Making a cheesecake with mascarpone - advice please

mwa

Hello

I am hoping some of you clever Old Stylers can advise me as I don't want to mess this up!!

I bought 2 tubs of chocolate mascarpone in the Xmas reductions at Mr Ts for 26p each. Currently they are in the freezer but I have people for dinner on Saturday and I want to make a cheesecake, something I have never attempted before.

All the recipes I have seen mention combining mascarpone with cream cheese and flavouring such as chocolate. As my mascarpone is already chocolate flavoured does this mean I can just top a biscuit base with mascarpone mixed with cream cheese - or can I just use both tubs and simply top the biscuit base with the mascarpone? I don't understand why you mix mascarpone with cream cheese - is it just for quantity (as the tubs are only 240g) or does it affect the taste? And what can I then top it with - was thinking melted chocolate drizzle or maltesers or chocolate shavings?

Thanks for any help, as you can see I am a novice!

MWA

kizzie_nikita

It affects the taste, hence the 'cheese' cake I usually use 50/50 Double cream to Cream cheese.With the mascarpone i would 'whip' it together till it turns lighter and plonk on to the biscuit base. Depending how chocolatey the mascarpone is you could add extra coco powder or melted chocolate too the mix too.

Usually a little bit of lemon juice perks it all up also.

Enjoy your cheese cake, i'm tempted now!

sonastin

I used to have a lemon cheesecake recipe that just involved adding lemon juice and icing sugar to the mascarpone and putting it on a biscuit base so I don't see why you *need* to add cream cheese. Might stretch it a bit further or alter the consistency/taste but isn't necessarily a requirement.

ciderwithrosie_2

Mascarpone on its own isn't very 'cheesy' it's more creamy. You could always go for a more mousse like consistency by melting some chocolate, carefully adding a little bit of warmed cream or milk and some gelatine, whisk all that in with your tubs of mascarpone, might need to add a bit of icing sugar, depends how sweet you want it and pour onto a biscuit base, chill and you have a chocolate torte type thing which you could decorate with fresh fruit or just more chocolate.

spiddy100

Are you set on a cheesecake or would you consider making a tiramisu? That is perfect with mascarpone and would be yummy with the chocolate flavour. For a very simple but tasty version, get some sponge fingers or madeira (chopped up), put into the bottom of a glass bowl (or you can do individual glasses for each guesy), pour on some strong black coffee mixed with a shot of rum/Tia Maria/brandy/marsala wine, top with your mascarpone, smooth it out then crumble a Flake over the top. It's not a purist's tiramisu but it will taste lovely.

You need enough coffee/booze liquid to soak in and soften the sponge and flavour it, but not so much that it goes really soggy.