Fresh Mascarpone

Mascarpone

As I mentioned a couple of days ago,  I scored some fresh milk at a dairy nearby.    I bought two gallons.   Both gallons had loads of cream and the first thing I did when we got home was skim it off.    By hand.   Actually, by spoon. 

It was a zen thing.

I got a full quart of cream and promptly made Mascarpone with a Creme Fraiche culture I got from Ricki, the cheese queen at New England Cheesemaking Supply.

These cultures are EASY to use.

• You heat the milk or cream to 86 degrees.   
• You stir in one packet of the powdered culture.   
• You let it sit overnight.   
• In the morning, you gently dump the whole thing into a big colander lined with cheesecloth and let it sit and drain until it's a consistency you want.   The longer it drains, the drier it is. 

Get the cheesecloth from Ricki, too, when you're getting cultures.   

Mascarpone is a cream cheese.   We like it just a little sweet, so I added a bit of vanilla sugar to it.  The batch in the pic was drained for a couple of hours in the fridge and was a bit drier than I would have liked.

No matter.   It's delicious with fruit or  Hot Cross Buns. [recipe coming soon!]