
In fact, Fage tastes richer and thicker and stays like that longer but it’s not organic. It’s up to you to decided if that’s important.
You can also just put the yogurt in a paper coffee filter in a bowl or big measuring cup. I don’t always cover it. The longer it drains, the thicker it gets.
While it is draining, is it left out on the counter or the refrigerator?
Accidently bought StonyFields French Vanilla whole milk yogurt this week – so I used that and skipped the sugar. The pumpkin we had in the freezer from the garden this fall. DELICIOUS!!! My two year old ate 3 tablespoons for dessert!
Just a “by the way”, I just finished up my pumpkin cream cheese from Trader Joe’s, it’s so good with apple slices. Your recipe is probably very similar. I think I will try! Thanks!
I make all my cream cheese from homemade kefir – it makes a delicious base for many different cheeses.