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What can you do with a tub of cream cheese? These simple and quick cream cheese recipes are brilliant for making scrumptious meals and decadent desserts. No matter how you like your cream cheese, I have a recipe for you!
Published Jan 2023/updated Jan, 2025
Cream cheese is not only used to top bagels and to make cheesecakes. The smooth, mild cream cheese is incredibly versatile and works beautifully in sweet and savory dishes.
You can stir it through delicious spaghettito smooth out pasta sauces or whip up quick yet decadent treats using just a handful of ingredients.
Cream cheese adds plenty of dreamy, creamy goodness to pretty much everything!
It’s also convenient and economical, and keeps well in the fridge for about 10 days, making it a terrific staple to keep on hand at all times. It’s 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!
10-Minute cream cheese pasta
This cream cheese pasta is one of the most delicious dishes you can whip up with basic ingredients in no time. A cosy and flavorful family meal doesn’t get much easier than this!
Whipped Cream Cheese (ready in 5 mins!)
This deli-style whipped cream cheese has a luxuriously light texture and is endlessly versatile. It's absolutely perfect for elevating your brunch! Spread it onto toast, bagels with smoked salmon, or graham crackers, or serve it as a dip for pretzels and veggies.
Pasta with Spinach and cream cheese
Another terrific pasta dish uses convenient cream cheese for when you need dinner on the table quickly. Saute the fresh spinach in olive oil and fragrant garlic, then add cream cheese, parmesan, and a generous grating of nutmeg. It tastes incredible!
One-pot Mac and Cheese
This recipe combines cream cheese and cheddar, making this easy mac and cheese ultra creamy and amazingly delicious. It is the perfect family meal during busy weeknights.
Cream Cheese Mousse
These little jars of fluffy and delicious cream cheese mousse topped with raspberries look delightful and gorgeous. The recipe uses just a few ingredients and makes an impressive dessert that is ready in no time!
Creamy Pesto Pasta
This simple recipe only needs fresh pesto, cream cheese, and pasta. It makes the perfect family meal for those busy weeknights when you want something satisfying and simple. And it’s on the table in 15 minutes!
Sweet Cream Cheese
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 strawberries, cookies, and cakes. No stand mixer is required!
One-Pot Creamy Spaghetti
A wonderful bowl of creamy spaghetti is here to hug you! This one-pot recipe is ready in less than 15 minutes, is easy to customize, and you'll love that satisfying, creamy texture.
Cream Cheese Sandwich
This quick cream cheese sandwich with herbs and cucumber is so satisfying and fresh. It's an easy meal idea with incredible flavor. Add sliced tomatoes, grilled vegetables, or scrumbled eggs. Seriously, it will literally just melt in your mouth. It is that good!
Creamy Pumpkin Pasta
The creamy base of this easy pumpkin pasta is made with garlic, canned pumpkin puree, dried herbs, cream cheese, and Parmesan. It’s family comfort food, ready in minutes—delicious!
Chocolate cream cheese
This ultra-creamy one-bowl chocolate cheese dip is velvety smooth, fluffy, and delicious. The perfect last-minute dessert, ready in no time!
Cream Cheese Muffins
These cream cheese muffins are easy to make with ingredients you probably already have at home. Try eating them warm, right out of the oven, and perfectly sweetened so they would taste great on their own, but even more delicious with a smear of raspberry jam.
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, which helps to thin out the cream cheese, creating a creamy tomato sauce that coats everything like a dream!
Cream Cheese Pizza, amazingly good!
This fabulous cream cheese pizza's crust is topped with fresh mozzarella, savory pecorino, and dollops of deliciously soft cream cheese. Because, really, what won’t ever let you down is all that gooey, bubbly goodness!
Creamy Broccoli Pasta (1-Pot)
Does broccoli pasta sound boring? Trust me, when you lace it with luscious cream cheese, garlic, and parmesan, you’ll have a wonderful pasta dish for dinner.
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!
Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Photo Credit: www.spendwithpennies.com
Everyone will love this easy cake, which has a dense yet moist texture and a golden-brown crust. The buttery vanilla taste pairs wonderfully with fruit, such as fresh berries.
Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins
These soft blueberry cream cheese muffins with a with sweet tangy cream cheese filling are irresistible. They are not overly sweet and perfect for lazy weekend breakfast, as a snack or just because! Enjoy them slightly warm with cup of coffee. Muffin heaven!
Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
Photo Credit: www.loveandoliveoil.com
This breakfast cake is simple, with fresh blueberries and sweetened cream cheese running through the middle. It will make your morning super delicious!
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 luxurious, and it's ready in less than 15 minutes.
Creamed Spinach Mac and Cheese.
Photo Credit: www.howsweeteats.com
In this recipe you'll have a whole huge bunch of fresh spinach baked into a delicious mac and cheese pot with a lovely crunchy topping. It looks sooo good.
Sun Dried Tomato Cream Cheese
Another delicious and super easy dip made with cream cheese and rich sun dried tomatoes. It's wonderfully creamy, full of flavor, and great with tortilla chips and pita bread. A terrific crowd pleaser ready in 10 minutes.
Pumpkin Mac and Cheese
Photo Credit: cookieandkate.com
The cream cheese adds a luxurious texture to this scrumptious pumpkin mac and cheese recipe. It's easy to make in one pot and makes a comforting weeknight meal.
Jalapeño Cream Cheese
This jalapeño cream cheese is always a huge hit! It's not fancy or impressive, and it's not something you've never heard of. But it's ready in just 5 minutes from start to finish, super easy, economical, and can be made in advance. And it's perfect with your favorite dippers!
Baileys Cheesecake-Marbled Brownies
Photo Credit: www.onceuponachef.com
The filling of this delicious brownies is made with warm cream cheese, and they are cakey on the bottom, fudgy and creamy in the center, crisp on top. The flavor and the texture is out of this world!
Creamy Asparagus Pizza
Bright, crispy and full of flavor, this wonderful pizza features creamy mozzarella, cream cheese and asparagus. This is a dreamy white pizza perfect for any pizza lover out there!
Salami Cream Cheese Roll
Photo Credit: www.recipetineats.com
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.
Keto Cream Cheese Pancakes (low carb)
Photo Credit: www.wholesomeyum.com
These cream cheese and egg pancakes (no flour) are one of the quickest treat you can make at breakfast, with ingredients you probably have in your fridge!
Classic Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Photo Credit: www.onceuponachef.com
In this scrumptious carrot cake the carrots are finely chopped in a food processor for a fine, light texture and it's perfectly spiced, ultra-moist, and topped with a luscious, not-too-sweet cream cheese frosting. YUM.
Everything Cream Cheese Chicken
Photo Credit: www.spendwithpennies.com
Although my recipes are meatless, I've also included a cream cheese chicken recipe from one of my amazing fellow bloggers, surely a great succlunet family meal for many readers!
Cream Cheese Danishes with Sugared Cranberries
Photo Credit: pinchofyum.com
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!)
Photo Credit: www.recipetineats.com
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.
Photo Credit: www.howsweeteats.com
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!
Easter egg cheesecake
Colorful and cheerful, this chocolate Easter egg cheesecake is easy and fun to make, delicious, and best of all, no baking required!
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 store-bought cream cheese can be sold in blocks or tubes.
The first one is thicker, and it’s what you need to make cream cheese frostings or cheesecakes. The second one spreads easily and is perfect for pasta recipes and bagels. If you’re based in the UK, you can only get the spreadable option, not the block.
Do you fancy making your own version? I’ve found a clever recipe for making cheese at home; check this out!
Loved 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 or 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 one of these cream cheese recipes or have any questions, let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear from you! x
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