Apple-ginger cream cheese recipe

Cream cheese-based dips are delicious with fruits, such as the Caramel Apple Dip shown, or made with fruit as with our apple-ginger cream cheese dip below. Photo courtesy of Kraft Foods; click on it to get the recipe. Cream cheese is such a versatile ingredient.

Just like butter, it can be spread on breads, or it can be baked in them. Melt it down to make easy sauces, or blend it with other ingredients for delicious dips, as we did below. 

The best thing about cream cheese, however, is that it comes in fat-free, reduced-fat and regular versions. That means it's great for experimenting according to your need for less fat or maximum richness.

 We made the recipe below with fat-free Philadelphia cream cheese to test its flavor making the dip with the lowest calorie count possible. The result was a pleasing apple dip that was great with pretzels and crackers. Because of the juiciness of the apples, it's more dip-like in texture, but not so wet that we couldn't spread it on toast. It was great that way, too.

Apple-ginger cream cheese

3/4 cup finely chopped apples, divided

8 ounces cream cheese

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon ginger preserves 

In a blender or food processor, whirl 1/2 cup of the apples with the cream cheese, cinnamon and ginger preserves until completely smooth. Stir in remaining apples and serve.

Want a dip to enhance all the fall apple varieties that soon will be appearing? Try the Caramel Apple Dip, shown above. It is among many recipes using Philadelphia Cream Cheese at KraftRecipes.com. Click the picture to get the recipe.

We also played with cream cheese of various fat levels for our lime-flavored avocado cheese cake bites.