Cheese

• Baker’s cheese is a soft, unaged cheese with a very low fat content. It is dry and pliable and can be kneaded somewhat like a dough. Generally available in 30-pound and 50-pound packs, it can be frozen for longer storage.

• Cream cheese is also a soft, unaged cheese, but it has a higher fat content, about 35%. It is used mainly in rich cheesecakes and in a few specialty products.

Two other cheeses are occasionally used for specialty products. Mascarpone is a type of Italian cream cheese with a tangier flavor than American-style cream cheese. It is used to make the filling for tiramisú. Another Italian cheese, ricotta, was originally made from the whey left over from making cheese out of cow’s milk or sheep’s milk, although now it is more often made from whole milk than from whey. It has many uses in the kitchen and bakeshop. A smooth, relatively dry ricotta called ricotta impastato is used to make a filling for cannoli. Regular ricotta has too much moisture for this purpose.