Freeze Dried Cream Cheese

I had to giggle when I took the cream cheese, okra and tomato peelings out of the freeze dryer today. First, the tomato peelings covered 1-1/2 trays in the freeze dryer.

I dumped those in the blender and turned them into powder. It was enough to fill one quarter pint jar. That’s about 24 teaspoons. It doesn’t look like much in that little squatty jar but considering that most of the time I use two or three teaspoons when I use it, one little jar goes a good ways.

With freeze dried foods, and probably many foods, if I just chunk them up and put them in a jar, they may fill up a quart jar. If I break them up with my hands, they may fit into a pint jar. If I put it in the blender and make it into a powder, it will fit in a half pint jar.

Take basil for instance. I place the whole leaves on the tray and freeze dry them. In the process of putting them into a jar, many of them break up but if I put it in the blender and make it into a powder, it will fit into a half pint jar (or smaller). Most of the basil, I just pack into a pint jar. I have no reason for doing it that way. It would take fewer jars if I made it into a powder. I should think about that. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to have to wash the blender! 🙂

For the cream cheese, I had cut each 8 oz. bar into smaller pieces and in my mind, I was thinking it would come out of the freeze dryer in the same little square as I put into the freeze dryer.

I should have expected it to turn into a powder but that’s not what I was expecting. Eggs turn into powder. Milk turns into powder.

A few chunks stayed as chunks but only because I was being super careful with them. Most of it is a powder. That’s ok. I’ll take out a couple of tablespoons of powder, add a bit of water and hopefully, have great cream cheese that’s shelf stable. Time will tell.