Homemade Mascarpone Cheese

  If you have never tried Mascarpone Cheese, you are missing out in life! Mascarpone is one of the creamiest richest-tasting soft cheeses. It's fantastic in cheesecake, cannoli, combined with lemon-curd and used as a filling for lemon cake, the possibilities are endless! 

  In my effort to become more self-reliant, expand my knowledge of food and cut costs for my family, I have been researching the art of making homemade cheeses and yogurt. I recently posted my experience with making homemade ricotta cheese (which was fantastic and so cheap), which got me to thinking...If I can make ricotta for half the cost of purchasing it at the store, what about Mascarpone (which is even more expensive-about $4 per 8oz.)? Well, I had cream and a lemon in my fridge, so I got to work on it last night. After 30 minutes heating the cream, 2 minutes of curdling the cream with the lemon juice, 20 minutes resting on the counter and overnight straining in the fridge here is the result.

I now have 12.9 ounces of the most silky, creamy Mascarpone cheese and it only cost me $1.50 in cream! That's a savings of almost 5 times the cost of purchasing it at the supermarket! Soooo worth the little bit of time it took!!! Here's the link to the recipe.
-Just a note: I used ultra-pasteurized cream and it worked great!