Cream Cheese

Sometimes I like make cheese, this time I wanted to try to make the Labaneh.

The Labaneh is a traditional cheese of middle eastern countries like Egypt, Israel and Jordan. Usually is eaten with fruits, vegetables or alone.

Since I'm not sure of the final result, I entitled this instructable Cream cheese and not Labaneh.

Make cream cheese is very simple, you'll need only to make yogurt or buy it.

I'll do it starting from yogurt.

You'll need:

1 L of milk (or 1 L of natural yogurt);

One packet of lactic acid bacteria to prepare yogurt (mine was 8,5 g);

A yogurt maker;

A cloth of fine linen.

Optional

Salt, spices or sugar.

First you have to make the yogurt. If you would rather do it with natural yogurt go to next step.

Warm a little 'milk then put inside the lactic acid bacteria and mix well. Add to the rest of milk in the bucket of the yogurt maker, mix again, put it in the yogurt maker and leaves it for the time necessary to make the yogurt. The time varies according to the ferment, to the outside temperature and the type of milk. I have usually seen that it takes 6 to 8 hours.

For those who don't know, the yogurt maker does anything special, serves only to maintain the milk at a constant temperature for a long period. You can do the yougurt in other ways, however, use the yogurt maker is the easiest.

Once the yogurt is ready you can start to prepare the cheese.

Put the yogurt in the linen cloth and hang it. Let it rest for 24/30 hours. After this time the cheese is ready (also in this case, the time will vary according to the temperature. Mine was ready after 24 hours, just to check).

At this point the recipe of Labaneh planned to add salt.

This cheese has a neutral flavor, so taste it before salt, maybe you like it as it is. I think it's also good doing it sweet instead of salty or seasoned with spices (such as chili pepper or chives, olives, basil, thyme, oregano... etc.)

Buon appetito!