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Wondering what you can do with a tub of cream cheese? Check out these simple easy cream cheese recipes to make scrumptious meals and decadent desserts.
No matter which way you like your cream cheese, I’ve got a recipe for you.
The smooth, mild, soft cream cheese is not used only to top bagels and make cheesecakes, but it’s super versatile and works beautifully in both sweet and savoury dishes.
You can be stirring it through delicious spaghetti, to smooth out sauces, or you can be whipping up a quick yet decadent treat.
Cream cheese adds plenty of dreamy, creamy goodness to everything!
It’s also convenient, economical, and it keeps well in the fridge for about 10 days making a terrific staple to keep on hand at all times, absolutely perfect for a quick, delicious family meal.
If you have a brick or a tub of cream cheese in your refrigerator right now, make the most of it with one of these delicious cream cheese recipes, and each is as good as the last.
Now let’s dig in and enjoy!
Cream Cheese Recipes
10-Minute cream cheese pasta
Delicious cozy cream cheese pasta ready in 10 minutes, anyone? This super easy recipe turns spaghetti and cream cheese into the perfect midweek last-minute meal. Easy peasy, but totally satisfying, especially when you run out of time or money. Good things don’t get much easier than this!
Pasta with Spinach and cream cheese
Another terriric pasta dish that uses convenient cream cheese for when you just need dinner on the table in no time. To make the pasta sauce you just need to saute’ the fresh spinach in olive oil and fragrant garlic, then add cream cheese, parmesan and a generous grating of nutmeg. This is the perfect creamy sauce for your pasta, what more could you want?
Tomato Pasta Sauce with Cream cheese
This quick and easy tomato pasta sauce with cream cheese recipe is pure comfort food. It’s deliciously creamy, filling, and ready in about 15 minutes! One of my favorite tricks here is the starchy pasta water that helps to thin out the cream cheese so it creates a creamy tomato sauce that coats everything like a dream!
Cream Cheese Sandwich
This quick cream cheese sandwich with herbs and cucumber is so satisfying, fresh, and makes an easy meal idea with incredible flavor. Seriously, it will literally just melt in your mouth. It is that good!
Creamy Penne Pasta Recipe
I'm all about silky, creamy pasta sauce made with cream cheese and you'll be surprised at how quickly you can turn this easy pasta dish around. Just add soft cream cheese, savory parmesan and lemon to give it an extra lift. Easy, quick and delicious, you can bring this family meal straight to the table in no time!
Creamy Spinach Tomato Pasta
In this scrumptious recipe, I combine tomato passata with rich cream cheese, parmesan and spinach – everyone’s favorite veggie – to make a meal that is perfect for when you want comfort food, but can’t be bothered to spend time in the kitchen. It's a comforting meatless meal that tastes so luxurious and it's ready in less than 15 minutes.
Sweet Cream Cheese
Not only amazing family meals, a tub of cream cheese can go a long way, my friends! This fluffy sweet cream cheese dip comes together in less than 5 minutes and tastes super delicious. It makes a no-bake dessert that pairs wonderfully with fresh fruit, cookies and cakes. Minimal effort, maximum result.
Salami Cream Cheese Roll
This is another fantastic cream cheese recipes to add to your repertoire and brilliant to make a crowd-pleaser appetizer! Easy to make, inexpensive, and it looks super YUMMY.
Cream Cheese Danishes with Sugared Cranberries
These easy cream cheese danishes are made with croissant dough layered with cream cheese, twisted up and baked with some delicious jam on top, and a drizzle of glaze to finish. They look amazing and you are guaranteed to get lovely, tangy cream cheese in every bite!
Nutella Cheesecake (No-Bake!)
Nutella and a block of cream cheese is what you need to make the cheesecake of your dreams! This super indulgent dessert is absolutly perfect to impress any cheesecake lover.
Berry Vanilla Sheet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.
In this classic combination we have a simple vanilla-ish sheet cake topped with fluffy, dreamy cream cheese frosting and an assortment of berries for the most delicious treat. Easy and absolutely brilliant to impress your guests!
Different types of cream cheese
There are many types of this convenient, inexpensive soft cheese: brick, soft, fat-free brick, fat-free soft, light soft and whipped, with added flavors such as chives, onion, cinnamon, and more.
But what you’ll surely notice is that cream cheese can be sold in blocks or tubes.
The first one is thicker and tougher and it’s what you need to make cream cheese frostings or cheese cakes. The second one is easily spreadable and perfect for pasta recipes and bagels. If you’re based in the UK, you can only get the spreadable option, not the block.
Fancy to make your homemade version? I’ve found a clever recipe to make your own cheese at home, check this out!
Loved these cream cheese recipes?
If you’ve enjoyed this collection of cream cheese recipes, you might be interested in more ideas about how to use up ingredients that you might have in your fridge on in your pantry. Below you’ll find a few helpful roundups:
- 15 Fresh mint recipes
- 12 Penne pasta recipes
- 15+ Yummy spinach recipes
- Artichoke recipes
- 15 Cannellini bean recipes
- 17 Ricotta recipes
- 16 Recipes with onions
- 15 Mozzarella recipes
If you try and love one these cream cheese recipes, or if you have any question, let me know in the comment below. I would love to hear from you!
10+ Cream Cheese Recipes (easy & yummy)
Ingredients
- 8 oz (225 grams) full-fat cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
- ½ cup (60 grams) powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk (optional)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Sift the sugar: place a fine-mesh sieve over a large bowl, add the powdered sugar into the sieve and gently tap the side until all of the sugar dusts into the bowl and it's completely sifted. You want to remove lumps.
- Whip all the ingredients: place all the ingredients into a large bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer on a low speed until the sugar is incorporated into the mix, then increase the speed and beat for at least 1 minute or until the cream cheese looks fluffy and ultra creamy. You can also use a ballon whisk, but you need to beat vigorously and it takes longer.
- Serve: use a spatula to scrape the sweet cream cheese out of the mixing bowl and pour it into a small bowl. Make a few fancy swirls on top using the back of a dessert spoon and serve with fresh berries, summer fruit, cookies, cakes and more. Enjoy!
Notes
I don’t recommend freezing it.
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