
THM – FP – Fat Free
Have you tried the fat free cheese available in the stores and thought they tasted “funny”? Then looked at the ingredient list and discovered why?! I sure have! In order to have the cream style yogurt cheese that I love in a fat free version that doesn’t taste like….(hard to describe)… I had to revert to my “Farm Fresh Tess” ways and make my own. So here you have it; a healthy and Easy Fat Free Cream Cheese!
I took pictures so that I can show you how super simple it is. You can literally do this in your sleep as it strains overnight in your refrigerator. If you have a small plastic colander, cheese cloth (available at grocery stores) and a clean glass container that the colander will fit inside plus a tight fitting lid or plastic wrap you have all the equipment you need. I also recommend starting with a good clean yogurt, either plain regular or semi-strained greek. Let this yogurt strain to the consistency of cream cheese and you’re done.
An extra step when straining regular yogurt is to strain as shown and, after 12 hours, tie the cloth around a wood spoon handle and let it strain for another 12 hours. I did not find this to be necessary since the greek yogurt is already partially strained and needed just a few more hours to reach a nice spreadable cream cheese stage.
Just make sure the ingredients in the yogurt read skim milk and cultures and nothing else and you will end up with a nice clean tasting product for your low fat or Trim Healthy Mama E meals and snacks.
Making fat free cream cheese is an easy process that can be done from either plain fat free yogurt (made from fat free milk) or fat free greek yogurt. You want to use a brand of yogurt with only skim milk and live cultures. This is what is contained in fage 0% according to their website. http://usa.fage.eu/yogurts/fage-total-plain#fage-total-0
Alternatively you may make your own yogurt using these cultures and then using this same process; you may strain the yogurt to greek yogurt strength or continue straining to make a nice start cream cheese style yogurt cheese. Lightly salting this product will take out some of the tartness.
To make the amount of cream cheese (yogurt cheese) shown you will need:
1 small (2 cup) container of good clean 0% fat free greek yogurt
1 length of clean cheese cloth to cover a small colander
1 smallish PLASTIC colander (metal reacts)
1 lid or enough plastic wrap to TIGHTLY cover the bowl in the fridge (so you don’t pick up fridge flavors)
Leave this in the fridge for a minimum of 12 hours but even several days won’t hurt it at all as long as it is kept cold and tightly covered.
Easy Fat Free Cream Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 small (2 cup) container of good clean 0% fat free greek yogurt
- 1 length of clean cheese cloth to cover a small colander
- 1 smallish PLASTIC colander (metal reacts)
- 1 lid or enough plastic wrap to TIGHTLY cover the bowl in the fridge (so you don't pick up fridge flavors)
Instructions
Leave this in the fridge for a minimum of 12 hours but even several days won't hurt it at all as long as it is kept cold and tightly covered.
I’ve done this with the reusable nylon coffee filters that fit in a coffe maker. Very fine sieve works great & and is washable and reusable. A Turkish friend recommended this to me?
Thanks for the tip Sheila! I’ll have to remember that one. 🙂
Oh my word, I TOTALLY forgot about how to make my own yogurt cheese/cream cheese. Duh! Thanks for reminding me and for sharing this great tip!
Sure thing and have fun with it Dawn! I know I sure am 🙂
going to try this, fat free cream cheese is difficult to find only some groceries even sell it.
thanks for sharing!!!
You’re welcome Jeanne!
Ditto!
Can you use it for cheesecake? I make the kind that isn’t baked.
It definitely will work for that Debbie! 🙂
I’ve tried this, but it tastes like yogurt and not cream cheese. Any suggestions on how to make it more like authentic cream cheese? Thanks
Hi Elizabeth and thanks for stopping by! The idea of removing the whey from the fat-free yogurt is to get the creamy, cheese type texture without the fat for THM E, low-fat “cheese” spreads and frostings.
It is, of course, yogurt cheese but with a much creamier type texture without the whey.
If you’d like to make your own cream cheese you can just follow this process with sour cream and it will be a THM S, low carb. If you’d like to make it with full-fat Greek yogurt you’ll get a more cream cheese type cheese but it will still be too high fat to be THM E, low fat. Hope this helps. 🙂
This is helpful. Thank you.
What is the nutritional information and how do you store the cream cheese? How long can it be kept in the ‘fridge?
I’m not sure of the nutritional info since it will have less carbs than 0% yogurt once it has been strained and contains less (or no) whey. The other nutritional info on the container should still apply as far as I know.
You’ll need to store it in the fridge.
Hope this helps.
Could you mix sour cream and fat free yogurt so that it takes more like cream cheese?
Absolutely Daphne! I’ve been meaning to update this recipe to include that and I have some other ideas on it too. 🙂
Could you do this with fat free sour cream as well? So fat free greek yogurt and fat free sour cream.
Hi Melissa. The main idea behind making this is that high quality fat free Greek yogurt doesn’t usually contain added ingredients. It’s just skimmed milk that has been cultured and strained of whey. Further straining will result in the “creamy yogurt cheese”. I do not believe that fat free sour cream could exist without thickeners and other additives that will have a strong negative affect on the taste and quality.
You can however strain regular sour cream in this same way and make a great cream cheese. Hope this helps. 🙂
Could this be frozen if you don’t use it within a week?
No I wouldn’t think you could do that Sheila, sorry.
Love this idea! Can it be used in baking?
As long as you account for it not lending any extra fat like regular cream cheese. It will be more like yogurt in flavor but should bake better than yogurt without the whey.
Thanks so very much for this hack. Trying to find FF cream cheese has been aweful. I used a large container of FF Greek yogurt and it turned out great. I added some salt (maybe several shakes)but was unsure how much to use to really help with the tanginess but not make it too salty. Could you give a rough estimate as I’m not sure. Thanks so much.