mascarpone caramel
originally posted 2/24/23
Not much to say about this one other than it’s caramel with that delicious!! cream cheesy flavor of mascarpone. I LOVE pairing this with milk chocolate and blueberries, a perfect combo IMO. Like keep it simple with vanilla cake? a little milk chocolate blueberry cremeux + caramel moment??? BOMB. Not that salted caramel is ever lacking ANYTHING but add mascarpone adds something you didn’t even realize it needed! It also just works well anywhere you’d use regular salted caramel.
This recipe yields 500 grams of caramel.
Ingredients:
230 grams granulated sugar
205 grams heavy cream
105 grams mascarpone
35 grams of unsalted butter, cold
5 grams kosher salt
Directions:
In a small saucepan heat up the heavy cream and salt together. Keep warm to ensure it incorporates into the caramel easier later.
Meanwhile place a pot over medium heat. Allow the pot to heat up before adding in any sugar- we’re gonna be doing a dry method caramel.
Once the pot is hot add 1/4 of the sugar to the pot. Evenly sprinkle it around the bottom of the pot. The sugar will begin to melt- don’t stir until it’s mostly melted and the edges begin to turn brown. Adding the sugar in separate additions helps to avoid major sugar clumping.
Add the next 1/4 of sugar, stirring with a spatula to combine it into the already melted sugar. Allow this addition to fully dissolve into the last and take on a little bit more color.
Continue this process with the remaining two additions of sugar.
Once all the sugar has been added, cook the caramel until it takes on an amber color. It’ll begin to smoke lightly but don’t worry- thats normal!! You are burning sugar after all :)
Take the caramel to a deep amber color- the dark the caramel the more smokey and bitter the flavor will be. The lighter the caramel the sweeter it will be.
Once at your desired shade turn off the heat. Slowly add in the warm cream. You want the cream to be warm otherwise cold cream will seize the hot caramel. The water in the cream will sputter and boil off creating a lot of hot steam. SO BE VERY CAREFUL!! Stir to combine the cream into the caramel.
Turn the heat back on to medium and cook the caramel for about a minute more until the bubbling slows and thickens a bit.
Immersion blend in the mascarpone and butter. You can also just whisk it in if you don’t have an immersion blender- but I find the texture is SoOOoososO SMOOTH when you use an immersion blender.
Allow to cool to room temp before storing in the fridge up to 3 weeks. The caramel will solidify in the fridge but you can heat it up in the microwave whenever you want to use some.