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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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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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    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, 2010 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, 2010 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.
    – user15423
    Jan 24, 2013 at 17:14
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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, 2010 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, 2010 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, 2010 at 5:24
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    @hobodave You really shouldn't make assumptions about people's gender or sex.
    – Chas. Owens
    Jul 17, 2010 at 5:26
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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, 2010 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, 2012 at 22:25
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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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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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There is an excellent page that describes how to make your own Mascarpone Cheese with just milk and culture at "http://www.cheesemaking.com/Mascarpone.html" The cheese is very good, and inexpensive.

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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, 2013 at 8:00

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