Two Ingredient Mascarpone from scratch … why buy expensive tubs of mascarpone when all you need is two staple ingredients and a little planning, oops time! This recipe is truly the joy of small things. It reminds you how so little can yield so much!
As you can see above, I use mascarpone in my desserts very often. Mascarpone is a soft cheese of Italian origin best known as the star ingredient in tiramisu. It’s also great as frosting or filling in cakes, in trifles and parfaits, in cheesecakes, sometimes to make panna cotta. Tiramisu is one of my all time favourite desserts, and in turn, mascarpone is my favourite soft cheese.
Coffee in desserts is my pet flavour so it comes as no surprise that I do a whole lot of tiramisu inspired desserts from time to time. My version of the tiramisu now without the zabaglione to keep it eggfree. It’s not traditional but it’s pretty darned delicious and I thank mascarpone for it!
Its sweet, buttery, rich and smooth feel is sometimes all you need to take a tea cake from simple to special. That good! The Eggless Saffron Pistachio Cake above is one such example. Mascarpone is also great in savoury options as well … think pasta, dips, salad dressings, soups and sauces etc. The good thing is that it keeps well for a week refrigerated, so it’s quite handy to have on hand.
I began making mascarpone at home in 2009, one of the simplest and probably cheapest ways to make this soft cheese. If you check this post here, I explored a slew of soft cheeses here – mascarpone, cottage cheese, quark, ricotta etc. Mozzarella was the only one I found cumbersome and that was the one I abandoned.
I have always used mascarpone a lot. Somewhere along the way, commercial mascarpone became available quite easily here on the sub continent, life got busy, I got lazy and I began buying an odd tub here and there. Was the silliest thing ever and a right royal waste of money. I had time last week to finally make a couple of batches and I can honestly say I really enjoyed the process , or the little there is to making it.
When I compare it to commercially available mascarpone, homemade mascarpone has the good old taste from the old times. You can feel it clean, fresh and no aftertaste, just as mascarpone should be. No stabilizers, additives etc, just like it should be.
Traditionally, mascarpone is made out of heavy cream of at least a 36% fat but I’m using a relatively low 25% fat cream since that’s all we get here easily. It still yields quite a nice firm mascarpone but feel free to use heavy cream if you can lay your hands on it.
The process is as simple and straightforward as can be. The idea is to heat the cream to around 85C. If you don’t have a candy thermometer, then watch for little bubbles to show up around the bottom edge, a slight escape of steam. That is a good indicator that the cream is hot enough to add the lime juice. Adding lime juice to warm cream helps it coagulate and thicken. Stir for a few minutes and take off heat. After that it’s pretty much resting it, then straining it overnight to remove the excess liquid. Plan 24 hours in advance because an overnight rest is key.
You can find more dessert ideas with mascarpone here.
You can find Tiramisu & Tiramisu inspired desserts here.
Do tag me on Instagram at Passionate About Baking if you make this, or any other recipe from the blog. I’d love to see it!
Two Ingredient Mascarpone From Scratch
Equipment
- 1 saucepan
- 1 Large pan large enough to fit the main saucepan like a bain marie
- 1 spatula
- 1 Cheesecloth
- 1 Sieve/colander
- 1 Large bowl to hold the sieve
- 1 Plate to cover the cheesecloth in the sieve
Ingredients
- 1 litre cream / 25%-30% fat cream I used Amul Fresh Cream
- 1 lime, juice of
Instructions
- Pour the cream into a large vessel and place over water in a pan. It's ok if the base of the vessel touches the base of the pan.
- Simmer over low to medium heat until the cream warms to about 80C or small bubbles can be seen coming up the sides.
- Add in the lime juice and stir well. The cream will begin to thicken. Stir well until the cream looks thick, then take it off the heat.
- Leave the cream to cool for about an hour, then refrigerate for 3 hours.
- Line a strainer with cheesecloth and place it over a large bowl. Turn the cooled thickened cream into the cheesecloth, bring the ends of the cheesecloth together and tie the mouth. Cover it and refrigerate overnight.
- Discard the liquid from the bowl or use it in a smoothie etc. The mascarpone is ready for use.
Notes
Once you have a nice bowl of mascarpone ready, here are a few ideas for dessert!
