Mascarpone Monday
August 24, 2020 1:35 AM Subscribe
Say it properly. Kouign Amann? Lemon sponge and mascarpone cream, or perhaps a meringue cake with chocolate ganache? Mascarpone is an Italian cream cheese. Like other cheeses it has non-edible uses, though it is most often used in tiramisu, cheesecake and many other foods. Honey-cinnamon baked peaches with thyme mascarpone. Chocolate mascarpone. Try hanging it? Honey and mascarpone sponge roll or pistachio halva chocolate roulade? Mascarpone stuffed French toast, or a rucola crudo? Brownies? Strawberry and mascarpone rolled sponge. Balls of heavenly cream. Honey blackberry mascarpone ice cream. A cheesling, perhaps? With a milkshake? Lemon sponge and mascarpone and blackcurrant filling, or frost your coffee walnut cake. Boozy. (inspiration)
I WANT IT ALL!
blast you, Wordshore!
posted by mightshould at 2:33 AM on August 24, 2020 [3 favorites]
blast you, Wordshore!
posted by mightshould at 2:33 AM on August 24, 2020 [3 favorites]
Kouign Amann is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten. You know how so many of us were disappointed when we finally got to try Turkish Delight because it could never live up to its description in The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe? Well, Kouign Amann is EXACTLY what Edmund SHOULD have requested when the White Queen asked him to name the food his heart desired.
Yeah, you’ll basically be eating your year’s allotment of butter, but is it ever worth it.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:51 AM on August 24, 2020 [10 favorites]
Yeah, you’ll basically be eating your year’s allotment of butter, but is it ever worth it.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:51 AM on August 24, 2020 [10 favorites]
Once when I was making a cake I had some mascarpone in the fridge, so I tried making icing by mixing it with icing sugar and maybe a few drops of vanilla extract. It was so good.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 4:16 AM on August 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 4:16 AM on August 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
I can't be the only North American who resorts to using mascarpone as a substitute for clotted cream. Because those awful little jars of the imported stuff make mascarpone the least bad option.
Whip some mascarpone together with a splash of of heavy cream (no, there’s no such thing as double cream here either - whipping cream or heavy cream’s as far as we go) and the result is a substance that's almost, but not quite, entirely unlike clotted cream.
posted by theory at 4:26 AM on August 24, 2020 [4 favorites]
Whip some mascarpone together with a splash of of heavy cream (no, there’s no such thing as double cream here either - whipping cream or heavy cream’s as far as we go) and the result is a substance that's almost, but not quite, entirely unlike clotted cream.
posted by theory at 4:26 AM on August 24, 2020 [4 favorites]
Nearly all of these recipes are desserty, which, fair enough, mascarpone is on the sweeter side. But it's also my not so secret ingredient to make a creamier, fuller, and more interesting mac and cheese. You do want to be careful not to over do it, because sweet, but find the right balance and...yum.
posted by solotoro at 4:42 AM on August 24, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by solotoro at 4:42 AM on August 24, 2020 [3 favorites]
The choc ganache meringue cake looks very good. Possibly one for making for the rellies over Xmas.
Has anyone here been to (or does anyone here live in) the Italian region of Lombardy and tried the real deal at its place of origin?
No, but I did go to Meiringen last year and tried the meringue. It was ok.
posted by biffa at 4:42 AM on August 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
Has anyone here been to (or does anyone here live in) the Italian region of Lombardy and tried the real deal at its place of origin?
No, but I did go to Meiringen last year and tried the meringue. It was ok.
posted by biffa at 4:42 AM on August 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
+1 for Kouign Amann.
posted by Klipspringer at 5:20 AM on August 24, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Klipspringer at 5:20 AM on August 24, 2020 [4 favorites]
That's funny. You know how you hear about something for the first time and then suddenly you hear about it again soon? Just a couple days ago our local cafe announced that they had Kouign Amman and I was like "what's that?" and googled for a while. And now this post! Guess fate is leading me to it... Thanks Wordshore!
posted by vacapinta at 5:27 AM on August 24, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by vacapinta at 5:27 AM on August 24, 2020 [4 favorites]
I can vouch for mascarpone brownies; although they aren't my go-to recipe, they've got just the right amount of richness without being too heavy.
posted by thomas j wise at 6:34 AM on August 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by thomas j wise at 6:34 AM on August 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
Difficulties in getting buttermilk earlier in the spring led me to doing a lot of experiments in trying other random things to replace it in pancake and biscuit recipes. Yogurt is a classic, of course, but as supplies got thin I expanded my reach. One day we had a container of mascarpone left and I gave it a shot.
It was great!
Gave the pancakes a little denser texture, but a nice flavor. Perfect with maple syrup slathered over it.
It's become a nice go-to now, and I'd recommend it for any other pancake fans out there.
posted by Zargon X at 6:45 AM on August 24, 2020 [3 favorites]
It was great!
Gave the pancakes a little denser texture, but a nice flavor. Perfect with maple syrup slathered over it.
It's become a nice go-to now, and I'd recommend it for any other pancake fans out there.
posted by Zargon X at 6:45 AM on August 24, 2020 [3 favorites]
One of my favourite desserts I ever made was grilled nectarines topped with mascarpone mixed with a little lemon juice and sugar. So simple, so unbelievably delicious.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:55 AM on August 24, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 6:55 AM on August 24, 2020 [4 favorites]
I'm going to admit here in public that I in my 52 years on this planet cannot say I have ever had mascarpone. To the point to where I had to look it up on Wikipedia to even know what it is, and still was clueless about it. It sounds like something I'd like -- I'm a fan of many things dairy of various varieties. Sounds like something useful to have around for various recipes in various ways!
posted by hippybear at 7:51 AM on August 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 7:51 AM on August 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
My favorite use is cannoli and that is the way I first tried it, too.
posted by soelo at 8:36 AM on August 24, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by soelo at 8:36 AM on August 24, 2020 [2 favorites]
It doesn't look all that difficult to make at home
posted by bunderful at 8:43 AM on August 24, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by bunderful at 8:43 AM on August 24, 2020 [2 favorites]
My local fancy grocery delivery place has Kouign Amann from Starter Bakery, and I have become addicted.
posted by tavella at 8:49 AM on August 24, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by tavella at 8:49 AM on August 24, 2020 [4 favorites]
(Thread policing: Kouign Amann is the red herring in this post. Kouign Amann does not contain mascarpone, that would take away room for more butter! The link here is to someone who's stuffed a layer of mascarpone into a Kouign Amann. Which is a bizarre idea only an American would come up with. Although it might be delicious too?! Kouign Amann has become trendy in the US in the last decade. In San Francisco at least it started at Tartine, which puts too much butter in everything they make, then spread from there.)
I watch a lot of Chopped. And one of the set pieces is one of the chefs has 3 minutes left and says "oh, I have time left, I should jazz this dish up somehow". They reach for one of four things: truffle oil, sesame oil, mascarpone, or lemon zest. Most of those end up ruining the dish, the only one that works out is mascarpone. I think because it's a way to add fat and body to a dish in a mostly flavor neutral way?
posted by Nelson at 8:49 AM on August 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
I watch a lot of Chopped. And one of the set pieces is one of the chefs has 3 minutes left and says "oh, I have time left, I should jazz this dish up somehow". They reach for one of four things: truffle oil, sesame oil, mascarpone, or lemon zest. Most of those end up ruining the dish, the only one that works out is mascarpone. I think because it's a way to add fat and body to a dish in a mostly flavor neutral way?
posted by Nelson at 8:49 AM on August 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
Has anyone here been to (or does anyone here live in) the Italian region of Lombardy and tried the real deal at its place of origin?
Mascarpone's kind of legend here in Italy, too, due to the intersection of its specific regional origin (and lack of an unequivocal etymology), its apocryphal implication in the suicide of the great French chef Vatel, the post-war tiramisù boom, combined with an unforgotten case of mascarpone poisoning which dragged its way through the national conscience for a decade...
Conceptually, it lives along the spectrum that starts from rich fresh milk, of which the creamy part is transformed by progressively more artful interventions using heat: ricotta if only heat is used to the separate protein parts, mascarpone if you supplement the heating with an addition of acidity (usually citric, though acetic or tartaric are admitted variants) so as to help the curdling/separation. (The next transformation beyond that would be the use of whey as a curdling agent; the fact that mascarpone is made without it, means it's admitted in most vegetarian regimes.) Like ricotta, mascarpone are then simply strained, its creaminess obtained through subsequent reamalgamation.
As regards eating it straight: given its nature as a kind of halfling between butter and cream, it's typically combined with other ingredients; though it's perfectly viable as a kind of bread-spread on its own, you'd normally only have it to hand as an ingredient for some other preparation.
posted by progosk at 9:05 AM on August 24, 2020 [5 favorites]
Mascarpone's kind of legend here in Italy, too, due to the intersection of its specific regional origin (and lack of an unequivocal etymology), its apocryphal implication in the suicide of the great French chef Vatel, the post-war tiramisù boom, combined with an unforgotten case of mascarpone poisoning which dragged its way through the national conscience for a decade...
Conceptually, it lives along the spectrum that starts from rich fresh milk, of which the creamy part is transformed by progressively more artful interventions using heat: ricotta if only heat is used to the separate protein parts, mascarpone if you supplement the heating with an addition of acidity (usually citric, though acetic or tartaric are admitted variants) so as to help the curdling/separation. (The next transformation beyond that would be the use of whey as a curdling agent; the fact that mascarpone is made without it, means it's admitted in most vegetarian regimes.) Like ricotta, mascarpone are then simply strained, its creaminess obtained through subsequent reamalgamation.
As regards eating it straight: given its nature as a kind of halfling between butter and cream, it's typically combined with other ingredients; though it's perfectly viable as a kind of bread-spread on its own, you'd normally only have it to hand as an ingredient for some other preparation.
posted by progosk at 9:05 AM on August 24, 2020 [5 favorites]
Kouign Amann is the red herring in this post.
(Given its Breton origin, it also shouldn't be capitalised, and keep its hyphen.)
posted by progosk at 9:11 AM on August 24, 2020 [3 favorites]
(Given its Breton origin, it also shouldn't be capitalised, and keep its hyphen.)
posted by progosk at 9:11 AM on August 24, 2020 [3 favorites]
Can't wait to go through all these links later. Discovered some mascarpone in the fridge this weekend and this morning I was thinking of making the mascarpone cream from Stella Parks tiramisu recipe and just eating it straight. I don't particularly like tiramisu, but hat cream is to die for.
posted by noneuclidean at 9:59 AM on August 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by noneuclidean at 9:59 AM on August 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
I really like this baked salmon stuffed with mascarpone spinach, though I usually use all cream cheese instead of half mascarpone because it's easier to get, and I also use panko breadcrumbs for the crust.
posted by foxfirefey at 10:16 AM on August 24, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by foxfirefey at 10:16 AM on August 24, 2020 [2 favorites]
Kouign Amann is the red herring in this post.
Funny you should mention that. (Wordshore, I really want to know what happened in the 6 hours and 42 minutes between these posts!)
posted by aws17576 at 10:33 AM on August 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
Funny you should mention that. (Wordshore, I really want to know what happened in the 6 hours and 42 minutes between these posts!)
posted by aws17576 at 10:33 AM on August 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
Ffffffff. Now I'm homesick for the little patisserie in my old neighborhood back in Seattle, the only place where I've had a kouign amann (which was delicious, as is everything else they make, please patronize the fuck out of them for me Seattleites), AND I'm thinking fondly of the winter of 2017 when I self-medicated almost daily with a dessert that was basically a poor man's eggless dark chocolate pot de creme mixed with crema di mascarpone into a devilish sort of custard that will absolutely embiggen you right out of your entire wardrobe if you're not careful.
God, I'm SO HUNGRY.
posted by palomar at 11:41 AM on August 24, 2020 [2 favorites]
God, I'm SO HUNGRY.
posted by palomar at 11:41 AM on August 24, 2020 [2 favorites]
Say it properly ▶️
Or get 90% of the way there and put all the letters in the right place at least. Leave the last 10% for Giada.
posted by supercres at 11:41 AM on August 24, 2020 [2 favorites]
Or get 90% of the way there and put all the letters in the right place at least. Leave the last 10% for Giada.
posted by supercres at 11:41 AM on August 24, 2020 [2 favorites]
Marscapone grits are delicious
posted by natasha_k at 9:46 AM on August 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by natasha_k at 9:46 AM on August 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by Wordshore at 2:02 AM on August 24, 2020