Mascarpone Cheese (for Tiramisu)

 Mascarpone Cheese is used mainly in Italian cooking and is most famously used in Tiramisu and other deserts.

                          



 It is made mainly from heavy whipping cream and lemon juice or tartaric acid. I looked through various websites to make mascarpone cheese, all of them recommended using pasteurized heavy whipping cream.But when I went looking for it I was able to find ultra pasteurized whipping cream ( not pasteurized whipping cream ) and decided to go ahead with it ( as few websites said it was okay to use ultra pasteurized whipping cream  for the same ). It was also recommended to use a cooking thermometer to check the heat, it should not be a problem if you don't have one.


Just like how paneer ( cottage cheese) is made, the main ingredient (in the case of mascarpone cheese it is heavy whipping cream whereas for paneer it is whole milk), is curdled with lime juice. And the similarity ends there because when you curdle the milk in paneer we can see the paneer and whey seperating immediately whereas in mascarpone cheese, when the whipping cream is curdled, we hardly see any significant difference except for the thickening of the cream. You will understand it seeing the pictures shown and described below.

It might take more or less time than described here to make mascarpone cheese.

Active prep - 20 - 25 min

Inactive prep - 12 hrs

Ingredients :

Heavy Whipping cream ( Organic ultra pasteurized ) - 2  packs, 16 ounces / 454 gm ( 8 ounces / 227 gm each )

Lemon juice - 1 tbsp ( you can also use vinegar )

Other things required :

Cheese cloth - 4 nos ( I used 4 nos of clean men's handkerchief )

Colander

Cooking thermometer ( I didn't use this )

One large skillet

One strong bottomed, heat resistant cooking bowl

Procedure:

1. Double Boiling:

In a large skillet on medium heat, fill about one inch of water and heat till the water comes to a rolling boil.

Turn the heat from medium to low. Transfer the heavy whipping cream into the heavy bottomed cooking bowl. And place this bowl over the skillet. ( Take out some water from the skillet if it spills after the bowl is placed )

 

2. Boiling and Curdling:

Take a wooden spoon and keep stirring once in a while, you will notice that a very light coating of milk remains on the back of the wooden spoon.

Keep stirring the cream till the whipping cream reaches a temperature of 190 F, since I did not use a cooking thermometer I waited till small bubbles started forming on the surface of the cream.

This should approx take 20- 25 minutes of gentle heating. once you see small bubbles forming on the surface add the lemon juice .

After few minutes of stirring , the cream would thicken a little ( as thick as say condensed milk ).

When the back of the wooden spoon is covered with a thick layer of curdled cream, turn of the heat and cool the curdled cream for about 20 - 25 minutes.Take a colander and place the four pieces of  men's handerkerchief over it.

3. Firming:

Pour the curdled cream over the cloth ( the four layers of cloth would prevent the cream from flowing immediately and would eventually filter the whey  ) Do not squeeze or press the cloth. Place the colander along with the cream over a plate ( to prevent the whey from dripping all over) and cover the colander with a plastic wrap (saran wrap).

Place it in a refrigerator for atleast 12 hours and only after minimum 12 hours would the cheese firm up completely.
There would be a very little whey in the plate. You would get a firm and creamy cheese.

The cheese should be refrigerated until used and should be used within 3-4 days.