6 Ways to Upgrade Plain Cream Cheese With Fun Flavors

For an easy brunch upgrade, skip the store-bought flavored cream cheese and make your own with a block of endlessly customizable plain cream cheese. Its smooth and mild base allows for a wide range of flavor enhancements, making it easy to create specialty spreads and dips that match your personal tastes.

Flavored cream cheese spreads are fantastic served on bagels — toasted or not. But they also make a great addition to snack boards, where they serve as a tangy, cooling complement to pretzels, crackers, or fresh vegetables like cucumbers and celery. If you want a looser consistency, you can stir in heavy cream, yogurt, or sour cream to create a dip for chips and softer breads.

When doctoring up cream cheese, it’s best to start small. You can always add more seasoning or ingredients, but once mixed, the only way to tone down overly intense flavors is to add more plain cream cheese. Start by mixing in a few tablespoons of finely chopped dill, mint, or basil. Or lean into a sweet flavor profile by stirring in brown sugar and the seeds of a scraped vanilla bean. Avoid adding ingredients that are overly juicy (such as oranges or tomatoes), and if possible, give the flavors time to develop and meld after mixing by chilling the spread in the refrigerator for an hour or more before serving.

Here’s how to make your own flavored cream cheese — and some delicious ideas for what to mix in. 

How to make flavored cream cheese

Start with a base of four ounces softened cream cheese and three tablespoons sour cream, then stir in the below mix-ins to pair with your next bagel sandwich. With slight adjustments, you can also transform any of them into a dip to serve with chips or crackers.

1. Everything pickle

You don’t have to choose between your love for dill pickles or the toasty, nutty, and savory notes that everything seasoning brings to bagels. Instead, stir them together for a spread or dip that is tangy and crunchy. Stir dill pickle relish, chopped fresh dill, and a few dashes of everything seasoning into your base for a zesty cream cheese. To make it a dip, thin the mixture with heavy cream.

2. Caviar and onion

Substitute crème fraîche for the sour cream, and then mix in finely chopped red onion, lemon zest, and caviar (these are our favorites) for a bright and briny cream cheese. For a dipping consistency, use a 2:1 ratio of crème fraîche to cream cheese. (If you prefer, American paddlefish roe is a less pricey alternative to caviar.)

3. Chili crisp

This popular condiment is packed with fried chile peppers and aromatics that will bring spicy heat to your cream cheese base. Chinese versions of chili crisp often feature ingredients like preserved black beans and tingly Sichuan pepper, while Mexican versions (also called salsa macha) might get their heat from jalapeño or serrano chiles. Stir chili crisp, cilantro, and a splash of soy sauce into your base for an umami-rich cream cheese with a kick. To make it a dip, thin the mixture with more sour cream.

4. Muffuletta 

Finely chop your favorite store-bought olive salad and stir into your cream cheese base. Known for its key role in a muffuletta sandwich, this mix of pickled and brined veggies, peppers, and green olives plays off the rich cream cheese and adds salty and tangy accents. To make this a dip, thin the mixture with heavy cream — and for a little more heat sprinkle with chopped hot pickled peppers.

5. Suya-spiced

Suya is a West African seasoning blend made with ground roasted peanuts and a mix of spices that brings warmth and spicy heat to dishes like Chicken Suya. Try the spice blend in our chicken recipe, or purchase from an African grocery store or online. Add suya spice blend into your cream cheese base, about a half teaspoon at a time, until you reach what suits your tastes. To make it a dip, thin the mixture with plain yogurt.

6. Sweet and hot

Use up that jar of pepper jelly on the door of your fridge by swirling it into softened cream cheese. Rather than completely mixing in the jelly, add it in dollops so that you get surprise bursts of sweet, vinegary jelly with spicy heat, and more cooling moments of just cream cheese. To make a dip, first thin the cream cheese with heavy cream before swirling in the dollops of jelly.