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I've found mascarpone cheese can be pricey. What would be a good (in taste and price) substitute?

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The specific application would be for a dessert with peaches and mascarpone, using this recipe: cookstr.com/recipes/peaches-with-mascarpone – JustRightMenus Jul 17 '10 at 4:21
technically speaking, is mascarpone a cheese? – Midhat Sep 19 '11 at 1:39

6 Answers

up vote 16 down vote accepted

I found a highly rated mascarpone cheese substitute recipe on food.com. I haven't personally tried it, but it's highly rated on that site, and is ridiculously simple.

  • 1 16 oz block of cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup sour cream

  • 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

  • Blend until smooth

Try it and let us know? :)

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1  
That is definitely quite like mascarpone! I went ahead and bought mascarpone, despite the cost, as a special treat for some guests. I also mixed up some of this substitute. VERY similar. In fact, my husband didn't like the actual mascarpone b/c he said it tasted like cream cheese. – JustRightMenus Jul 30 '10 at 20:01
@JustRightMenus: Great! I'm glad it worked for you. I'll make sure to use this if I ever need to sub mascarpone. – hobodave Jul 30 '10 at 20:47
I made tiramisu using fat free cream cheese and fat free sour cream in place of the marscapone (I did use the heavy whipping cream) and it turned out great. – lg247 Jan 24 at 17:14
up vote 0 down vote

Why not make your own? 1 litre of cream makes about 750gm of mascarpone. Pretty easy, but best to have a cooking thermometer.

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Can you elaborate on how you can make your own? – Mien May 19 at 8:00
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I bought some mascarpone and tried the cream cheese (full fat) substitute side by side. Cream cheese was creamier. The mascarpone definitely had a grainier texture, sort of like ricotta. I will play with it a bit, but I think mixing about half and half to 1/3,2/3 ricotta and the cream cheese sour cream mixture would hit it right on the head.

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up vote 2 down vote

Really, really good thick Greek yoghurt. Might not bake like mascarpone, but it certainly acts like it when you spoon it over a dessert.

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up vote 5 down vote

8 ounces of full-fat cream cheese blended with 1/4 cup of heavy cream and 2 tablespoons of full-fat sour cream make a decent replacement for mascarpone. A tip: don't try to blend the ingredients when the cream cheese is stone cold!

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+1 to offset @hobodave .. the ingredients are the same, but the proportions are different, plus the "full fat" advisories, which are (unfortunately) helpful in this age of reduced-fat everything! – tomjedrz Jul 17 '10 at 5:11
Thanks tomjedrz. I didn't think his answer deserved to stay at -1. I just want to get the message across that the community benefits from more variation in answers. This particular one on it's own is insignificant, but in light of his trend I thought I should point it out. – hobodave Jul 17 '10 at 5:16
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I thought it would be worth the questioner's time to have a recipe that I've used before with good results, and I expect that should a questioner receive several, similar answers, it can only make him or her feel more confident about making use of the advice. It's my first day on the site, and I was excited to see questions that I knew I could answer; I opened them in tabs and took them one at a time without refreshing the pages. Granted, I can see now why refreshing the pages is a good idea, but if I feel I've something useful to say, I'm going to say it without fear of being repetitive. – Iuls Jul 17 '10 at 5:24
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@hobodave You really shouldn't make assumptions about people's gender or sex. – Chas. Owens Jul 17 '10 at 5:26
up vote 3 down vote

It depends on the application. Try ricotta (much lower fat, so may not be suitable for some recipes) or a mixture of ricotta and generic cream cheese.

It's pretty easy to make your own ricotta, also, if you want to get into that.

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She said taste and price. Ricotta definitely does not taste like mascarpone. The texture is entirely different as well. – hobodave Jul 17 '10 at 4:21
I agree but based on my experiences ricotta is a good substitute to mascarpone in many recipies, especially desserts. Besides, I'd rather accept a slightly different taste than use some weird mix. – loscuropresagio Feb 14 '12 at 22:25

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