Mascarpone - a very soft creamy cheese, which has a soft creamy taste, which resembles the best grades of sour cream and melted milk at the same time. Some believe that the name of this product comes from "mas que bueno", which in Spanish means "better than good".
Mascarpone, most often, is used in confectionery to prepare various desserts, the most famous of which are cheesecakes and tiramisu . But also cheese is used as an acute snack, prepared by mixing mascarpone with mustard and anchovies.
Useful properties of mascarpone
Caloric content of mascarpone cheese is high: about 450 kcal per 100 g of product, so it is hardly suitable for dietary nutrition. But people who do not have special problems with the figure, the delicacy evokes the most positive taste sensations.
Like any sour-milk product, mascarpone has a number of useful properties: it contains essential amino acids, valuable micro and macro elements, including calcium essential for the musculoskeletal system, and a number of vitamins.
Cheese Mascarpone: what can I replace?
Unfortunately, such a wonderful product can not always be found on sale, and the cost of this kind of soft cheese is quite high. Therefore, a natural question arises: what kind of cheese can be replaced with mascarpone?
The most similar to mascarpone to taste and quality is another national Italian dairy product - ricotta , cheese made from whey. Is it possible to replace mascarpone with ricotta and how? Replacement is quite possible, but it is necessary to consider for which dish cheese is intended. Unlike the mascarpone of Ricotta, there are different types: slightly sweet, quite suitable instead of mascarpone in desserts, and brackish and smoked varieties can replace a similar product in dishes-snacks. But ricotta is also an infrequent guest in our kitchen.
Some advise to replace mascarpone cream cheese "Bonjour", "Almette" or "Rama".
What is the substitute for mascarpone cheese in home cooking? The product, similar to the original mascarpone to taste, is easy to prepare.
How to cook mascarpone at home?
Ingredients:
- fat cream (at least 25%) - 1 l;
- citric acid - ΒΌ teaspoon.
Preparation
Cream poured into a saucepan, heated until the appearance of the first bubbles. We raise citric acid, adding a little water to the teaspoon with acid for this purpose. Constantly stirring, pour diluted acid into hot cream. We keep the cream on low heat until they become very thick.
In a dry container we put a colander, on its bottom we put a cotton towel folded in half. Put the cream in a colander and wait for the whey to drain. This process usually takes about 1.5 hours. The product left in the colander is an analog of mascarpone. It should be a half-kilogram.
Culinary specialists suggest replacing mascarpone in tiramisu cream with the usual dairy products.
Tiramisu without mascarpone
Ingredients:
- eggs - 3 pieces;
- country sour cream - 300 g;
- cottage cheese - 300 g;
- biscuit biscuits - 300 g;
- powdered sugar - 3 tbsp. spoons;
- cocoa / powder - 4 teaspoons;
- boiled natural strong coffee - 1 glass.
Preparation
Cottage cheese is wiped through a sieve, add fresh sour cream, mix thoroughly with a mixer. Yolks are also whipped until they turn white. All components are mixed. Whipped separately whites, carefully pour into the mass, without stopping stirring. Choose a dish with high edges. Soaked in cooked coffee, cookies are placed on a plate in one layer, top covered with cooked cream, again we put a layer of soaked biscuits, then - a layer of cream. So spread out to the edge of the dishes, the top cream layer sprinkle the cocoa.
The real tiramisu is taken with spoons, like pudding, it is not cut with pieces like cake.