11 Ideas for Using Up the Last Few Tablespoons of Cream Cheese

Ever open your container of cream cheese to see that there is only a few tablespoons left of cream cheese? You certainly don’t want an under-cream-cheesed bagel, so what can you do with this leftover cream cheese?

• Drop a few tablespoons into your ice cream base
• Add it to your pie crust to make it perfectly tender
• Blend it into your pancake batter
• Make cream cheese filled hand pies
• Stuff it into figs and dip them in chocolate
• Make cream cheese cookies
• Add some onto your muffins before going into the oven
• Scramble some into your eggs
• Make a strata with leftover bagels and cream cheese
• Add it to pimento cheese
• Make cream cheese frosting

Cheese-Stuffed Figs Dipped in Chocolate by Alice Medrich

Maybe you anticipated needing more cream cheese for your bagel brunch than you actually needed—or maybe you ended up making one cheesecake instead of two or inherited a block from a neighbor moving away.

Now what?

Sure, there’s more bagels, but rather than risk bagel overdose over just a few tablespoons of lingering cream cheese, incorporate it elsewhere:

• Drop a couple of tablespoons into your ice cream base (like Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams does!). A very good place to start: Brown Butter Cinnamon Ice Cream.
• Some, like baker extraordinaire Rose Levy Beranbaum, swear by it for perfectly tender pie crust that’s also easy to roll out.
• Blend cream cheese into batter for pancakes that are almost custardy.
• Or make hand pies from puff pastry and use cream cheese as the filling. Add a slice of tomato—or a slick of jam or guava paste—for bonus points.
• Stuff it into figs—and, while you’re at it, go ahead and dip them in chocolate.
• Our co-founder Merrill swears by tangy, rich cream cheese in her mother’s Cream Cheese Cookies, which are almost macaroon-like in texture.
• Slide a pat of cream cheese onto muffins as they head into the oven.
• Or scramble some with eggs for creamy, tangy streaks. (This is extremely delicious.)

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