This churned Mascarpone Ice Cream is rich, silky, and packed with fresh vanilla bean. The mascarpone cheese adds a luscious creaminess to your classic homemade vanilla ice cream. Perfect to enjoy on its own or served over your favourite cakes and desserts!
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Want to know the secret to a rich, creamy and delicious vanilla ice cream?Add mascarpone cheese! The Italian cheese is has a high butterfat content and velvety texture, creating an ice cream that is silky and decadent without being overly sweet.
The fresh vanilla bean works perfectly with the mild, delicate flavour of mascarpone. This versatile mascarpone ice cream recipe simply makes a great dessert on its own, or is perfect to finish a dessert.
More ice cream recipes to try:
- Passion Fruit Ice Cream
- Biscoff Ice Cream
Ingredients
What is Vanilla Mascarpone Ice Cream made of:
Scroll down to recipe card below for all quantities
- Milk: whole milk / full cream milk. Do not use skim milk or fat-reduced milk; the fat is required to create the desired texture and flavour.
- Cream: heavy cream / thickened cream that contains 30 to 35% fat. Again, do not use a fat-reduced version; the fat is needed.
- Vanilla: I used a fresh vanilla bean for the best flavour. Fresh vanilla can be expensive and the best alternative would be vanilla bean paste. Vanilla extract can be used but the flavour will not be as strong.
- Eggs: large egg yolks only, at room temperature.
- Sugar: I only used caster sugar for ease, but it is highly recommended to substitute part of it with glucose syrup. Glucose syrup will help prevent formation of large ice crystals and lower the freezing point of the ice cream, creating an ice cream that is creamier and softer. Replace about 15% of the sugar with glucose, but note that glucose tastes less sweet than sugar so you might want to slightly increase the quantity of caster sugar as well.
- Mascarpone: this Italian cheese contains anywhere between 40 to 75% of fat, depending on the brand. I'd recommend sticking to about 50% - I find that a mascarpone that is too high in fat will leave a slightly greasy mouthfeel.
Flavour Variation
- Add some lemon zest for more freshness.
- Churn the mascarpone ice cream with some fresh fruit such as blueberries, strawberries or even peaches.
- Swirl a homemade fruit coulis at the end of the churning process. A strawberry coulis, raspberry coulis or even passion fruit coulis will turn your mascarpone ice cream into something truely special!
How to make Ice Cream with Mascarpone
This ice cream follows a classic crème anglaise base method, where the egg yolks are cooked with the milk and cream.
- If required with the type of ice cream maker you use, place the churning bowl in the freezer 12 to 24 hours before the ice cream is ready to churn.
- Photo 1: Place the milk and cream in a small to medium saucepan.
- If using fresh vanilla bean: slice the bean in half and scrape off the seeds with a small parring knife. Place them in the saucepan along with the remaining pod. Turn on low heat and bring to a simmer. Once it is simmering, turn off the heat and cover the saucepan with a lid. Leave to infuse for at least 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the vanilla pod (and keep it to make homemade vanilla extract for example). If the liquid is cold by then, bring it back to a simmer.
- If using vanilla paste / vanilla extract: simply add the paste / extract to the cream and milk and bring to a simmer.
- Photo 2 & 3: while the liquids are heating up, whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a medium heat-proof bowl.
- Photo 4: Pour the warm liquid over the egg yolk mixture while stirring. Whisk well so all the eggs are incorporated into the milk.
This step is called "tempering" and it allows to slowly rise the temperature of the eggs. A sudden change of temperature could make the egg curdles or burn.
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- Photo 5: pour the whole mixture back into the saucepan and turn on low heat.
- Photo 6: Cook for a few minutes while constantly stirring with a heat-proof spatula or wooden spoon. Don't let the mixture boil or it will overcook the eggs and you will get a lumpy custard.
- Cook until the custard reaches 82 to 84 degrees Celsius (180 to 183 degrees Fahrenheit). If you do not have a thermometer, check the consistency of the custard to see if it is done. It should coat the back of a spoon, and you should be able to draw a clear line through it with a finger.
If the custard has gone slightly over the required temperature and you have some lumps, pour it through a fine mesh strainer to discard them.
- Photo 7: Remove from the heat and stir in the mascarpone.
- Photo 8: Transfer the ice cream mixture into a clean large bowl and cover with plastic wrap touching the surface of the custard. Place in the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.
- Photo 9: transfer the cold mascarpone custard into the bowl of your ice cream machine.
- Photo 10: churn for 15 to 20 minutes (the exact time will vary based on the brand / model of ice cream machine you use and how cold it all got). You should churn the ice cream into it reaches a stiff peak whipped cream consistency.
- Photo 11: transfer the churned ice cream into a freezer-friendly container such as a metal loaf pan, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto its surface and freeze for at least 2 hours, depending on the consistency you are looking for.
Tip: freeze the container you will store the mascarpone ice cream in before transferring it into it. If too warm, the container will make the freshly churned ice cream melt.
Recipe FAQs
Mascarpone is an Italian soft cheese made from fresh cream thickened with an acid. This cheese is quite high in butterfat. It has a smooth and creamy texture with mild, very slightly tangy flavour.
It can be used for both sweet and savoury recipes. In baking, it is famously used to make Tiramisu (like my Speculoos Tiramisu!)
Mascarpone is made from heavy cream while cream cheese is made from whole milk. Mascarpone is higher in fat than cream cheese.
Mascarpone is relatively soft and mild in flavour while cream cheese is thick and dense with a tangier flavour. The two are not interchangeable for this recipe.
No, this recipe is made to be churned.
No, this recipe relies on the egg yolks to thicken and will not work without the eggs.
Tips & Troubleshooting
- Replace part of the sugar with glucose syrup: glucose syrup will inhibit sugar crystallisation (which will prevent formation of ice crystals) and lower the freezing point of the ice cream. It will overall make an ice cream that is creamier and softer. To use glucose, replace about 10 to 15 % of the caster sugar with glucose. Note that glucose tastes less sweet than sugar so you might want to slightly increase the quantity of caster sugar as well.
- Only churn the mascarpone ice cream until it resembles thick whipped cream. If you over-churn it, it will give your ice cream a hard, chunky consistency.
- If you have pieces of ice cream fully frozen against the ice cream machine bowl and is hard to remove, run a stiff silicone or wooden spatula behind it. Do not use a metal utensil that could scrape the bowl. If this doesn't work, you can either leave the bowl at room temperature until the cream starts to soften or run your spatula under hot water before using it.
- Freeze the container or loaf pan you will use before filling it with the churned ice cream. If the container is too warm (or room temperature), it will make the ice cream melt when they come in contact.
Storing
Homemade ice cream tends to melt faster than store-bought ones, simply because they don't usually contain stabilisers or preservatives. That is completely normal; simply make sure to enjoy your mascarpone ice cream as soon as scooped out!
For the best consistency, I recommend storing the mascarpone ice cream in the freezer for up to 1 month.
How to us Mascarpone Ice Cream
Here are a few ideas on how to use this delicious homemade ice cream:
- On its own: served with a mixed berry compote, stewed pears or a cherry compote.
- Over cakes: scooped over my French chocolate fondant cake, lemon ricotta cake or almond raspberry cake.
- With dessert or breakfast: with my brioche french toast or croissant french toast bake, apple blueberry crumble or peach tarte tatin.
I am so excited to share that my debut cookbook
"Bite-Sized French Pastries for the Beginner Baker"
is now available for purchase!
Recipe
Mascarpone Ice Cream
Equipment
- Ice Cream Machine
Ingredients
- 240 ml Full Cream / Whole Milk
- 180 ml Heavy / Thickened Cream, 30% fat content min.
- 1 Vanilla Bean, or 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste
- 4 large Egg Yolks, at room temperature
- 60 gr Caster Sugar, (*)
- 240 gr Mascarpone Cheese
Instructions
- If required with the type of ice cream maker you use, place the churning bowl in the freezer 12 to 24 hours before the ice cream is ready to churn.
- Place the milk and cream in a small to medium saucepan.
- If using fresh vanilla bean: slice the bean in half and scrape off the seeds with a small parring knife. Put in the saucepan along with the remaining pod and turn on medium heat. When it starts to simmer, turn off the heat and cover the saucepan with a lid. Leave to infuse for at least 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the vanilla pod. If the liquid is cold by then, bring it back to a simmer.
- If using vanilla paste / vanilla extract: simply add the paste / extract to the cream and milk and bring to a simmer.
- While the liquids are heating up, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in a medium heat-proof bowl until smooth.
- Pour the warm liquid over the egg yolk mixture while stirring. Whisk well so all the eggs are incorporated into the milk (see note 1) then pour it all back into the saucepan over low heat.
- Cook over low heat while constantly stirring with a heat-proof spatula or wooden spoon (see note 2) until it reaches 82 degrees Celsius / 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Without a thermometer: the custard should coat the back of a spoon, and you should be able to draw a clear line through it with a finger.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the mascarpone until it has been completely incorporated into the custard.
- Transfer into a clean large bowl and cover with plastic wrap touching the surface of the custard. Place in the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.
- Pour the cold mascarpone custard into the bowl of your ice cream machine and churn for 15 to 20 minutes (see note 3), or until it has a stiff peak whipped cream consistency.
- Transfer the ice cream into a freezer-friendly container such as a metal loaf pan (see note 4), cover with plastic wrap pressed onto its surface and freeze for at least 2 hours, depending on the consistency you are looking for.
Would you like to save this recipe?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Notes
- This step is called "tempering" and it allows to slowly rise the temperature of the eggs. A sudden change of temperature could make the egg curdles or burn.
- Don't let the mixture boil or it will overcook the eggs and you will get a lumpy custard.
- The exact churning time will vary based on the brand / model of ice cream machine you use and how cold it all got. Always rely on texture rather than time.
- You can freeze the container you will store the mascarpone ice cream in before transferring it into it. If too warm, the container will make the freshly churned ice cream melt.
Nutrition (per serving)
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