Nothing is forking  easier to make than home made mascarpone cheese.

All you need is-

cream, it should be heavy cream but you can do it with whipping cream too or a combination of the two. The store was giving away these creams so I did a combination of 2 pints heavy cream and 1 pint whipping cream. Whipping cream has about 7% less fat than heavy cream so it’s not a very big difference. The creams with the least amount of stabilizers will produce the highest quality cheese. For that reason you can never use the less expensive manufacturing cream. It has way to much forking stabilizers in it and can only be used for sauces. The only other ingredients I used where juice from one lemon and about a teaspoon of kosher salt.

You need to heat the cream and salt in a sauce pan and bring it slowly to a slow boil and let it go a few minutes. Then slowly add the fresh squeezed lemon juice, you might not need it all depending on how big or forking juicy your lemon is. You need the cream to thicken and to coat your spoon.

Then you pour into a paper towel lined colander.

Let drain over night.

Peal away the paper towel.

Now you have home made mascarpone cheese!

It was WHEY easier than you thought! Wasn’t it?

2 pints heavy cream

1 pint whipping cream

juice of one lemon (maybe less)

about a teaspoon of kosher salt

makes about 4 cups of mascarpone

 

Since tasting my first Basboosa recently from Zahav Restaurant in Philadelphia I studied several recipes from the internet. I got the impression that most Basboosas are very sweet like baklava. I sort of learned from Zahav on what a Basboosa can be so I did my own twist on the soaked and baked semolina cake. I made adjustments to basic recipes and cut the butter and sugar a bit and made my cake with citrus and saffron for a unique taste I figured that by using a gastrique  The cake would be more delicious and complex.  I used my Grapefruit Saffron Gastrique Recipe that I did recently. I thought the combinations of the different citrus and saffron would all compliment each other and the grated sweetened orange rind would be the perfect accent. This cake sits on a home made mascarpone  thats flavored with lemon and the lemon like spice called summac. This is what I came up with. This recipe makes about 18 small cakes that are not too sweet and are very flavorful with a light texture.

Ingredients makes about 18 servings (freezes very well)

1 cup semolina flour

1 cup yogurt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 beaten egg

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons limequat rind (you can substitute lime or kumquat or a mix of the two)

pinch saffron

combine and set oven to 350. Grease muffin pans and fill half way.

Bake about 14 minutes till they look done.

Let cool.

Make your lemon summac mascarpone cream.

2 cups home made or store purchased mascarpone (mascarpone recipe to follow on my next recipe)

about 1/2 cup sugar

Grated zest of one lemon

Juice of 1/2 a lemon or whole if small

2 pinches of summac

Mix and set a side.

You need zest of three oranges and supreme the segments of at least two of the oranges.

Add 1/4 cup of sugar to the orange zest and set a side.

Remove Basboosas from pans and place on oiled baking pans and set oven to broil.

Pour Grapefruit Saffron Gastrique over Cakes. (I did that recipe only a few back) It’s just a cup of sugar cooked with a cup of vinegar juice of a grapefruit, 2 oz. butter and a pinch of saffron and a pinch of salt.

Add orange segments to top of cakes.

Broil for about 2 minutes or until slightly browned.

Now assemble.

smear plate with about a tablespoon of cream

top cream with a cake

sprinkle the sweetened orange zest on cake

serve warm.