Mascarpone

Cheese, Cheese, Cheese - is cheese a good thing or what?  Mascarpone is a relatively easy cheese to make. Although I must admit the first time out of the box was a failure - the curds did not form.  I think I heated the heavy cream too high. But I decided to try again and YUM! is all I can say. All you need to buy is the tartaric acid.  I bought mine here. It is pretty cheap and you only use a little so it will last a long time. It says to store it in a cool dry place so I'm storing mine in the refrigerator.

Macarpone

1 quart heavy cream (or half and half)
1/4 t tartaric acid

In a double-boiler (don't worry if you don't have one-you can use a metal bowl placed over a pot of boiling water) heat the cream to 185 degrees. Stir occasionally-especially the sides as they tend to be hotter. Shut off heat. Add tartaric acid and gently stir for about a minute. The cream will begin to look curdled. Remove bowl from heat and let rest for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile set up a strainer lined with cheesecloth over a bowl. Place cheese in strainer. Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 8-12 hours.

Curds starting to form

Drain off the whey

Seal up good with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator to drain off remainder of the whey

This time I used half and half.  The last time I used heavy cream.  I'm anxious to try the heavy cream again to see how it differs. Oh the sacrifice to have to eat more Mascarpone. I think I also could have let it drain a little less.  It was a little on the drier side. I let mine drain way more than overnight.  I made it about 12:00 (on my lunch hour while I was working from home) and didn't take it out of the strainer until the next morning.

P.S. Yes I know I was late with this post but I had made a chocolate cake but it wasn't blog-worthy. It looked pretty but it was dry as anything. I hate when you have such high hopes for a recipe and it just turns out meh. You know it was awful if I made it on Sunday and it was still hanging around by Friday ;-)