Homemade Mascarpone Cheese

Name: Homemade Mascarpone Cheese
Prep time: 40 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 6 oz., 6 serving(s)
Ingredients: 1 cup heavy whipping cream; 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Submitted by ItalianMama

"Creamy, silky smooth mascarpone cheese that you can make at home instead of paying an arm and a leg for store-bought! This is the perfect introduction to cheesemaking for the beginner, no hard-to-find ingredients, super easy to make, and very rewarding! Use this in tiramisu or other Italian desserts."

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Ready In:: 40mins
Ingredients:: 2
Yields:: 6 oz.
Serves:: 6

ingredients

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons lemon juice

directions

Pour whipping cream into a heavy glass bowl; submerge in water (up to the level of the cream in the bowl) in a saucepan.
Bring water to a boil over medium-high heat until cream reaches 190 degrees (just below the boiling point - it will be very frothy and steamy), stirring frequently. I had a little trouble getting mine quite that hot, so I popped the bowl in the microwave for a few seconds.
Keeping bowl in the water, pour in lemon juice and stir continuously until cream becomes very thick and coats the back of a spoon, about 5-10 minutes.
Remove from heat and allow to cool for 20 minutes.
Line a fine-mesh strainer or sieve with a coffee filter (you'll need more than one if you double the recipe) and suspend over a bowl. Pour in thickened cream.
Once cream cools completely, move the strainer and bowl to the refrigerator. 24 hours later, peel off the coffee filter and put your finished cheese in a container. Or if you're impatient and don't mind it a bit less firm, you can remove it sooner! Makes about 6 oz.

Questions & Replies

Can I use citric acid instead on lemon juice? If so, would I use 1 1/2 tsp?

UmmX6239

Reviews

I made this recipe to use in a tiramisu dessert. It was very easy to do, and it tasted even better than the store bought mascarpone cheese. This recipe is easy and very cheap to do. I used organic cream for mine, tripled the recipe, let it sit in the refrigerator overnight, and my tiramisu dessert came out amazing. Thank you, thank you for posting this recipe!!!

AdelHeid123
This was really easy to make and it came out really well - almost like cream cheese. I doubled the amount. I did add some cinnamon and honey so I can use it as a dip, which did change the texture for some reason, but it still tasted really good!

Studentchef
My mascarpone came out great! Color, texture, and taste. It didn't take long to come to temp, but it took forever to thicken. I added a tad more lemon juice after about 15 minutes, then left it alone for about 5 more, came back, and it was perfect. Because of this, I think it didn't have as much liquid left in it because after a couple hours of being in the strainer/coffee filter, there wasn't anything in the bowl, but the coffee filter was wet and the cheese thick. I've read a recipe that said to cook it right in the pan, so I might try that next time to speed things up a bit. And FYI, it doesn't make very much (around 4oz for mine). Next time I'll be brave and triple it to use in a tiramisu!

Hannah B.