How to make Mascarpone Cheese at home??

Mascarpone cheese is an important cheese in making Italian desserts but the cheese is very costly when you buy from stores.A 8 oz can of mascarpone cheese costs 9$ and that's quite a big number when you have options to prepare that in less than half the cost.And you have a satisfaction too making the fresh mascarpone cheese.Now,you might think its a tedious effort to make it at home but unlike cottage cheese(paneer) this requires much lesser efforts.The milk doesn't curdle unlike in paneer making ,it rather thickens.There is no much whey that comes out of this cheese but the only concern with mascarpone cheese is that it requires a long waiting period of 12 hours or more to get the correct texture of mascarpone cheese.Do check this out & try your own recipes associated with mascarpone cheese at home !!!

Ingredients
heavy cream 1 pint(473 ml)
lemon juice 1 tbsp

Method

• Take the cream in a heavy bottomed pan.
• I prefer using the double boiler method.Boil water in a large pan and place the other pan with cream on the boiling water.Keep stirring the cream and keep the flame on medium heat.
• At one point,about 10 minutes  you may see bubbles start appearing on the sides of the cream.(180 degrees F)Add the lemon juice then and mix gently.The cream coats the sides of the pan and the spoon at this stage.
• Put off flame and remove from heat.Leave aside for 30 minutes to cool.

• Line a strainer lined with several layers of cheese cloth or a clean thin kitchen towel and place it on a bowl ,pour the cream in it .Leave covered for about an hour at room temperature.
• Refrigerate covered  for 12 hours to get the final product of mascarpone cheese.Creamy mascarpone  cheese is ready to use once mixed.Discard the very little whey collected.

Yields ~ 340 gms(12 oz)

NOTES

* Please follow the steps strictly word to word.
* You can even use cream of tartar(1 tsp) or Tartaric acid (1 1/2 tsp) instead of lemon juice.
* Coffee filters also works good to strain the cream.

Sending this to Flavors of Italy-hosted by Divya @ Divya's Culinary Journey