Homemade Cream Cheese

SO for a long time by husband has been trying to talk me into making my own cheese.  He's kinda the self sufficient state of mind fella.
I didn't want to do it because I love cheese so much, I didn't want to get turned off by the process.
One day I just changed my mind, Pintrest is my friend so many ideas and recipes on there.
I found several cheese making ideas, I started off with ricotta.
Next was cream cheese, so dang easy!

What you need:
2 quarts of half and half
1 packet of mesophilic starter

How to make it:
Leave the cream out until it reaches room temperature.
Pour into a large enough bowl, stir on the starter.
Cover with plastic wrap. 
Let it set for 12 or more hours. 
Mine actually took 4 days to set because my house is kept so cool.

Next step would be to line a colander with a tea towel or muslin.  Not cheese cloth that is to thin.
Pour your cheese into the cloth, gather and tie shut around a wooden spoon that will suspend your cheese above the colander to drain into a large bowl.

Now let that drain for 12 more hours.
Bam you got cream cheese!

I divided mine into different containers, some I added chopped chives and others I made garden vegetable.

Store in the fridge.

It was really good, it made equivalent to 5 tubs of store bought cream cheese and it keeps for a long time! 
Do you save more money doing this, no not really but come on you just made your own cheese! 


I found this method on Chickens in the Road's website, there you can find photos of the process, sorry I did not take any photos.

* We found the starter and a brewery supply shop that carries cheese making products.  You get a pack of 5 that you store in the freezer