Sunday, January 19, 2020

Mascarpone (Recipe and Instructions)


Hi Friends! 😊

Mascarpone cheese is very basically an Italian cream cheese. Mascarpone is made from cream, where American cream cheese is made from milk. This cheese is extremely expensive to buy so I thought I'd give it a go and make my own. It wasn't much cheaper to make. 😩 And, likely because I don't have pure cream available to me (I can only buy cream that is filled with gelatin and thickeners), my yield was MUCH  lower than expected.

This recipe should have produced at least two and a half cups of cheese, and it only produced one and a half cups. It was very delicious and worked well for the tiramisu that I made, no complaints there! 

If you can find pure cream and you make this recipe, please let me know how it goes for you and what your yield is! Here is the recipe:

Mascarpone Cheese
Yield: 1.5 cups to 2.5 cups

✎ Print Recipe


Ingredients

5 cups whipping cream
5 tbsp lemon juice

Directions


1. Pour the cream into a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer.


2. Once the cream comes to a simmer add the lemon juice and whisk until the cream begins to thicken, roughly 15 minutes.


3. When thickened, turn off the heat and transfer the pan to an ice bath. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.


4. Place a butter muslin-lined sieve inside a slightly larger bowl and transfer the cooled cream to the sieve.

5. Cover the cream and store in the fridge for 24 hours. After 24 hours the cream will set into Mascarpone cheese.

12 comments:

Leigh said...

Cream and lemon juice? That's it? I remember looking up mascarpone in the New England cheese book neither of us is too crazy about and thinking the recipe looked too complicated.

I have goat cream in the freezer. I'm guessing I could scale the recipe amounts since a smaller quantity would suit us better.

As usual, good photos and instructions!

Rain said...

Yup Leigh, that's it! Two ingredients! But...because I can't get pure cream, the yield is so low it's not worth me making it this way. I just looked up New England's recipe and they add a culture to it and calcium chloride. Though I'm not a fan of that company, I may try their recipe if I can figure out what culture to use (from the ones I have). I think the addition of calcium chloride might help my cream coagulate better so I don't lose so much in the whey. Let me know if you make it! Thanks! :)

Leanna said...

Awesome and so easy. I love the taste of mascarpone cheese. I know I shouldn't because it's so rich but I love to spread it on homemade warmed English muffins with apricot jam on top of that. Oh so rich and decadent.

Rain said...

Oooh that sounds really delicious Leanna!!! :)

Martha said...

Oh, Leanna's comment made me hungry! HAHA This sound so tasty. I don't think I've ever tried this cheese.

Rain said...

I've tried it in desserts only and the store bought stuff is really expensive, I saw a 250ml container for $9!! Though mine wasn't much cheaper because of that damn cream!!! I can't wait to have access to pure cream! I hope we can get some in the Maritimes.

Fundy Blue said...

That's it ~ cream and lemon juice? I just might be able to pull that recipe off, Rain. What is butter muslin ~ Muslin that you rub with butter or a special kind of muslin? I'll have to see if I can find pure cream.

Rain said...

That's it Louise!!! Butter muslin is like cheesecloth but with a finer weave, it's meant for butter and for softer cheeses. If you use cheesecloth, it's not fine enough and you'd lose most of your curd through the weave. I hope you can find pure cream, otherwise, you may see a low yield, but yeah, it's really simple to make! :)

wyomingheart said...

Wow! I can’t wait to get home to the ridge. We have many Amish farmers around our area, and I am hoping to tap in to some rich cream! Do you know anything about preserving this cheese once it’s made? Thanks for sharing, Rain!

Rain said...

You're welcome Dino :) I've read it doesn't last much more than 4-5 days in the fridge, but I'll admit I didn't test that because I used it all up when I made it! Oh how lucky if you can get some pure cream! That's a dream of mine. If I could access pure cream, I could add it to my store bought milk and my cheeses would melt!! :)

lesh Stgermain said...

I LOVE mascerpone, and thank you for the recipe - I might make this sometime (I am the only one who likes Italian cheeses, so i first need to work up an appetite:)) thank you! Jesh

Rain said...

You're welcome Jesh! I hope yours turns out better than mine! The flavour was fine, it's just the creams I have available to me aren't very good! :)