Homemade Mascarpone Cheese with Heavy Cream

Homemade Mascarpone Cheese : I have not started giving coffee for my kids so I kept postponing for several years to make Tiramisu Cake at home. But whenever I go for shopping I never forget to look at the Tiramisu aka coffee cakes placed at bakery section of those stores.. After moving to new place my job of admiring cakes never stopped. We are getting lot of chances to mingle with neighbors around in birthday parties and other event get togethers. Few months back I got a chance to make Tiramisu cake for a potluck. Yay! I was on cloud nine,

since its my favorite Cake 🙂 When I searched for Mascarpone cheese in near stores it wasn’t in the regular cheese section (a month later I noticed them available in the specialty cheese case next to fresh deli section, jokes apart but they are more expensive). After a week search I planned to make cheese on my own, here’s the trouble again when I looked for the recipe it says to prefer non-ultra-pasteurized or non pasteurized heavy cream. It’s hard to get non pasteurized cream near by and within 8 miles there is no Whole foods as I believe Pasteurized cream may be at whole foods market.

I didn’t give up and finally tried cheese with ultra pasteurized one that’s what i had handy. My first experiment was success anyways I made the cheese twice to confirm the proportion of ingredients work out well. It’s super duper success and made 2 recipes with that homemade mascarpone cheese (will post the recipes soon).

The one recipe is Tiramisu cake, just check the below picture made with this cheese till I come with the other post.

Tiramisu Sponge Cake with Mascarpone Cheese Frosting

The Second recipe is

Eggless Tiramisu Cake Using Homemade Mascarpone Cheese

Now let’s see an easy yet inexpensive method for making perfect textured homemade Mascarpone cheese. Its very quick to make (only resting time is long) and you can save some bucks.. I have a short video just to show the cream getting thickened after the lemon juice and tartar addition. But after several requests for complete video tutorial and replacement for cream of tartar I have made a new video with complete tutorial almost (9 minutes long), please watch till the end of the video were I used Baking Powder as a replacement for Cream of Tartar and absolutely loved the texture of cream it yielded.

Get to know about Ingredients

Fat in Cream

Whipping cream contains 30-35 % of milk fat, heavy cream includes 36-38% of fat content, and the fresh cream incorporates less than 30% milk fat.

Tartaric Acid Vs Cream of Tartar

Tartaric Acid (potassium bitartrate) is quite sour salt found in plants and super expensive also hard to find it. Where as Cream of Tartar is an acidic salt that acts as a stabilizer in recipes. Tartaric acid is mixed with potassium hydroxide to neutralize the acid , lightened and sold as Cream of Tartar.

Pasteurized Cream Vs Ultra-Pasteurized

Pasteurized cream will provide a better flavor, will whip up fluffier, and will hold up longer. As ultra-pasteurized whipping cream has been heated to above 280 degrees F. to extend its shelf life, so it is more temperamental when it comes to whipping.

Lemon Juice Vs White Vinegar

White Vinegar has the double the powder of freshly squeezed lemon juice so use half quantity of white vinegar in place of fresh juice in this recipe.

Cream of Tartar Vs Baking Powder

Baking Powder is a mix of Cream of Tartar and Baking Soda, so 1 tsp Baking Powder has 1/2 tsp Cream Of Tartar and 1/4 tsp Baking Soda, so you can easily substitute cream of tarter with baking powder.

Mascarpone Cheese Ingredients

Heavy Cream / Whipping Cream – 1 Cup

Lemon Juice – 1.5 tsp or  3/4 tsp Vinegar

Cream of Tartar/Baking Powder – 1/4 tsp

Homemade Mascarpone Cheese Preparation

• Just coat the pan with softened butter and add heavy cream to it.
• Bring to boil in medium flame with on and off stirring.
• When you see bubbles on the sides of the pan remove from flame.
• Immediately add lemon juice and cream of tartar / baking powder.
• Keep stirring and you will notice/feel the cream getting thick while you stir.
• Look this process won’t curdle the cream, just it thickens the cream.
• Let stir for couple more minutes for the steam to escape.
• When cream cooled completely pour over a cloth.
• Use a thick material or 2 layers, it should not strain much and tie well on a bowl.
• Let them sit in refrigerator by covering the top with lid for 12-24 hours.

• You can see a little whey water collected in the bowl.
• And the cheese looks super perfect smooth, shiny and airy in texture.
• Prepared Mascarpone cheese can be stored in the refrigerator for upto 2 days.
• In unavoidable situation you can freeze the homemade Mascarpone cheese.
• Thaw several hours before use and blend in processor/mixie otherwise texture looks grainy.

• I have used the Whipping cream brands as shown in video and picture below.
• Have got lot of queries with Indian brands, please do experiment with minimal quantity.
• Please do show your love and share so others will know.

Complete Video Tutorial

Mascarpone Cheese Recipe Card

Print Recipe

Notes

1. Ultra Pasteurized/ Pasteurized /Non Pasteurized Heavy Cream/dairy based Whipping Cream or full fat cream works for this recipe.
2. Use freshly Squeezed lemon juice from a Lemon or use half the quantity of white vinegar.
3. To be on safer side use Cream Of Tartar or Baking Powder.
4. No need to convert exact measurement of Cream of Tartar with Baking Powder its just a supporting ingredient.
5. Everytime it worked well for me but first time do try with a minimal quantity.
6. I never tried non dairy whipping cream.
7. I get lot of queries whether low fat whipping cream works for this recipe, yes it works (one of a follower tried and shared with me) and you may get little more whey or little soft cheese compared to 35% heavy cream.