How to Make Kefir ‘Cream’ Cheese – in the strainer

What is Kefir cheese? It is basically cream cheese but with all of the benefits of kefir. Making kefir cheese is the same as making yogurt cheese and whey and is really quite simple. You just need the right tools. I make this once a week because we are making so much kefir and I need to do something with it other than make smoothies. This kefir cheese can be used as a substitute for cream cheese in any recipe and will give you great probiotics vs. cream cheese which doesn’t have any.

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk kefir (or you can use whole milk yogurt instead)

Tools needed: metal or plastic strainer, bowl, cheesecloth

Directions

Set the strainer on top of a bowl and line with the cheesecloth. Pour in the kefir or yogurt and cover with the cheesecloth (it will get wet so put it in the bowl vs. hanging over the sides). Place the whole thing in the refrigerator and let it strain overnight or up to 24 hours.

Remove the ‘cream’ cheese from the cheesecloth and store in the fridge. The whey will drip through the strainer and land in the bowl below. Save the whey in the fridge as well for lacto-fermenting projects.

Whey in the bottom of the bowl

Here is the plain kefir cream cheese

Eat the cream cheese plain or mix with whatever you like to add a little zip.

This week we blended in 1 cup of fresh strawberries and it was a huge hit. I think you could even use this as a ‘frosting’ as it was a lovely shade of pink which of course my 3 year old daughter loved!

Here is the strawberry cream cheese

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