Requeijão (Brazilian Cream Cheese)
I’m so excited about today’s post!
If you know any Brazilians, chances are you know how crazy we are about our Requeijão.
You probably heard us complain about American cream cheese and how thick it is. You see, our Requeijão – which I’m taking the liberty to call “Brazilian Cream Cheese” – is creamy and smooth with a consistency similar to that of condensed milk.
We use it in pretty much everything you can think of: on bread, pasta, crepe, pão de queijo, coxinhas, pastel (Brazilian empanadas), enroladinhos, casseroles, with dulce de leche, with guava and, of course, on pizza. ??? ? Brazilian pizza recipe coming your way in the very near future!!!
But before you get intimidated by the thought of making cream cheese at home, let me tell you this recipe is easy peasy and your Brazilian cream cheese will be ready in 15 minutes or less. All you need is: a pot, your blender, shredded mozzarella cheese, grated parmesan cheese, milk, corn starch, butter, heavy cream and salt. That’s it! 7 ingredients that you probably already have at home and minimal clean up.
You might wanna run to the store to get a warm, freshly baked baguette, though, because I guarantee you will want to eat this requeijão as soon as it’s out of the blender. (I may or may not have eaten it by the spoonful…?)
The traditional requeijão is made with queijo branco (white cow’s milk cheese) and processed into a creamier/smoother texture. The taste is mild and the consistency can vary from creamy solid (catupiry), to almost liquid (requeijão cremoso).
The softer version is usually sold in glasses which are commonly reused in most households as actual cups. Maybe a little tacky, I know, but I guarantee there is no Brazilian that hasn’t drunk from a requeijão glass! ❤️ In fact, all the glasses at my grandmother’s beach house are reusable requeijão glasses. Who needs to spend money on drinkware when you can just reuse what you already have at home? #zerowastelifestyle
Not so fun when you drop your grocery bag on your way home, though… Can’t even tell you how many requeijões never made their way to the fridge!
Most recipes for homemade requeijão will call for ricotta. However, ricotta in Brazil has a solid consistency, while here in the U.S. the kind you will probably find at your grocery store is the factory-made ricotta, like the Polly-O brand, which has a fine-grained curd.
I was afraid the cream cheese would never reach my desired consistency – creamy, yes, but not too liquidy – if I used the store bought ricotta, so I used a mixture of shredded mozzarella cheese and parmesan instead.
You guyzzzzzzzzzz!!! Is it too cliche if I tell you the results were BETTER than the requeijão I grew up eating? Because it totally was!
I actually squeaked when I opened the blender lid and tried a little bit. Then I proceeded to send pictures to everybody in my family, saying: “Can you believe I made this???”
The recipe makes a fairly large amount of cream cheese, but you gotta believe me when I say it will be gone long before it can go bad.
You can substitute it pretty much wherever regular cream cheese is asked for and it will last a little longer than a week in the fridge. Or you can freeze some for later.
If you think that the requeijão thickened too much after being in the fridge for a couple of days, just pop it in the blender with a few splashes of heavy cream until it is smooth again!
And, by the way, if you’re looking for a good blender to add to your Christmas wish list, may I suggest my new obsession? The new Nutri Ninja® Auto-iQ™ Compact System is amazing and I’ve been using it for EVERYTHING. I haven’t touched my food processor since I got this blender. Nope, this is not an affiliate link. It is pure love!
Because who doesn’t love making delicious creamy requeijão conveniently in a blender?
Requeijão (Brazilian Cream Cheese)
Ingredients
- 4 cups milk (1 liter)
- 1 cup corn starch
- 2 cups grated good quality Parmesan cheese
- 2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 3 tablespoons butter, unsalted
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups of heavy cream
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Notes
You can freeze the cream cheese for up to 3 months.
If the cream cheese thickens too much after a few days in the fridge, pop it in the blender with a few splashes of heavy cream until smooth.
P.S. Wanna keep in touch? Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest to stay up to date with my posts! If you end up making one of my recipes, I would love to see it! Just take a photo and post it on your preferred Social Media and tag me or use the hashtag #oliviascuisine!
27 Comments on “Requeijão (Brazilian Cream Cheese)”
This sounds beyond delicious! I love making my own soft cheeses, including cream cheese and this just sounds amazing. A cream cheese with Parmesan, mozzarella, butter and cream? Yes, pleeeease!! Looking forward to trying this!
Yummy! I love cream cheese, and I’m so intrigued by this Brazilian version.
I have never heard of Brazilian cream cheese before so I am so excited to try it. The thought of having a spreadable cream cheese is making me so happy. I love cream cheese but having to wait for it to come to room temperature is crazy. I am not a planner so having to plan when to take it out of the fridge makes my eyes twitch. I am going to make this and slather it on everything!!!
how interesting! I think I’d much prefer this to the super thick cream cheeses here.
Obrigada, Olívia! Estamos adorando as receitas do seu blog! Terei requeijão no café da manhã!
Obrigada, Tati! Só outra brasileira pra entender o desespero de não achar requeijão fora do Brasil, não é mesmo? rsrs
What kind of mozzarella cheese do you use for this- is it the fresh kind sold packaged in water, or the firmer kind that’s used to make pizza? Thanks in advance!
You can use either. :)
I hold two months living in US, but the miss of “requeijão” it is impossible.
I find almost everething but now I’m home :):)
Haha! Yes, I know very well the struggle of not having requeijão in my fridge every day. The rest of the world doesn’t know how good (and better than cream cheese) it is! Good thing I figured out how to make my own! :)
Olivia, I am from Mexico and we use a type of fresh soft cheese called “requeson” it is not as creamy but very good. I made this recipe and the flavor remind me of the requeson I grew up eating and the texture is perfect to use on everything! I have used in place of cream cheese, and sour cream both. Thanks for sharing!
This week I am hosting book club with a book from Paulo Cohelo and I figured that Brazilian food would be a must along with Caipirinhas.
Girl, book club with caipirinhas? Can I join? I probably won’t read the book, but I’ll show up to drink the Caipirinhas. I’ll even bring some pão de queijo or brigadeiros! lol Also, I didn’t know Mexico had a version of “requeijão”. That’s very interesting! Thank you for sharing with me. :)
this is so yummy. we use it to make a brazillian cream cheese taco pizza. and it is so good. coming back for the second time to use the recipe.
This was sent to my by a friend who was originally from Brazil. Would love to make it for him some time.
Can the milk be 1%?
Is the grated parm packed, or just loosly measured. I usually grate it on a microplane.
And for the heavy cream, is it 18% or 35% whipping cream.
Thx
Could or would you kindly answer Marsha’s questions:-
Can the milk be 1%?
Is the grated parm packed, or just loosely measured. I usually grate it on a micro plane.
And for the heavy cream, is it 18% or 35% whipping cream.
Thank you so very much.
Lovingly,
Honey
Hi Honey, whole milk is best for the right consistency. I recommend grating your own parmesan and measuring packed for more flavor. :) I think 35% whipping cream is our heavy cream here in the US. I hope that helps!
You’re the cutest thing! I love cooking too, thanks for sharing. I recently met a Brazilian boy while on vacation and he was raving about this and I thought I had to fly to Brazil to get it LOL. Can’t wait to make this!
OH I AM SO BUMMED! Would LOVE to try this, I just saw a clip on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives about a Brazilian chef that used this. It looked like heaven on a plate, and she piped it fancy like thick whipped cream.
But, while cream cheese’s carb count and glycemic index is low, corn starch is basically pure heavily processed carbs. It’s glycemic index is very high, with no protein or vitamins. WHOA! My doc just told me I’m pre-diabetic, got to go low carb immediately. DRAT!
In Brazil is this more of a pure dairy product, like our cream cheese?
I can’t believe!!!!
Não acredito que eu passei um ano inteirinho sofrendo sem requeijão sendo que dá pra fazer em casa!!!!!
Obrigadaaaaa pela receita! Já vou fazer amanhã mesmo!
Olá fantástica receita. Tenho que esperar que o queijo arrefeça e depois colocar na geladeira? Ou posso colocar na geladeira ainda morno e quantos dias dura na geladeira? Estraga passado quantos dias? Obrigada
Espera esfriar pra por na geladeira. Dura uns 4 a 5 dias.
Hi Olivia,
I was wondering if Turkish/Middle Eastern labna/labneh would be similar? It’s similar to cream cheese as well, but much softer and creamier and almost as tangy as yogurt.
Hi Susy, not really. We call labneh “coalhada sea” in Portuguese and is very different from requeijão.
Oi Olivia. Thank you for the recipe. I shared with my Brazilian husband who was skeptical until I read the part about reusing the requeijão cups as drinking glasses. Eu sabia que a avó dele fiz isso! Once we read that, he was completely won over! Obrigada!
Hi Lauren,
Your comment had me laughing out loud! 😂 We Brazilians love our childhood memories with requeijão drinking glasses.
I hope you enjoy the recipe! ❤️
I was so excited to find this! My husband is Brazilian and always talks about how good it is. I’ll have to surprise him and make it now!
Hi. I tried several requeijão recipes, but never one that came to boil, where everything got combined by heat. I made 1/4 of all of it, and still I got a lot of requeijão. I am not sure if I did something wrong, since it was too thick after cooling. And I used a small food processor instead of a blender, mistakes were made … Anyway, I fixed it today by adding more heavy cream (a lot more). So, again, not sure if I did something wrong, or it was too much corn starch, but after my patch it is now DELICIOUS. It is like the supermarket version. Thank you for this one. My next quest is how to do Nata (can I just whisk mexican regular table cream???) and pate (for reference, pate de presunto da fazenda tradicao).