Name: Homemade Flavored Cream Cheese (5 Flavor Options)
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 8 oz cream cheese; Strawberry: ½ cup finely diced strawberries, 2 Tbsp powdered sugar; Chipotle Pepper: 3 finely chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, ¼ tsp salt; Passion Fruit: ¼ cup passion fruit pulp or puree, 2 Tbsp powdered sugar; Roasted Garlic: 6 cloves roasted garlic, pinch each black pepper and salt; Chive & Onion: ¼ cup finely chopped chives, ½ tsp onion powder, ½ tsp garlic powder, ¼ tsp salt

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Bored by plain bagels? I’ll teach you how to make flavored cream cheese! This helpful guide covers five different options to choose from, ranging from sweet to savory. And all of them take just 15 minutes to whip up!

Five small bowls of assorted cream cheese spreads, including a pink strawberry variety, displayed on a table with bread, strawberries, and a napkin.

Homemade flavored cream cheese is silky, whipped, and genuinely better than anything from the grocery store, and it takes about 15 minutes to make. This guide covers five flavors ranging from sweet to savory: strawberry, chipotle pepper, passion fruit, roasted garlic, and chive and onion.

After testing all five flavors across multiple batches to get the ratios right, here’s what makes this guide worth bookmarking:

Whipped texture is lighter and more spreadable than store-bought
Keeps in the fridge for up to a week, so one batch covers the whole week
Completely customizable once you understand the base ratio

Reader rating

★★★★★

“Those flavored cream cheese recipes are perfect for my palate, thank you so much!” —Erlinda

Add your review

Five bowls of flavored cream cheese spreads—passion fruit, chipotle pepper, roasted garlic, chive & onion, and strawberry—are arranged on a green surface with bread and strawberries nearby.

The five flavors

Strawberry: Fresh strawberries diced small and folded in with a little powdered sugar. The result is fruity, lightly sweet, and pink without being cloying. Best on a plain bagel, toast, or spread onto eggless French toast.

Bagel pairing: plain, honey wheat, or cinnamon raisin

A glass bowl with whipped cream cheese, chopped strawberries, and powdered sugar, partially mixed with a black spatula on a green surface.

A glass bowl filled with a creamy mixture containing small pieces of red ingredients, being stirred with a black spatula on a green surface.

Chipotle pepper: Finely chopped chipotle peppers in adobo add a smoky, building heat that makes this the most savory and boldest of the five flavors. A small amount goes a long way.

Bagel pairing: everything or asiago

A glass bowl with cream cheese and a dollop of dark, chunky sauce, being mixed with a black spatula on a green surface.

A glass bowl filled with creamy light brown mixture, being stirred with a black spatula, on a green surface.

Passion fruit: Passion fruit pulp folded in with powdered sugar produces a tropical, intensely fragrant cream cheese that tastes like a vacation. If you’ve never cooked with passion fruit before, the passion fruit juice post on the site is a good starting point for how to work with the fruit.

Bagel pairing: plain or sesame

A glass bowl with egg yolks, mayonnaise, and powdered sugar being mixed with a black spatula on a green countertop.

A clear glass bowl filled with creamy, pale yellow batter being mixed with a black spatula on a dark green surface.

Roasted garlic: Six cloves of roasted garlic mashed into the cream cheese produces something mellow, sweet, and deeply savory, nothing like raw garlic. The roasting is the time investment here, but the flavor is worth it and the garlic can be roasted well ahead of time.

Bagel pairing: everything, rosemary, or sea salt

A glass bowl containing cream cheese, roasted garlic cloves, and black pepper, being mixed with a black spatula on a dark green surface.

A glass bowl filled with creamy white mixture being stirred with a black spatula on a dark green surface.

Chive and onion: The most classic of the five. Fresh chives with onion and garlic powder produce the familiar, herby savory cream cheese that most people know from the grocery store, just fresher and brighter.

Bagel pairing: everything, asiago, or plain

A glass bowl contains sour cream, chopped chives, garlic powder, salt, and pepper with a black spatula resting inside.

A glass bowl filled with a creamy herb spread being mixed with a black spatula on a green countertop.

buying Tip

Check the prices when you shop for cream cheese. The standard “brick in a box” is often the cheapest option. It’s no-frills and exactly what we want here, so we can dress it up! The tubs often cost more per ounce, and especially the whipped varieties – you are literally paying for air!

Six bowls of assorted creamy spreads, including chive, sundried tomato, passion fruit, and berry, are arranged on a green surface with bagels, strawberries, and garlic nearby.

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Homemade Flavored Cream Cheese (5 Flavor Options)

5 from 3 ratings

By: Sarah Bond

Prep: 15

Total: 15

Servings: servings

Bored by plain bagels? I'll teach you how to make flavored cream cheese! This helpful guide covers five different options to choose from, ranging from sweet to savory. And all of them take just 15 minutes to whip up!

Ingredients

Base

▢ 8 oz cream cheese

Flavor (choose one)

▢ Strawberry: ½ cup finely diced strawberries, 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
▢ Chipotle Pepper: 3 finely chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, ¼ tsp salt
▢ Passion Fruit: ¼ cup passion fruit pulp or puree, 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
▢ Roasted Garlic: 6 cloves roasted garlic, pinch each black pepper and salt
▢ Chive & Onion: ¼ cup finely chopped chives, ½ tsp onion powder, ½ tsp garlic powder, ¼ tsp salt

Instructions

Prep: Allow cream cheese to sit out until it is room temperature and soft.
Puree: Transfer cream cheese to a food processor and blitz until it is creamy and whipped. Transfer to a mixing bowl.
Assemble: Choose your cream cheese flavor, then add all of those ingredients to the mixing bowl. Fold together using a rubber spatula until evenly mixed.
Serve: Best if chilled in the fridge for an hour before serving to allow flavors to blend together and cream cheese to firm up.

Notes

To roast garlic, cut about ½ inch off the top of the bulb of garlic to expose the tops of the cloves. Peel off excess papery skin, leaving on the skins of the individual cloves. Pour olive oil into the bulb, then wrap bulb in aluminum foil. Set foil-wrapped bulb directly onto oven rack and roast at 400°F (200°C) for 30 to 40 minutes, until cloves are soft. Cool before handling.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!

5 from 3 votes (1 rating without comment)

6 Comments

jan says:

May 19, 2022 at 5:08 pm

The BEST flavor of all for cream cheese is ginger! You can shred crystalized ginger and beat it into the cheese. Leave it overnight to meld the flavour

1. Sarah Bond says:
  
  May 20, 2022 at 9:49 am
  
  YUM! I’ll have to try that! 😀
Erlinda Tayengco says:

December 26, 2023 at 9:15 pm

Those flavored cream cheese recipes are perfect for my palate, thank you so much!

1. Sarah Bond says:
  
  December 27, 2023 at 3:47 pm
  
  I’m so happy to hear it, Erlinda! Enjoy! 😀
ladyelle says:

September 20, 2025 at 7:02 am

I’m going to adapt my crab dip recipe. Imitation crab, grated onion and a couple splashes of chili pepper water for kick.

Akasha says:

June 4, 2026 at 7:01 pm

Awesome.. Thank you! Appreciate all you share. Will make a vege cream cheese with dehydrated veges.

Homemade Flavored Cream Cheese (5 Flavor Options)

Reader rating

The five flavors

buying Tip