Kefir Cream Cheese

Ingredients

2 Tbs. kefir grains (available online, through friends or places like Craigslist)
1 Quart heavy cream

Method

Pour cream over grains in a glass jar. Leave about an inch of head space. Cover. Shake the jar and leave on the counter for 24-48 hours, shaking every now and then. When it is fermented it will taste sour, like sour cream. Strain through a fine mesh stainless steel sieve, pushing the cream through with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula. The grains will remain in the sieve and can be reused indefinitely to ferment cream and/or milk. (They will multiply too, and can be eaten as an excellent probiotic source.)

Take the strained, fermented cream and pour into a sieve lined with a quadruple layer of cheese cloth. Tie the ends of the cheese cloth together to form a little package inside the sieve. Put the whole thing (with sieve) over a tall bowl or large Pyrex measuring cup and place in the refrigerator. The whey will drip out into the bowl and the solids will remain in the cheese cloth. After 24 hours, flip the soft cream cheese over into fresh cheese cloth, tie, put back in the sieve over the bowl, and place the whole lot back in refrigerator for another 24 hours.

Remove cheese cloth and place in a jar for storage in the refrigerator.