Cream vs mascarpone?

(đ૯αท ʍ૯ઽƬѳท) #1

Tried mascarpone for the first time today.

For those that have ever been treated with Maleny branded cream why would anyone choose this over a nice thick pure cream?

(Carol E. ) #2

My comparator for marscapone is cream cheese rather than cream. To me, it’s like cream cheese without the twang. The web link below mentions ricotta or Greek yoghurt as possible substitutes, as well as a recipe to convert cream cheese to marscapone.

Now, I have had farm fresh raw cream and it is thick and heavenly; nothing like store bought. heavy cream or heavy whipping cream in the USA.

#3

I agree. In Italy, Mascarpone is considered a cream cheese, not cream.

(G. Andrew Duthie) #4

Here in the states, I’ve not seen that brand. From discussions with folks in the UK, it sounds like there are brands/types of cream there that we can’t get in the U.S.

So here, my choices are:

  • Milk
  • Half and Half
  • Heavy Whipping Cream

in order of fat content, with the latter being the highest of the three.

I also get cream cheese regularly. I started using mascarpone recently, and I find it occupies a very nice niche between HWC and cream cheese in terms of consistency, and between HWC and unsalted butter in terms of flavor.

I like mascarpone for the creamy flavor/texture it adds, either as a replacement for HWC in coffee, or along with HWC.

Mixing some mascarpone into HWC before whipping with cocoa and sweetener takes a chocolate whipped cream and really gives it more of a true mousse texture. Lots of good stuff you can do with a little mascarpone.

(Larry Lustig) #5

Some recent reading I did indicates that ricotta is made in large part from whey. If @richard 's recent trial of correct this would make it dangerously insulinogenic for diabetics.

#6

The typical use in Italy of mascarpone is savory or sweet mousses, quiches, creams and desserts. Perhaps the most famous recipe using mascarpone is tiramisu.

However, I don’t cringe when I read in this forum that people substitute HWC with mascarpone. Variety is the spice of life. In fact, there is an Italian dessert called “espresso affogato”, translated as drowned espresso. See picture below. So, a dollop of mascarpone instead of ice cream makes “mascarpone affogato”. Nice!

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