Cream Cheese for Cheesecake

Our answer

Cream cheese is a soft white cheese and is sold in most major supermarkets. The USDA define cream cheese as having a fat content of around 33% and a moisture content of 55%. It is usually made by mixing low fat milk and cream with an acid, to cause coagulation, and then heating this mixture to stop the process.

Philadelphia is the best-known cream cheese brand as it is marketed very widely across the world and usually states "cream cheese" on its packaging, though some of the packaging is now plastic resealable containers that have "cream cheese spread" marked on them. In the US other brands and own label products tend to be marked as cream cheese.

In the UK the fat content of cream cheese can theoretically be as high as 55% which may be why the UK tends to opt for the term "soft white cheese", but most people still think of this as cream cheese and the higher fat content cream cheese tends to be flavoured with garlic and herbs. If you put "cream cheese" into the search engines of most UK supermarket websites then you will find that they will bring up Philadelphia and soft white cheese.

For all of Nigella's cheesecakes the full fat soft white cheese is the type to use. If you are not sure then check the nutritional information on the packaging and look for one with a fat content of around 33%.