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How Much Cream Cheese Do I Need for a Dozen Bagels?

While serving bagels with cream cheese to your family or friends, you certainly will be needing at least a dozen of bagels and a generous amount of cream cheese per serving.

Thereby, want to know how much cream cheese is needed for a dozen bagels might be a common query of yours. Thus, let’s keep reading on to find out the exact quantity of cream cheese.

How Much Cream Cheese Do I Need For A Dozen Bagels?

To serve a dozen bagels with cream cheese as the classic bagel topper, nearly one pound or one and one-quarter pounds of cream cheese will be needed to make sure a sufficient amount of cream cheese is being served per serving/per bagel. It’s around 1.5 oz./3 tablespoons of cream cheese per bagel.

Bagels are hard to imagine without their most classic topper, cream cheese. So an ample amount of cream cheese is always required when you are serving a dozen of bagels to your family or friends.

As a result, most recipe developers have suggested getting one pound to one and one-quarter pounds of cream cheese while serving a dozen bagels.

It’s because this mentioned amount which is about 1 to 1 ¼ pounds of cream cheese was the adequate amount of cream cheese that didn’t fall short per serving while people were enjoying a dozen bagels with cream cheese topper. 

A perfect amount of cream cheese is a need to satisfy people’s meals with bagels when a dozen bagels are being served as brunch bagel boards to family members or friends.

Thus, even the homemakers have assured that if 1 to 1 ¼ pounds of cream cheese is served with one dozen bagels, each person will get to eat about 1.5 ounce/3 tablespoons of cream cheese per bagel which is sufficient. 

However, you can always get more cream cheese of your choice than the suggested amount here. But try not to get less cream cheese than 1 to 1 ¼ pounds because at that time there won’t be enough cream cheese spread per serving.

How Much Cream Cheese Per Bagel?

The rule of thumb is to take two tablespoons of cream cheese to spread on an entire bagel because two tablespoons or 1 ounce of cream cheese makes the perfect cream cheese schmear without being overpowering.

However, several recipe developers have considered 3 tablespoons or 1.5 ounces of cream cheese a perfect cheese schmear per bagel.

This means whether you take 2 tablespoons or 3 tablespoons of cream cheese to spread on per bagel, both amount just makes the sufficient amount of cream cheese to make a bagel an appropriate serving size with enough cream cheese. 

Anyway, you can always opt for taking more than 2 to 3 tablespoons of cream cheese per bagel if you or your family likes having cream cheese.

But remember that cream cheese is just a bagel spread not a filler, thus, it’s meant to complement the overall taste of a bagel, not to overwhelm it. Therefore, try to take a little amount of cream cheese with one bagel to enhance the flavor only.

How Much Cream Cheese Is On A Bagel NYC?

Bagels with cream cheese being an iconic NYC food, the amount of cream cheese employees at different

NYC bagel shops put in per serving of bagel is surprising and the amount of cream cheese given with a bagel differs from shop to shop. Generally, you can expect to have a range between 0.7 ounce of cream cheese to 3.9 ounces of cream cheese per bagel in NYC.

as mentioned that the amount of cream cheese will vary from shop to shop in NYC, so if you live in Manhattan, you will find bagel shops there to put around ¼ pound or 4 ounces of cream cheese per bagel.

The famous Ess-a-Bagel in NYC stated that their employees are instructed to put around 3 ounces of cream cheese per bagel, which definitely is a lot of cream cheese for a bagel. 

Absolute Bagels, another famous bagel shop in NYC put 2.5 ounces of cream cheese per bagel at their shop.

And Bagel Hole, a bagel shop in NYC serves around 1.7 ounces of cream cheese with one bagel serving which is slightly more than the usual cream cheese amount but it’s overwhelming as well.

The reason why bagel shops in NYC serve so much cream cheese with a bagel is that they want to make their customers feel that it’s worth buying a bagel in NYC. 

3 Factors That Determine The Cream Cheese Amount For Bagels

You may wonder what could be the factors that influence the amount of cream cheese for bagels, thus, here 3 main factors that determine how much cream cheese is needed for bagels have been explained.

The Traditionally Served Amount: 

Since bagels are a iconic food of NYC, people have been eating it for a long period and have been serving bagels following their traditional serving amount of cream cheese with bagels.

NYC people traditionally serve 1- 1.5 ounces of cream cheese per bagels, 6 ounces of cream cheese per 4 bagels, and 1-1 ¼ pounds of cream cheese for a dozen bagels.

It’s because these mentioned amounts of cream cheese for bagels are sufficient for per bagel serving. Even the recipe developers and chefs have agreed to it.

Different Shops:

When you are having bagels with its classical cheese spread from bagel shops in NYC, know that different shops serve a different quantity of cream cheese with bagels according to their customer’s taste or the shop’s selling strategy.

Thereby, you may find shops using only 0.7 oz. of cream cheese with a bagel, again you may find shops putting cream cheese as much as 3.9-4 oz. of cream cheese with a bagel.

However, the amount of cream cheese for bagels will stay between the range of 0.7 oz.-3.9 oz. most of the time.

Personal Preference:

Above all factors one’s personal preference matters the most. If you like to have more cream cheese spread in your bagels, you surely can have a larger amount of cream cheese than the traditional amount.

But if you care about calories, you always can have less and even can ask the shop employees to put less cream cheese in your bagels.

How Much Cream Cheese Is In A Block? How Many Blocks For 12 Bagels 

There are 8 ounces of cream cheese in each original block of cream cheese. However, with all these new brands of cream cheese, you will even find a 12 ounces block of cream cheese along with an 8 ounces cream cheese block. 

As it’s mentioned above that for 12 bagels you will be needing 1 to 1 ¼ pounds of cream cheese, know that 1 pound equals to 16 ounces and 16 ounces of cream cheese equals to 2 blocks of cream cheese, as 1 original cream cheese block has 8 ounces of cream cheese.

Thus, if you’ll be needing 2 blocks of cream cheese for 12 bagels if you are going to get 1 pound of cream cheese.

Similarly, 1 ¼ pounds of cream cheese equals to 20 ounces (1=16 oz.)+(¼=4 oz.), so you will be needing 2 full blocks and a half block of cream cheese for 12 bagels if you get 1.5 pounds of cream cheese. 

How Many 8 oz. Cream Cheese For 1 Dozen Bagels?

You can get two full blocks of 8 oz. original cream cheese for 1 dozen bagels, or you can get around 2 and a half blocks of 8 oz.

cream cheese for 1 dozen bagels. Both of the mentioned quantities of 8 oz. cream cheese blocks are perfectly sufficient for 1 dozen bagels, depending on your need or choice, you can get either of them for yourself. 

How Many Pints Of Cream Cheese Are In A Dozen Bagels?

Around 2-½ pints of cream cheese is included in a dozen bagels. 

Most bagel shops either in NYC or in other cities/countries include 2-½ pints of cream cheese in one dozen bagels, you can choose the cream cheese according to your preference.

How Much Cream Cheese Is Too Much For Bagels? 

Any amount of cream cheese of more than 1-1.5 ounces is quite much for a regular-sized bagel. But if the bagel size is bigger than usual, you can opt for more cream cheese spread than 1-1.5 ounces.

However, the amount of cream is better not to exceed the amount of cream cheese more than 3.9 ounces for each bagel because it contains a lot of calories which may not be healthy for everyone. 

Final Thoughts

Around 1 pound to 1 ¼ pounds of cream cheese is required for a dozen bagels as the most classic bagel spread. It’s because most recipe developers, chefs, as well as homemakers have confirmed that 1 to 1 ¼ pounds of cream cheese made an adequate amount of cream cheese while serving 12 bagels.