Freezing Cream Cheese Dips

Is it OK to make ahead and freeze dips that have a cream cheese base?

-- Penny

To some extent, the answer depends on the recipe and ingredients that you are using, as well as the length of time that the dip is being frozen. 

When frozen, cream cheese can become crumbly and some of the water in the cheese may separate out.  Blending cream cheese with some heavy cream, however, may help to avoid these problems.  Low fat cream cheese is therefore more likely to cause problems than full fat (33% MF) cream cheese.  If you are going to freeze cream cheese, most sources recommend not freezing it for more than about two weeks.

All of this means that you may see an noticeable loss of quality if you make cream cheese based dips ahead of time and freeze them.  They may not spread smoothly, and may have a grainy texture.

On the other hand, if you have leftover dip that hasn't been previously frozen, you could freeze it and use it later in recipes where the texture doesn't matter so much.  An herb cream cheese dip might, for instance, be used to make a savory cheese cake.

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