Italian mascarpone cream cheese is used for various desserts – tiramisu, cheesecakes. The birthplace of cheese is considered to be Italian Lombardy, where it began to be prepared in the early 1600s. The name is translated from Spanish as “more than good”.
And, indeed, for many dishes mascarpone is irreplaceable. And it is very disappointing if the mascarpone declared in the recipe is not at hand. In this case, prepare it yourself.
You will need: 1 liter of cream with a fat content of 25% or more, 3 tbsp. lemon juice and a thermometer with which you can track the desired heating temperature.
1. Place the cream in a dry saucepan. Squeeze lemon juice into another container.
2. Place the pot on a water bath. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium heat. Keep the cream on the stove until the thermometer reads 85 degrees. Remove from heat and pour in lemon juice in a thin stream, stirring occasionally. Measure the temperature, it should be 82 degrees. We put the cream in a water bath and simmer, without stopping stirring, until the temperature does not exceed 84 degrees.
3. When they thicken and become like a cream, remove from heat and, without stopping stirring, cool to 45 degrees.
4. Then, using a colander and a cotton towel, strain the creamy mass. The whey should drain into a bowl under the colander. As soon as the serum ceases to actively drain, we transfer the creamy mass with a spoon to a clean towel and hang it overnight.
5. In the morning we put almost ready cheese in gauze in a colander, put any oppression on top and put it in the refrigerator for 10 hours.
6. From time to time it is better to take out the cheese, mix it. If there are small lumps in the mascarpone, it’s okay – when you stir with a mixer, the cheese will get the desired homogeneity.