How to replace cottage cheese in cream. How to replace mascarpone: we cook Italian desserts at home

07.11.2021

If the authenticity of the recipe for the popular Italian dessert "Tiramisu" is not important to you, then you can save a lot on its preparation by replacing mascarpone cheese with analogous mixtures of ingredients in terms of texture and taste. We will talk in more detail about how to replace mascarpone in tiramisu below.

What can replace mascarpone cheese in tiramisu cake?

The first thing that comes to mind when looking for a substitute for mascarpone is homemade cream cheese. Like classic cheese, its homemade version is made with maximum fat cream, which is separated from excess whey with lemon juice.

Ingredients:

  • cream (maximum fat content) - 480 ml;
  • - 15 ml.

Cooking

Pour the cream into a saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add the lemon juice and, continuing to stir, heat the mixture for another 5 minutes until it thickens. Set the saucepan with cream aside and let the future cheese stand for half an hour. After a while, pour the contents of the dish onto a double section of gauze and, having gathered the edges together, leave the excess whey to drain for 8 hours. An analogue of mascarpone for tiramisu is ready, it remains only to mix it and can be used for its intended purpose.

You can replace mascarpone with a mixture of regular cream cheese, which is much easier to find and purchase at an affordable price in our markets. The taste and texture of such an analogue is the closest to the original than the cottage cheese-based recipes offered everywhere.

Ingredients:

  • - 230 g;
  • fat cream - 55 ml;
  • butter - 35 g.

Cooking

Before you start cooking, make sure the butter has softened enough.

Place all the ingredients in one bowl and beat at the maximum speed of the mixer for 3-5 minutes.

Curd cream for tiramisu without mascarpone

A popular analogue of mascarpone in our area is a cream based on cottage cheese and cream. Due to sourness and graininess, such cheese is not so similar to the original, but it will fit for use in case of emergency.

Delicate creamy mascarpone cheese is used to prepare savory appetizers, salad dressings and sweet desserts. But this cheese is quite expensive, and it is difficult to find it in stores now. What is mascarpone and how to replace it?

How to replace mascarpone: recipes.

What can you substitute for mascarpone in tiramisu?

Mascarpone is made from heavy cream. This Italian cheese is the basis of an unusually delicious dessert - tiramisu. But if you wish, you can surprise guests even in the absence of Italian cheese.

What is a substitute for mascarpone? You can buy other soft cheese, such as ricotta or other dairy products - Bonjour, Almette, Philadelphia. But you can cook an analogue of mascarpone yourself.

So, if cheese is required for tiramisu, try two simple recipes:

Pack a kilogram of fat sour cream in a cotton bag and hang it overnight to drain the juice. The next morning you will receive a pound of a dairy product that resembles mascarpone.

Another option than substituting mascarpone for tiramisu is a little more complicated. You need to take the same amount of sour cream and fatty yogurt, salt and beat thoroughly. Pack the contents in a cotton bag and hang over a sink or basin. After a couple of days, the product will become quite dense and can be used for tiramisu.

Tiramisu prepared from such substitutes practically does not differ in taste from the original.

How to replace mascarpone in cake cream

This Italian cheese is often used as the base for cake creams. Is it possible to substitute mascarpone in this case? Why not. For a cream similar to that created from mascarpone, you will need:

300 grams of fatty cottage cheese;

100 ml cream (30%);

100 g of powdered sugar.

Cream is easy to make. First you need to beat the yolks with half the powdered sugar. Do the same with proteins. And then whip it all with cream.

Good afternoon, dear readers!

Do you have a sweet tooth among you? Then you must have tried a surprisingly tender dessert called tiramisu. I'm not a big fan of sweets, but I can't resist this dessert. And the kids are generally ready to swallow the whole cake, it's so delicious.

The main ingredient in tiramisu is mascarpone cheese. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to find it on sale with us, and many do not even know what kind of cheese this is so wonderful.

Therefore, today the topic for our conversation is mascarpone, what is it and how to replace it? And also, I will share with you a proven recipe for mascarpone cheese.

Cheese variety

Mascarpone cheese is surprisingly tender, has a light creamy taste. In Italy, they make a dessert called tiramisu from it, and Americans bake cheesecake. In our latitudes, mascarpone is rare. Looking at the cost, you will still think whether to buy it or not.

So, you need to replace it with a product that is more suitable in taste and consistency.

What to replace?

There are several types of cheeses that are most similar to mascarpone. The choice will depend on what kind of dish we are going to cook.


Cooking mascarpone at home

And now, dear readers, I want to offer you a wonderful recipe for mascarpone at home. According to this recipe, I made cheese several times, to be honest, you need to get used to it to make it work.

And frankly, if it seems that doing it yourself will be cheaper, it’s not, it turns out even more expensive. But I'll tell you anyway, suddenly someone will have inspiration and he wants to repeat my feat.

I should note that this recipe is not mine, I once found it on our city forum. Its author is Olga, she is a real master of her craft, I have already published a wonderful chocolate cake according to her recipe. Well, let's get started.


In order for you to get approximately half a kilogram of mascarpone, you will need one liter of cream with a fat content of at least 30%.

I want to warn you right away, many stores sell vegetable cream with a fat content of 30%, they have nothing to do with real cream and you won’t get cheese. Therefore, carefully read what is written on the package.

If you bought cream from a farmer or market, it should be very sweet without any hint of sourness. By consistency, they should be liquid, that is, pour. If there is a spoon in the cream, they will not suit you.

For the mascarpone recipe, we also need 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.


If you don’t have a special kitchen thermometer to measure the temperature of the liquid, then look for small bubbles to form around the edges of the cream.

At this moment, you pour lemon juice into the cream, prepared in advance, and on a very low heat, almost invisible, gently stir the cream for 5-6 minutes (the cream should thicken a little, but not boil).

We line a sieve with a towel and pour the resulting creamy mass into it. We wait a bit until it drains. And then we move the resulting creamy mixture to the refrigerator for a couple of hours and stir occasionally so that the curd leaves well.

That's all, in principle, if you need tender mascarpone, as for tiramisu, then three hours in the refrigerator will be enough. And if you want to make a cheesecake, then you will need a denser cheese for it, keep it for a few more hours in the refrigerator.

What is mascarpone? If you haven’t understood yet, then this is heavy cream, quite a bit processed with a leavening culture. Therefore, it is sweet and there is no sourness in it.

Simplified version of the cream

If you want to cook a simplified version of cheese, take three hundred grams of sour cream and cottage cheese and mix well. Separately, beat 3 yolks and whites each and mix with the curd mass. Makes a great cream.

As a base for the cake, take ordinary cookies, crumble it and apply cream on top. You can lay out cookies and cheese in layers, add chocolate or coffee to them.

Mascarpone cheese is an exquisite delicacy. However, it can be very difficult to get it, but we are not upset and prepare it ourselves.

Ekaterina Chesnakova was with you with mascarpone, ricotta and tiramisu!

You can try real tiramisu, of course, only in Italy. However, if there is no opportunity to ride abroad, it is worth preparing such a delicacy at home: its recipe is not at all a secret. You just need to know how to replace the unique Italian mascarpone cheese.

Each famous dessert has its own legend of origin. Tiramisu is no exception. It is believed that it was invented in the 17th century by Italian confectioners, who were instructed to impress a high-ranking guest - the Duke of the Medici family, known for his addiction to sweets.

The masters did not disgrace themselves and prepared a completely new dessert, calling it "Duke's Soup". The great gourmet was completely overwhelmed by the exquisite taste, and when leaving, he took with him the recipe for his favorite delicacy.

The secret of the uniqueness of mascarpone

Why did the proposed delicacy shock the spoiled nobleman so much? The composition of tiramisu, invented by skilled confectioners, included the most delicate mascarpone cream cheese. This amazing product was produced in the province of Lombardy.

Emerald meadows, clean air and clear water - these are the conditions in which the Lombard cows grazed, giving high-quality milk in return. Soft cheese was prepared exclusively from cream, due to which it reached 55% fat content, approaching almost butter.

Simple Alternatives

Needless to say, it is difficult to cook true tiramisu without the “right” cheese. Moreover, the cheese must also be absolutely fresh. You won't find such a rare product in our stores. However, there is no reason to lose heart and deny yourself the pleasure of enjoying an unusually delicious dessert. After all, you can always find a worthy alternative. What can replace Italian mascarpone?

No need to be scared - you don’t have to start a cow! The easiest option is to use fat cottage cheese mixed with cream. By the way, "mascherpa" - just means "cottage cheese" in the dialect of Lombardy.

Soft cream cheese Almette or Philadelphia is also quite able to replace mascarpone. Another possible way is to mix a package of any cream cheese with 2 tablespoons of 35% cream and 3 tablespoons of 25% sour cream and use the resulting mixture as a cream when making a dessert.

Possible options

However, there are more complex methods for obtaining a worthy analogue, in which you can simultaneously feel like a cheese maker. Of course, it will not be possible to reproduce the technological process of making cheese, but the result achieved will completely allow replacing the "Italian" in tiramisu.

Option one:

  • buy in the store 1 kg of fat sour cream (25%);
  • hang it overnight, packed in a canvas bag. At the same time, excess liquid will drain, and a product will remain that is very reminiscent of mascarpone in its performance. It comes out to about 500 g - just enough to make homemade tiramisu.

Option two:

  • take 800 g of sour cream and one package of kefir;
  • mix them, salt to taste, and hang for a couple of days in a linen bag over the sink. As soon as the product hardens enough, this is a signal that the homemade mascarpone is ready.

Option three:

  • 1 liter of cream;
  • a quarter teaspoon of citric acid.

This cooking method is vaguely reminiscent of the traditional recipe:

  1. Bring the cream almost to a boil (80 - 90 degrees) - the first bubbles should begin to form. Dilute citric acid in a teaspoon of water and pour, stirring, into hot cream.
  2. Reduce heat to low and simmer cheese for 10 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and leave for 10 minutes.
  3. Take another saucepan and place on it a colander lined with a kitchen towel folded in half. Pour the cream into a colander, remembering to periodically stir the future mascarpone with a whisk (to facilitate the draining of the whey).
  4. The process will take about an hour and a half. By the end, the mass will begin to resemble thick sour cream. After that, the resulting product must be transferred to a dry bowl and put in the refrigerator, where it will acquire the desired consistency. The amount of homemade mascarpone created in this way can replace 500 g of the original product.

In conclusion, it remains to be said: the absence of Italian cheese is completely unable to prevent you from enjoying a sophisticated dessert. Especially if there is a firm intention to treat yourself and your family to the famous tiramisu.

Video recipe for making tiramisu without mascarpone

Mascarpone is a very delicate cream cheese with a creamy texture. Its taste immediately resembles both baked milk and the best sour cream varieties. According to one version, the word "mascarpone" comes from the common Spanish phrase "mas que bueno", which literally means "better than good."

Mascarpone is used in culinary arts such as cheesecake and tiramisu. In addition, this type of cheese is used to dress salads, often fruit salads, as a spicy appetizer, seafood sauce, and also as a separate dish.

Mascarpone cheese - what can be replaced in cooking

Mascarpone is a rather expensive product, and besides, this cheese is sometimes completely problematic to find. Therefore, housewives who want to cook tiramisu or any other mascarpone dish are puzzled by the question: what to replace this cheese with? There are several options for replacing the Italian cream product.

Another cheese closest to mascarpone in taste is whey-based ricotta. Products such as Almette, Rama, Bonjour and Philadelphia can also replace expensive cheese in cream and desserts. A substitute can be prepared at home.

Ricotta for cream

Ricotta is an Italian cheese with a delicate curd texture. It can be used as a substitute for mascarpone in hot dishes and snacks, because it has a similar light texture and mild taste. To prepare the cream you will need:

  • ricotta - 150 gr.;
  • fat cream (at least 20%) - 200 ml.

These ingredients should be placed in the bowl of a food processor and blended until smooth and homogeneous. Then replace the nozzle with a whisk and beat the resulting mixture, it should turn out to be airy. The cream must be used immediately.

Replacing Mascarpone with cottage cheese

Wanting to save money on buying an expensive product, you can use the simplest replacement option - mix fat cottage cheese with cream. The end result is a delicious cheesecake. To prepare the cream you will need:

  • fatty cottage cheese - 300 gr.;
  • fat cream (at least 30%) - 100 ml;
  • eggs - 2 pcs. (yolks separate from proteins);
  • powdered sugar - 100 gr.

First, the cottage cheese is whipped, then the yolks and ½ powdered sugar, then the proteins and the second half of the sugar, and finally the cream. All ingredients must be combined and mixed into a creamy homogeneous mass.

Philadelphia cheese

This soft cream cheese is also able to replace an expensive product. You can use any other cream cheese, to prepare the cream you will need:

  • cream cheese - 1 pack;
  • cream (35%) - 2 tablespoons;
  • sour cream (25%) - 3 tbsp.

All ingredients should be mixed thoroughly. Due to the fact that each brand has its own cooking technology, additives and quality of raw materials, desserts prepared according to a single recipe from different cream cheeses will differ in taste, but the consistency will turn out to be similar and almost identical to mascarpone cream.

homemade mascarpone recipe

Mascarpone can be prepared at home, it's quite simple. Of course, the recipe is completely unconventional, but the resulting product will be the best analogue of the required cheese. Any pastry with this cream will turn out tender and tasty.

To make mascarpone you will need:

  • cream (at least 25%) - ½ liter;
  • juice of half a lemon.

Recipe:

  1. The cream should be poured into a metal container and put on a small fire for 12 minutes, stirring the product occasionally. The resulting temperature should be around 75°.
  2. Add lemon juice to hot cream and heat for 5-7 minutes on fire, stirring constantly.
  3. As soon as the contents begin to curl, you need to remove the pan from the heat.
  4. After the cream has cooled, they must be drained into a colander, which must be covered in advance with 7-8 layers of gauze.
  5. Keep the product in this form for about 3 hours, so that all the whey is glassed.
  6. Homemade mascarpone is ready!

The resulting cheese can be used immediately or put into a clean airtight container and sent to the refrigerator for several days. If you plan to use cheese for making sandwiches, then you can add pre-chopped nuts and herbs to it.

Video: what cheese to replace mascarpone in tiramisu

We offer lovers of gourmet tiramisu to watch this video, where the author of the video, a young mother, tells how and from what to cook an excellent and budgetary substitute for mascarpone at home. Watch, experiment and enjoy the most delicate taste of an amazing dessert!