Orange Infused Cream Cheese

On a whim, I whipped this up.

I started with the cream cheese.

Thought I'd add a bit of stuff to it.

But didn't really know why I was making it.

Didn't have a plan.

Didn't have a reason.

That makes cooking fun sometimes!

I thought to myself, "Self, I think an orange cream cheese would taste good."

I was thinking this while cleaning the bathroom and folding laundry.

I gathered my ingredients and I made it.

Viola!  Done!

Now what?

We don't have any bagels to eat it on.

What am I going to do with this stuff, I thought?

Here's what I did.

I put a dollop on top of the bite-sized chocolate rice cake.

Tried it.

Liked it.

Posted it.

Orange Infused Cream Cheese

4 oz cream cheese, softened
zest of one small orange
1/8 tsp. fiori di sicilia (King Arthur; citrus extract)
2 TBSP powdered sugar

Place cream cheese in bowl large enough that you can stir your stuff.

Zest the orange.  I used the entire zest of the orange -- I like it zesty.  Plus, I was using my new microplane zester -- and I was amazed at how wonderful it was and how easy it was to zest and I just kept zesting because  . . .just because.

Add the extract, if you want, and dump in the powdered sugar.  Stir until all ingredients are well mixed. 

Place a small amount in a ziplock bag and cut off the corner and add a cutsy dollop of cream cheese to your chocolate rice cake.  It's a great low calorie snack.

IDEA!!!!  You could just make this in a bigger quantity and frost some chocolate cupcakes with it!  Oh boy, that'd be a treat too!

(For the record, I always use the Weight Watchers cream cheese.  I think it works beautifully in any recipe.  It doesn't taste low-call and it doesn't get weird when you cook with it.  I'm not paid to tell you I like their stuff -- heck!  They don't even know I exist!)