In Ricki Carroll's book she proposes an alternative method for making cream cheese which involves adding 170 degree H2O to the curds in order to raise their temp to 125 before hanging them to drain.
This supposedly will create a drier cheese. Anyone have any experience with this extra step and if I tried it, would I stir the hot water into the curds or just pour it on top?
One other question, is it possible to whip homemade cream cheese. I tried it in my stand mixer and turned the whole batch into a cultured soup. It was a good dip for fruit with the addition of some sugar and vanilla but it was definitely not cheese. I thought possibly that the lack of commercial stabilizers, gums, etc... might be the reason this was not successful.
Can't answer on the cooked curd method, but I an tell you that I've tried whipping (beating) fromage blanc and cream cheese a couple of times now and it didn't seem to have any particular benefit, e.g. the 'after' was very similar to the 'before' versions of the cheese. I don't bother whipping or beating now.
Brian