How To Make Mascarpone Cheese At Home

Follow our easy step by step recipe and learn how to make your own Mascarpone Cheese at home.

Mascarpone cheese is a creamy, spreadable, Italian Cheese traditionally made from cream. It is milky white and is understood to have originated in the 16 or 17th century in an area southwest of Milan.

How To Make Mascarpone Cheese At Home

What is Mascarpone? 

How To Make Mascarpone Cheese At Home

Mascarpone is a slightly sweet unaged Italian cheese made with heavy cream. Citric acid is added to the heavy cream to create curds when then become the cheese and result in a smooth and creamy texture. 

Best known for the yummy creamy layers in tiramisu, the delicious and versatile cheese originated in Northern Italy during the Renaissance. Mascarpone can be quite hard to find, which is why you should try making your own!

Mascarpone Cheese Ingredients

  • 1 litre of cream
    (Or 500ml of cream and 500ml of full cream)
  • 1/4 tsp of tartaric acid
    (Or 15ml of lemon juice)

Mascarpone Cheese Recipe

  1. Warm cream to 85 degrees Celsius/185 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Add tartaric acid or lemon juice and stir in thoroughly for 5-8 minutes.
    The cream will start to thicken immediately, towards the consistency of custard. If this doesn’t happen, add a tiny drop more of tartaric acid but be careful not to add too much or you will end up with a grainy texture.
  3. Leave to rest and cool to room temperature.
  4. Ladle into a cheese cloth lined colander.
  5. Drain for 8 hours, or overnight.
  6. Remove from the colander and place in an airtight container.

Mascarpone Cheese Storage

Use immediately or within 2 weeks when stored in the refrigerator.

Tips for How to Make Mascarpone at Home

In addition to our wonderfully easy recipe, we also gathered together several tips for how to make mascarpone at home. 

To cool the heated cream more quickly, set the bowl in an ice bath.

After making your mascarpone at home, be sure to store it in an airtight container to keep it as fresh as long as possible.

If you want to lower the fat content, you can mix low and high fat content heavy creams together. You can even use whipping cream in a pinch!

Be sure to use pasteurized cream and not ULTRA pasteurized cream. 

For added flavour, add in flavoured extracts at the very end when it is left to stand in the refrigerator. 

Did you know you can freeze mascarpone cheese for up to six weeks! Just thaw overnight and use in soups and sauces to make them creamy. 

If your homemade mascarpone cheese is too dry, add some cream in a little at a time. 

If it is too moist, allow to drain a while longer. 

To combat acidity, add some confectioner’s sugar! 

How to Make Mascarpone Cream for Tiramisu

The most well-known use for mascarpone cream is for the creamy layers in the decadent Italian dessert, tiramisu. 

Ingredients

16 oz. mascarpone cheese

½ cup sugar

3 eggs yolks

  1. Whisk cheese and sugar until light and fluffy
  2. Add in the 3 eggs yolks slowly until creamy

Add in 2 tablespoons rum, brandy or cognac

how to make delicious mascarpone cheese at home

Other Ways to Use Mascarpone

Now that you’ve discovered how to make mascarpone cheese at home, you should  begin experimenting with ways to use it!

Add to oatmeal for extra creaminess!

Add honey and vanilla and whip; serve with fruit

Use in place of ricotta in lasagna or in place of cream cheese for frosting

Works great for cheesecake in place of cream cheese! 

Make a simple dessert with mascarpone cheese dusted with cocoa powder or chocolate shavings and served with plain cookies 

how to make mascarpone

Savory Sauce Recipes for Mascarpone

Combine mascarpone with lemon zest, lemon juice and a little salt and serve over pasta

Spread onto pizza instead of tomato sauce

Layer into a gratin recipe

Add to scrambled eggs or as an omelet filling

Add to pesto or even tomato sauce for a creamy sauce

Mascarpone Alfredo Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup mascarpone cheese

2 oz. butter

½ cup grated parmesan

¼ tsp nutmeg

Heavy cream

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan
  2. Stir in mascarpone until melted thoroughly
  3. Remove from heat and then add all of the parmesan and stir
  4. Stir in nutmeg
  5. Add heavy cream to adjust the thickness of the sauce
  6. Season with pepper to taste

Recipe found here at Food.com

Do you have any questions or comments about Mascarpone? Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you! We hope you really enjoy our mascarpone cheese recipe.

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