Nutella Cheesecake With Mascarpone

Our answer

Nigella's Nutella Cheesecake filling (from Nigellissima and on the Nigella website) is made with a very easy combination of Nutella, cream cheese and icing sugar. It is possible to use mascarpone instead of cream cheese but we prefer not to as the cheesecake is already quite rich and will be even richer with the substitution of mascarpone.

Cream cheese (in the UK often known as soft white cheese) has a fat content of around 34%. It is made with a combination of milk, cream and lactic acid. Mascarpone is also a soft white cheese but has a much higher fat content (over 50%) and is made by mixing cream and some milk with a citric acid such as lemon juice. So mascarpone cheese tends to be richer and have a sweeter taste than cream cheese. If you are using mascarpone then you may want to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe. It can also be easy to make mascarpone separate if you beat it too much, so mix the filling carefully. Serve the cheesecake straight from the fridge and in small slices.