24 February, 2008

Kraft Easy Cheese - Cream Cheese

Behold Kraft Easy Cheese Original Cream Cheese flavor: introduced in 2007 and already relegated to clearance bins and job lot stores, this curiosity may well have come and gone from your local supermarket without ever attracting your attention.

The flavor is okay; not quite as mild and milky as cream cheese, with a slight but distinct sour note. The texture is typical of all the Easy Cheese flavors, soft without being runny.

It's not hard to understand why Original Cream Cheese was a failure. There isn't anything about it that stands out as a unique or "must-have" feature. Cream cheese is already a pretty friendly product to use, easy to spread right out of the package, and the spreadability improves when it comes up to room temperature. Thinning the cheese out to help it ride through a narrow nozzle isn't a big improvement.

I tried a long time to come up with a use for this stuff that would be unique to a self-dispensing, no-spreading-required product. It wasn't easy, but here you go:

No-Bake Ghetto-Ass Cheesecake Treats

1 box Honey Maid Graham Crackers
1 container Betty Crocker ready-to-use vanilla frosting
1 can Easy Cheese Original Cream Cheese
1 box of Strawberry Fruit Snacks

For each Cheesecake Treat use one graham cracker square and spread it generously with vanilla frosting. Dispense a decorative layer of Easy Cheese Cream Cheese on top of the frosting, Garnish with a strawberry fruit snack. Repeat these steps until you run out of one of the ingredients. You can make this dessert elegant enough for guests if you substitute a spoonful of strawberry jam for the Fruit Snack.


4 comments:

deb huffman said...

where can you buy it

Unknown said...

safeway

Unknown said...

I liked this product. No refrigeration needed so I kept a can in my desk to put on bagels. Also, a friend of mine prepares meals for rafting trips and she began using this quite a bit since it did not need refrigeration and was easy to pack. Easy breakfasts on the river. It should be brought back.

Unknown said...

I was just now trying to find if anyone had ever made this, because I consider it an essential product. I like cream cheese on bagels, among other things, but sometimes I will wait several weeks in between snacks like that, as I watch my weight.

I can put the bagels in the freezer, & I currently can keep the cream cheese in the freezer, as well, but it really messes with the texture, and it makes it hard to defrost just the right amount for immediate use.

If I keep standard-packaged cream cheese in the refrigerator, in either bricks or plastic pots, when I go to use it again, it has always grown a greyish green beard, rendering it unusable and unavailable, just as I have a craving for cream cheese.

Please bring back a spray can product, as air and bacteria can't get in to spoil it. Not having to refrigerate it was a great bonus, but not necessary. I just need to be able to use all of it over time.