I LOVE making things from kefir! Mostly I just love that it makes my life a lot easier and cheaper. Because I’m already making it, I have it around to use for other things – which keeps me from buying buttermilk and other various “soured” items. Now I’m making cream cheese from my kefir and it’s SO EASY! You can use kefir in tons of different ways (including ice cream) and I love sharing them with you. So, let’s make some cheese……but not cut it, okay? |
For this batch, I cultured my kefir about 48 hours. Usually I just let mine go for 12-24 hours, but I wanted this to be pretty thick. Even after 48 hours, it wasn’t as thick as I would like – silly air conditioning. But I tried to make it work anyway……oops. Aren’t you glad I mess up for you so that you can avoid silly mistakes? I get in a hurry sometimes……and sometimes I feel pretty smart. Usually if I’m feeling pretty smart, I do something dumb very closely afterwards – like making pulpy lemonade or shaving off my fingers. After it cultures, you need to chill it. Trust me. No really, trust me. |
Go through the same procedures you normally would to drain your kefir. Then chill it. I have successfully made kefir cheese without straining. Instead I washed my hands and picked out my kefir grains myself…….it was sorta weird and sorta cool at the same time. But doing it that way saved me from having to strain it – which usually makes it a tad bit thinner. Every other time I’ve used chilled kefir from the fridge and it works great. |
I like using cheesecloth for straining. Lots of forums and other blogs say you can just use a tea towel to get the same results…….I might try that sometime. But for now I just use my cheesecloth. You can find it at just about any fabric store. I like this brand from Amazon.Also, you can get more use out of your cheesecloth by washing and reusing it. I love reusable stuff. 🙂 |
You’ll need at least 4 layers of thickness of your cheesecloth. I tried less, and it didn’t work. I mess up a lot of stuff….Barry regularly hears “Uh oh” from the kitchen. When Dottie hears it, she comes running thinking that it must mean food is on the floor. Line a nice strainer with your cloth and put it over a bowl to catch the whey. Pour your CHILLED kefir into the cheesecloth. I poured my non-chilled runny kefir into it…..and it totally ran through. Every bit of it. You should have seen the look on my face. |
Bring up two of your corners and tie them together. Imagine that you don’t see that my kefir is all straining out the bottom. Thanks. |
Bring up the other two corners and tie those too. Now you should have a hanging bag looking thing. It sorta reminds me of a cow. I have no idea why. My mind just works like that. |
You will want to hang your kefir in the fridge. It will continue to ferment and get more sour if you leave it room temperature. For me, this means making room in the fridge…..which is a BIG feat. You will strain the kefir about 24 hours to get a cream cheese texture. Remember making your own Greek Yogurt? You can make yogurt cheese with this same method! Just use yogurt instead of kefir and hang it for 24 hours instead of 8. Yogurt cheese, kefir cheese….man, I’m spreading the cheese love. Get it? SPREADING the cheese love? Ha, ha! |
Hanging the bag will help gravity pull more of the moisture out. I rigged my knot so that it was big enough to hold the entire bag. Then I pushed it through the top rack of my shelves and spread it back out…..so that it would hold. Does that make sense? |
Now you have some really beautiful cheese that you made yourself! Does it taste just like cream cheese? Nope. Remember that it’s fermented so it will be a little more wangy than normal cream cheese. However, you can use it just like you would use cream cheese in any recipe. You could stir some honey in for a great bagel spread.Now, your volume will decrease by half or more. So when you’re making it remember that……use more than you’ll need at the end. And save the whey that’s in the bowl. You can use it for tons of things! You can add it to smoothies or use it in place of water when you make bread (love this method!). I also use some of my whey to ferment things. Go forth and make cheese….but please don’t cut it. Ahem. |
About Stacy
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the content above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase an item, I may receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Comment Policy: I love reading your thoughts and input on what you read here. I'm sure we'll disagree sometimes and that's okay! In those cases, do what's right for you and yours. As with any form of communication, only post comments that move the discussion in a positive direction.
Hi, I am interested to try this. I have been using Bamboo sheets to strain my water kefir or anything that they suggest using a coffee filter for, wondering if this will be too fine. Worth a try though. I am guessing you take out the yellow hard sort of grains first as I have dropped a few in my soaked chia seeds and they don’t taste nice, not a good texture. Also you would need them to make the next batch of Milk kefir I am thinking. Really love all the idea from Pintrest, time waster though as I seem to go from one good idea to the next, have wads of printed recipes to try. I do try them but sometimes have to wait for the Elderberry to flower or some such thing.
Personally, I wouldn’t recommend eating the grains – not a fan of the texture or taste. But the flavor of milk kefir is hard to beat! Good luck with your kefir making journey!
Julie, Humorous Homemaking Team
Hello Stacey
I make sour cream from my kefir and use coffee filters to drain the whey. I find it is a bit sour when I use the sour cream for baking. Should I be adding sugar to bring down the tartness?
Hi Elsie! I really don’t notice too much tartness and tang from baking with kefir. But if it bothers you, you could try adding a drizzle of honey or maple syrup and that might do the trick. Thanks — Julie, HH Team
I didn’t know you could make cheese without Rennet – does the kefir grains do whatever the Rennet did for the cheese making process?
This is just cream cheese – so, you’re straining the kefir until it’s the consistency of cream cheese. I have never made real cheese…I think I’m too pansy for that. LOL
Very nice! I like the way you did that. It actually looks almost exactly the way I have done it sometimes! This week, though, I made kefir cream cheese and I just used a paper towel in the strainer, and that worked quite well. I also accidentally put frozen raspberries back in the fridge instead of the freezer, so I had these thawed berries at the same time I had the kefir cream cheese — SOooooo, I mixed some berries into the cream cheese, and MAN! that was good on my zucchini bread! 🙂
That sounds divine!
Just wondering – what is left between the cheesecloth and the colander? Wondering what its purpose is in there? Thanks!
If I understand your question correctly, there will ultimately be nothing left in the colander; if you have wire racks in your fridge you can just hang the cheesecloth on that and put your bowl beneath. If you have glass shelves, like we now do in our fridge, you’d set the cheesecloth in the colander since you can’t hang it from anything. In the photo, Stacy used both to make sure even if the bag came loose somehow it would still be okay.
I understand!
Thanks very much for your help!.
Just got some kefir and am going to try making cream cheese with it. Also wanted to mention that it’s easy and frugal to make buttermilk. The next time you want to make those wonderful buttermilk biscuits, and don’t have any buttermilk, don’t “wig out. 🙂 If you need a cup of buttermilk, just put 1 tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar in a measuring cup and add enough milk to make a full cup. Wait 5 minutes and stir. Voila! Buttermilk.
Yep, I’ve done that many times…but now I don’t have to with kefir! 🙂 I just use kefir in everything.
Quick question, I have my chilled 48 hour kefir ready to strain through cheesecloth but I am wondering about hanging it in the fridge. I have glass shelves in my fridge, not the wire ones. Any ideas on how I can rig it to hang in my fridge? Thanks, Audrey
Hmmmmmm. You could just let it sit in the lined colander and see if it would work that way. It would probably just take a bit longer to strain. All the hanging does is speed the process up by using gravity. 🙂
Yes Audrey ! In the winter, after the stove/oven is no longer on, my mom hung the bag from the kitchen sink faucet! She let it drip in the sink! Needless to say she was not saving the whey! The kitchen is usually cool in the evening/night. I can’t tell you if kefir continued to ferment, but we like ours pretty tangy, maybe for us it was perfect!
If you have a deep bowl, you can hang your “bag of kefir” from a wooden spoon over the bowl. I’ve done this many times.
Great tip! Yes, that works wonderfully.
I am going to try to make cream cheese today. I hope it works. Thanks so much for showing me how.
Great! I hope it turns out well for you Terry. 🙂
does this smell bad as it’s fermenting?
Well, this doesn’t really ferment. The kefir is already fermented from culturing on the countertop. It smells faintly like sour cream. If you let it drain in the fridge, it won’t be fermenting anymore. 🙂
Ah makes sense. I definitely will try this as long as I don’t scare the husband away from it he opens the fridge. ^_^ thanks for the quick reply!
Thank you for linking up to Tasty Tuesday at Nap-Time Creations. I really hope you can come back and link up again this week! http://nap-timecreations.blogspot.com/
Thanks! Will do. 🙂
Thanks for sharing these great instructions at FAT TUESDAY. I hope to see you next week! I really like your blog!
Thanks Jill! I always enjoy blog hops where I can learn new things. Thanks for hosting. 🙂
AWESOME. I am starting to work with Kefir now and I don’t think I am doing it right. I think I need a finer strainer. All I have is metal and I heard not to use it or it will kill your kefir. AHHH. More things to buy. Anyway . . . will have to try your cream cheese method. I am saving this one!
Jen, I use a metal strainer with no ill effects at all. 🙂 I kill plants, but I can keep the kefir alive! Ha, ha! See this post for how I strain kefir: http://www.stacymakescents.com/what-is-kefir
Ok, I know nothing about this Kefir you speak of! I need to get my Monday morning reports and conference call out of the way and then bring myself up to speed ASAP!
Allison, check these links: http://www.stacymakescents.com/what-is-kefir, http://www.stacymakescents.com/using-kefir-2, http://www.stacymakescents.com/kefir-ice-cream