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Homemade Mascarpone Cheese

posted by Liz Berg on May 18, 2021 (updated 12/10/22)

Rich and creamy, Homemade Mascarpone Cheese cheese lets you treat yourself to an elegant ingredient without searching high and low to locate it! Plus, it’s much less expensive to make at home.

Have you ever wasted half a day calling numerous grocery stores or driving from market to market to locate just one ingredient? Mascarpone can often be hard to track down, but it’s not difficult to make from scratch! You’ll have this rich, buttery, and tangy ingredient available for all sorts of delicious Mascarpone Recipes!

Homemade Mascarpone Cheese in a white bowl.

Table of Contents hide

5 Frequently Asked Questions

6 You May Also Like:

7 Homemade Mascarpone Cheese Recipe

Why You Must Make

Until Whole Foods and Fresh Market opened locally, foods like mascarpone cheese were impossible to find in our local grocery stores.
Making mascarpone from scratch is ridiculously simple, though, and only takes two ingredients and a candy thermometer.
So besides sharing some yummy recipes utilizing mascarpone, I also will teach you how to whip it up in your own kitchen!

Ingredient Notes

With only two easy-to-find ingredients, making mascarpone at home is often easier than hunting it down.

Heavy Cream – Pasteurized, not ultra-pasteurized. 36% butterfat.
Lemon Juice – Freshly squeezed will taste best, but if you’re in a pinch, bottled lemon juice will work.

How to Make

Bring the cream to a simmer (you don’t want it to boil). Stir in lemon juice.
With a candy thermometer, monitor the temperature and keep it around 190º F.
Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently until it thickens.
Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
Pour through a strainer lined with a double layer of cheesecloth and position over a bowl. Flip cheesecloth over top of the strainer and refrigerate for 8 hours.
Scrape cheese from the cheesecloth into a storage container and press plastic wrap over the surface.
Store in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Homemade Mascarpone in a white bowl with fresh raspberries.

Expert Tips

This Mascarpone Cheese Recipe is easy if you have the right supplies. First, you need an accurate thermometer to make sure you pull the cream mixture off the heat at the proper temperature. Also, hunt down some pasteurized heavy cream. Ultra-pasteurized will work in a pinch, but the results may not be as creamy.

PRO-Tip: Read the labels and try to track down some pasteurized heavy cream NOT ultra-pasteurized. I find it at Whole Foods. But ultra-pasteurized will work, too, if that’s all you can find.
PRO-Tip: The process is simple. Pour the cream into a saucepan and cook to 190º F, just to a simmer, not a rolling boil. Use an accurate thermometer for the best results.
The acid in the lemon juice is crucial for curdling the cream. When the pH of the heavy cream drops, the milk proteins attract each other and become lumps.
Drain in a cheesecloth-lined strainer and chill and you’ll have 12 ounces of quality mascarpone for little effort and money.
PRO-Tip: Store covered in an airtight container. Use your homemade mascarpone cheese within 7-10 days.
If you can’t possibly use all the mascarpone cream, it can be frozen for up to 6 weeks. The quality may not be as quite as good as fresh, but after stirring, it’s perfectly fine to use in recipes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Mascarpone Cheese?

Mascarpone Cheese is an Italian cream cheese that hails from the Lombardy region of Italy. Made with heavy cream, it’s definitely richer than American cream cheese and is featured in dessert recipes like Tiramisu. The addition of mascarpone gives desserts a creamy, luscious texture.

It’s also great on scones, instead of clotted cream, along with a smear of jam! According to the Farmers’ Almanac, mascarpone is described as a buttery, double or triple-cream cheese made from cow’s milk which is ivory-colored, soft, and delicate and can be either nearly liquid or similar to butter in texture. Mascarpone can be substituted for cream cheese in many circumstances, though the flavor is slightly different. But it’s also a little looser in texture than cream cheese.

So if using mascarpone in a cookie recipe, for example, it may need a bit of extra flour to reach the right consistency. You can substitute cream cheese for mascarpone in a pinch, but you must mix in some heavy cream to duplicate the texture. Or you can make it at home with two simple ingredients, pasteurized heavy cream, and lemon juice!

What Does Mascarpone Cheese Taste Like?

It’s smooth, rich and buttery. Plus, there’s a very subtle sweetness making it perfect to use in dessert recipes.

What Do You Use Mascarpone In?

Besides the Italian classic, Tiramisu, mascarpone cheese can be used in cheesecakes instead of cream cheese, with a little sugar to garnish desserts instead of whipped cream, and loads of other desserts. Mascarpone Cheesecake with Balsamic Strawberries is one of my favorite cheesecake recipes of all time.

I also love a no-bake Mocha Icebox Cake as well as a nontraditional Berry Tiramisu, too. But Italians have savory mascarpone cheese recipes as well, like as a white pizza sauce, in a rich, pasta sauce or as a soup topping.

How Do You Pronounce Mascarpone?

Unless you’re Italian or watch a lot of Giada DeLaurentis, you may not know the proper way to pronounce mascarpone. So here goes: mahs-kahr-POH-neh(nay). Now you know!!!