4 Smart Ways to Soften Cream Cheese Quickly—and Safely—in a Pinch (2024)

Cut your block into cubes

Take the cream cheese out of the cardboard outer box and foil wrapper and place on the cutting board. Next, cut the block into approximately 1-inch cubes. The smaller the blocks are, the faster they will soften, but an inch is often the default most people defer to. Cutting up your cream cheese creates more exposed surface area, allowing warm room-temperature air to break down the cold molecules faster. This also will make it easier to distribute your softened cream cheese evenly throughout whatever you're mixing it into. Make sure to leave space between each chunk of cream cheese to maximize their warm air exposure. Cover the board or plate with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and set aside.

After 15 minutes, do a poke test. The exact amount of time it takes to bring your cream cheese to room temperature will depend on your specific room's temperature, but noticeable softening will have occurred by this time. You'll know your cream cheese is soft enough to work with when it can hold a fingerprint (or spoon print) and feels, well, soft! Preferably soft enough to be spread easily with a knife or stirred smoothly into other ingredients.

For an even speedier route, you can also use a microwave to soften cream cheese

To do it this way, take the cream cheese out of both layers of packaging—box and foil—and set on a microwave-safe plate with rims, as this method may lead to whey seepage. This run-off is fine, though; instead of draining it, reincorporate it into the recipe's other ingredients by simply mixing it in.

Select a 15-second cook time for an 8-ounce block, adding 10 seconds for each additional half-pound if you're using more than one. It's critical not to overheat it as you don't want to melt it, creating a hot puddle that can't be used. To check for softness, poke the center of the block, not near the edges. It should be soft but not hot. If it's not quite soft enough, reheat at 10-second increments until it reaches the desired texture.

For a more hands-off approach, a warm water bath works, too

This way of working takes a little longer and requires a few check-ins, but it saves you from having to dirty a cutting board, knife, and cover. Instead, you'll just need a bowl big enough to accommodate a cream cheese brick, warm water, and maybe a plastic Ziploc bag. Run your tap on hot water only and fill the bowl halfway—you need just enough water to submerge the block. If you're softening more than one package of cream cheese, set up one bowl for each.

Take the cream cheese brick out of the cardboard exterior package but leave the foil wrapper on. Do not puncture or open this wrapper! If you feel the wrapper has been compromised, put it in that plastic bag and seal it shut. Next, lower the cream cheese into the warm water. Flip it over every five minutes or so for about 20 minutes until it passes the poke test through the wrapper. And again, poke the center to check for give.

Let your mixer do the work

Softening butter by using a stand mixer is a practice that many bakers employ, and the good news is that it works for cream cheese, too. This is ideal for recipes where you have to add additional ingredients to the cream cheese anyway, but note that order matters—you don't want to use this if you need to fold in the cream cheese rather than vice versa. If you add your other ingredients before your cream cheese is whipped into shape, you'll get the lumps you were hoping to avoid.

Put on your mixer's paddle attachment and place the cream cheese in the mixing bowl. Beat for one minute on medium-low, scrape down the sides, and do it again until it reaches the texture you need. Once it does, add your other ingredients at will, bake, and enjoy.

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