Cottage Cheese and Jelly Tart

It has become Family Ritual to eat with my in-laws every weekend. There's always a certain amount of grumbling about this, as we're expected to stay well past the actual meal, but it's generally a good opportunity to get caught up (and to dry our towels in their dryer).

Generally my mother-in-law does the cooking because my father-in-law is extremely suspicious about new foods. But occasionally we'll bring some food over--especially when there's a recipe I want to make that involves grilling--our grill lives at their house because it's about the size of our whole kitchen.

So this past weekend, I had Sami do a wood-smoked salmon thing from a back issue of Cook's Country (yummy), and I made potato salad and green beans and this cheese pie--the last cheesecake in the book.

This recipe was especially easy for me to make here in France because I could use fromage blanc, which is pretty much what the puréed cottage cheese Maida calls for is. Only better. It's smooth and creamy--kind of like a combination of yogurt and cream cheese. They serve it here for dessert with honey or jam, and it's quite good.

So as you see, this is kind of a pie/cheesecake hybrid: you make a pie crust and hope it turns out better than the one I made here--pie crust is always a crapshoot for me. You bake it blind and brush it with egg white and then with your favorite jelly (I used currant).

You then whisk together your creamy cheese with eggs and sugar and such, pour that in, and sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar (or vanilla sugar if you have cinnamon-suspicious eaters). You bake it and it puffs up all over the place. Then you chill it and eat it. 

I would have liked this even better if my crust had turned out and also if it had had more time to chill, but even so, it was delicious--lighter than standard cheesecake but with lots of flavor and a welcome fruity burst from the jelly. It's not my very favorite Maida cheesecake (I'll need to reflect on that one), but I'm glad I made it, and I hope you'll make it, too.

Here's the recipe.

Cottage Cheese and Jelly Tart

Pastry:

2 c. (8 oz.) sifted flour (some whole wheat is good here)

1 T. sugar

1/2 t. salt

3/4 c. (6 oz.) cold butter 

1 t. cider vinegar

2-3 T. cold water

1 egg white (you'll need a yolk for the filling below)

Put the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and give it a spin to mix. Cut up the butter in cubes and scatter them over the flour. Pulse until the butter is in pieces no larger than a pea. Sprinkle the vinegar and about 2 T. of the water over and pulse until the dough just begins to come together (you may need to add a bit more). Turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment or waxed paper and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Roll the dough out and use it to line a 9-inch pie pan. Chill again at least 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 450. Line the crust with foil or parchment and weigh it down with dried beans or pie weights or even, my new favorite, a vegetable steamer. Bake for 13 minutes (consider making the filling while the crust bakes). Take the liner out and bake another 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Beat the egg white with a fork until it's frothy and brush some onto the crust. Put it back in the oven for a minute, then take it out and brush more egg white on it. Set aside or fill right away (keep the oven at 450 if you're going to bake the pie soon).

1-1/2 c. (12 oz.) full-fat cottage cheese (or fromage blanc or quark, if you can get that)

1/8 t. salt

1/2 c. (3.5 oz.) sugar

1 t. vanilla

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

1 t. lemon juice

2 eggs PLUS 2 egg yolks

1-1/2 T. (0.75 oz.) butter, melted

1/2 c. (4 oz.) sour cream

1/2 c. (about 4.5 oz; you can eyeball this) raspberry or currant jelly

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. sugar

If you have cottage cheese, you'll need a food processor. Put the cheese in the food processor and let it run, stopping a couple of times to scrape down the sides, for a full minute, or until it is absolutely smooth. To the smooth cheese add the salt, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, lemon juice, eggs, egg yolks, melted butter, and sour cream. Pulse a few times just until mixed.

Now it's time to layer the pie: spread the jelly in a thick layer over the pie crust. Pour the cheese filling over that, and then sprinkle with the cinnamon mixed with the sugar. Put that carefully in the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes. Then turn the oven temperature down to 375 and bake another 20 minutes. The filling will puff up quite dramatically but will settle down again upon cooling. Let cool to room temperature, then chill for at least 4 hours. Serve in large slices because it's "low fat".

Lemon Cream Cheese Pie

This weekend we bought a car. Sami had done all kinds of research and finally chose just the right car: in Germany. So he took the train on Saturday morning, picked up the car, visited friends in a city nearby, and came home Sunday. I stayed home and graded papers--and made cheesecake to celebrate with.

And while this cheesecake is really easy to make, like most cheesecakes, it tastes so good that it seems special. This one has a "light" touch in that it includes some cottage cheese (I used fromage blanc, which is really what the cottage cheese is standing in for)--but then the whipped cream on top negates all that. 

I have a note in my cookbook from when I made this dessert years ago, probably in graduate school: "'Sheer bliss'--Alex and Karen". And as we sat at the dinner table the other night enjoying our cheesecake in silence, Julia asked, "So, is it sheer bliss?" I don't know, but it was pretty darned good and a great way to end a weekend.

Here's the recipe. Make it when you have something to celebrate.

Lemon Cream Cheese Pie

1-1/4 c. (5 oz. or 1 cello pack) graham cracker crumbs (I used digestive biscuits)

1 T. sugar

1 t. cinnamon (consider using less)

1/2 t. nutmeg

1/2 t. ginger

Pinch allspice

6 T. (3 oz.) butter, melted

(alternatively: 1 pkg. zwieback

1/4 c. (1 oz.) powdered sugar

6 T (3 oz.) butter)

Heat the oven to 375. Line a 9-inch pie plate with foil. Stir together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and butter (if you're using a food processor to make the crumbs, just mix it all in the processor). Pat the crumbs in the foil-lined pan to form an even layer on the bottom and as far up the sides as you can go. Bake for 7 minutes. Let cool to room temperature, then freeze at least 1 hour. When the crust is frozen solid, pull it carefully out of the pan by the foil and then carefully peel the foil off. Return the crust to the pan. Keep it at room temperature while you make the filling (especially if you have a glass pan--you don't want it to crack going from frozen to hot!).

3/4 c. (6 oz.) cottage cheese or ricotta

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

Grated rind of 1 (organic) lemon

3/4 c. (5.25 oz.) sugar

1/2 t. vanilla

2 large eggs

3 T. (1.5 oz.) lemon juice

Heat the oven to 350. Put the cottage cheese or ricotta in the food processor and blend for a full minute or until the cheese is completely smooth. Add the cream cheese and process until that's completely smooth. Then add the lemon rind, sugar, and vanilla and pulse until thoroughly incorporated. Add the eggs one at a time, pulsing until incorporated after each. Add the lemon juice and pulse until incorporated.

Pour the filling into the crust and bake for 30 minutes, or until no longer jiggly. Let cool, then chill. When you're ready for your blissful cheesecake experience, make the topping: 

1/2 c. (4 oz.) sour cream

1/2 c. (4 oz.) whipping cream

1 T. granulated or powdered sugar

1/2 t. vanilla

Note: I have cut the cream in half from the original recipe: I think that more would overwhelm the cheesecake.

Anyway, put all the ingredients in a cold bowl and whip with cold beaters until stiff. Spread this atop the cheesecake. Let chill for a few hours, then devour.

Peach Cream Cheese Pie

This weekend we fixed a sort of end-of-summer dinner for Sami's parents at their house. We used our grill to cook some lamb, there was yummy potato salad, and I made this cream cheese pie.

Observant readers will note that this recipe is exactly the same as the blueberry cream cheese pie that I made earlier this summer, only with peaches. I kind of planned it this way, knowing there would still be peaches here in September, but no blueberries. 

It's interesting, though--despite being the same recipe, the different ingredients (even the Philadelphia cream cheese that I can now buy here seems different!) makes it seem like a new dessert. The cinnamon in the crust kind of dominated, to the point where my mother-in-law commented, "Wow, Americans sure like cinnamon in their desserts, don't they?"

Still, the pie was a big hit and had disappeared without a trace by the next morning. I recommend you make it soon, before the peaches of summer are gone.

Here's the recipe.

Peach Cream Cheese Pie

1-1/4 c. (5 oz. or 1 cello pack) graham cracker crumbs (I used digestive biscuits)

1 T. sugar

1 t. cinnamon (consider using less)

1/2 t. nutmeg

1/2 t. ginger

Pinch allspice

6 T. (3 oz.) butter, melted

(alternatively: 1 pkg. zwieback

1/4 c. (1 oz.) powdered sugar

6 T (3 oz.) butter)

Heat the oven to 375. Line a 9-inch pie plate with foil. Stir together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and butter (if you're using a food processor to make the crumbs, just mix it all in the processor). Pat the crumbs in the foil-lined pan to form an even layer on the bottom and as far up the sides as you can go. Bake for 7 minutes. Let cool to room temperature, then freeze at least 1 hour. When the crust is frozen solid, pull it carefully out of the pan by the foil and then carefully peel the foil off. Return the crust to the pan. Keep it at room temperature while you make the filling (especially if you have a glass pan--you don't want it to crack going from frozen to hot!).

12 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 t. vanilla

1/2 c. (3.5 oz.) sugar

1/3 c. (2.7 oz.) cream, sour cream, or crème fraîche

2 large eggs

Heat the oven to 350. In a mixer, or in the food processor you just used, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and sugar and again beat until smooth. Add the cream and then the eggs, one at a time, beating just until smooth but not going for fluffy/airy. Pour the filling in the crust and bake 25 minutes. Let cool to room temperature and then chill at least an hour.

3 large peaches, peeled and thick-sliced

About 1/2 c. (5 oz.) apricot jam

1/4 t. almond extract (I didn't use this because the French put a bit of apricot pit in their jam)

Put the jam in a microwave-safe cup and zap it for about a minute: it should come to a full boil. Strain the jam and add the almond extract. Immediately brush a thin layer on top of the cheese filling. Arrange the peach slices in a decorative spiral (hopefully more decorative than mine) atop the jam, and then brush the peaches with the rest of the jam. Chill at least a few hours or overnight.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Pie

We've been traveling a lot lately, which would explain the dearth of posts. It's not always easy to get into a kitchen and bake when you're in a vacation rental, or even in someone else's house. Still, I managed to get in one dessert in Livermore before we flew to Hawaii.

We had friends and relatives over for potluck involving grilled chicken and cheesy potatoes and salad, and this cream cheese pie--it's really cheesecake, despite the name--perhaps a less impressive cheesecake, but yummy nonetheless.

I had been to the farmer's market to pick up berries and other goodies the day before, and I wanted to use up as many berries as possible. Therefore, this became Blueberry Cream Cheese Pie with Blackberries and Raspberries. Also, I didn't want to buy currant jelly just for this purpose, so I used seedless marionberry jam, and it worked out great.

The pie was much appreciated and quickly devoured. Sami took a picture of "his" piece of pie, which he wasn't able to eat because he was down with a stomach bug.

I like this recipe a lot--though it needs a lot of down time for cooling and chilling, the actual preparation is really easy, and the results are spectacular.

Here's the recipe. Make it now, while berries are still in season.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Pie

1-1/4 c. (5 oz.) graham cracker crumbs (this turns out to be 1 package of crackers)

1 T. sugar

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. nutmeg

1/2 t. ginger

Pinch allspice

6 T. (3 oz.) butter, melted

(alternatively: 1 pkg. zwieback

1/4 c. (1 oz.) powdered sugar

6 T (3 oz.) butter)

Heat the oven to 375. Line a 9-inch pie plate with foil. Stir together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and butter (if you're using a food processor to make the crumbs, just mix it all in the processor). Pat the crumbs in the foil-lined pan to form an even layer on the bottom and as far up the sides as you can go. Bake for 7 minutes. Let cool to room temperature, then freeze at least 1 hour. When the crust is frozen solid, pull it carefully out of the pan by the foil and then carefully peel the foil off. Return the crust to the pan. Keep it at room temperature while you make the filling (especially if you have a glass pan--you don't want it to crack going from frozen to hot!).

12 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 t. vanilla

1/2 c. (3.5 oz.) sugar

1/3 c. (2.7 oz.) cream, sour cream, or crème fraîche

2 large eggs

Heat the oven to 350. Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and sugar and again beat until smooth. Add the cream and then the eggs, one at a time, beating just until smooth but not going for fluffy/airy. Pour the filling in the crust and bake 25 minutes. Let cool to room temperature and then chill at least an hour.

3 cups (12 oz.) fresh blueberries (and/or other berries), washed and picked over (and dry)

About 1/2 c. (5 oz.) red currant (or other red fruit) jelly

Put the jelly in a microwave-safe cup and zap it for about a minute: it should come to a full boil. Immediately brush a thin layer on top of the cheese filling. Put the rest in a large bowl to cool and thicken a bit. When the jelly has begun to set a bit, add the blueberries and fold together carefully until the berries are coated. Spread the berries over the pie. If the jelly doesn't cover the pie between the berries, melt some more and coat the pie. Then chill at least a few hours or overnight.

Apple Cream Cheese Pie

I thought about titling this recipe "Bake cheesecake in haste, repent at leisure." Except we didn't repent: it turned out really well. But that was certainly more due to the strength of the recipe than my cooking skill or forethought.

It was Saturday evening, and we had guests coming for Sunday lunch. I was going to go to the store as soon as I'd finished all my grading. When I looked up from my computer, the sun was still shining brightly and I was sure it was only 5 or so. Uh, no. Now that it gets dark at about 10, 7:30 is the new 5. Oops, store closed.

Moment of panic: Cheesecake has to be made the night before! So I texted Sami, who was working on his car at his parents' house, to ask him if he could pick up cream cheese and spice cookies before the giant superstore near his parents' house closed at 9:30. No problem, he said. I should just write a detailed list and he'd send his parents.

In the meantime, I located all the ingredients for the apple filling and put myself to chopping and sautéing. Mmm...apples and raisins and ginger and walnuts.

So Sami came home with the spice cookies...and a tub of mascarpone. I'm afraid I didn't respond very graciously to that offering. "You can improvise," he said hopefully. "This is all my mom could find."

"You can't make cheesecake with mascarpone," I snapped. And then I went to bed, wondering whether I should change my planned dessert after all.

But no, I got up bright and early and made a lovely crumb crust with the speculoos cookies Sami had brought home. And then I went out to the market for all the meat and cheese and vegetables and bread I would need for a giant lunch. And I bought the proper kind of cream cheese.

I'm sure it was 10:30 or later by the time I got to actually making the cheesecake batter. Fortunately, cheesecake batter takes about 5 minutes to make. Since I'd done everything else in advance, the cheesecake was ready to bake as soon as the oven was preheated. In between roasting a leg of lamb and asparagus and making gougères and barley pilaf, I put the baked and cooled cheesecake in the freezer and crossed my fingers. By some miracle I had just about everything ready to go when the guests arrived.

Well, it all worked out great. One thing I had not taken into account, of course, was that this was a proper Sunday lunch, so even though the guests arrived around 12:30 and we started eating shortly thereafter, dessert didn't actually roll around until 4. The cheesecake was properly chilled but not frozen. And it was delicious.

"Wow, there's a lot going on in this cheesecake," our friends said as we polished off every bite. They had no idea.

Here's the recipe. Make it when you have time. Or not.

Apple Cream Cheese Pie

1-1/4 c. (5.3 oz.) graham cracker crumbs (I used speculoos because graham crackers are hard to find here, and I therefore eliminated the sugar and spices)

1 T. sugar

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. nutmeg

1/2 t. ginger

Pinch allspice

6 T. (3 oz.) butter, melted

(Assuming you already have your cream cheese, now's a good time to get it out of the fridge.) Heat the oven to 350. Line a deep 9-inch pie plate with aluminum foil. In a food processor, grind the graham crackers with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice. Add the butter and pulse until it's all combined. Pour the buttered crumbs into the foil-lined pie plate and press them into the bottom and as far up the sides as you can safely go.

Bake the crust for about 10 minutes, until beginning to brown. Let cool, and then freeze for at least an hour. Very carefully remove the crust by the foil, peel off the foil, and put the crust back in the pie plate. Let the crust sit at room temperature while you make the fillings.

2 large or 3 medium tart apples, like Granny Smith, Braeburn, or Pink Lady

1 T. butter

3 T. (1.3 oz.) brown sugar

1-2 t. lemon juice

1 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. nutmeg

1/4 c. (1.25 oz.) raisins

1/2 c. (2 oz.) walnuts, chopped medium-fine

3-4 T. chopped candied ginger

Peel, quarter, and core the apples and cut them into 3/4-inch chunks. Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the apples, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir to coat the apples, then cover the pan and let the apples cook a few minutes until they begin to become tender. Take off the lid and continue to cook until the liquid is almost all evaporated. Add the raisins and cook a minute for them to plump up a bit, then add the walnuts and ginger and take off the heat. Let stand to cool while you make the cream cheese filling.

12 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 t. vanilla

1/2 c. (3.5 oz.) sugar

1/3 c. (2.6 oz.) cream or sour cream

2 large eggs

Heat the oven back up to 350. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the cream cheese until soft and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and sugar until mixed, then beat in the cream, and finally beat in the eggs one at a time. You don't need to beat this a long time--just until everything is smooth.

Now pour the sautéed apples onto the crumb crust. Carefully pour the cheesecake batter over that. Maida notes, and I have a note from many years ago, that you might have more batter than will fit in the pie plate. If so, pour it into little custard cups--you can bake those for an extra "chef's bonus". This time around I didn't have that problem. Maybe my apples were smaller.

In any case, put in the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes--the top will be browned in spots. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight or freeze until everyone has had their cheese course. Expect no leftovers.

Blackberry with Scotch Cheesecake

Sometimes looking at and baking a recipe can make me feel old. Like this one, for example. I've made it before, and have specific memories associated with making it--when I was a graduate student at UC Davis. In the 80s. I remember this cheesecake being good (my note: "xtra yummy!!")--kind of like my mom's, with the sour cream topping. And I remember buying a bottle of Drambuie to make it with, and discovering that Sami and I both really liked Drambuie.

Well, here it is 2011 and all, and I'm trying out the recipe again--this time with French ingredients and without Drambuie. I considered buying a bottle, but when I went out shopping, the liquor store that sells it was closed for lunch. I considered that A Sign that I probably didn't need to spend 22 Euros for 2-1/2 tablespoons of booze. I'm sure Sami would think it's bad enough that I used some of our precious bourbon.

One of the good and annoying things about this cheesecake is the crust. Good because it's a buttery, crunchy shortbread crust that really sets off the blackberry filling nicely. Annoying because the butter melts and leaks and makes the oven smoke. Maida warned me. I underlined that warning for my future self. And you'll notice that I did wrap my cheesecake pan in foil. I still had a smoky oven. Oh, well. Anyway, wrap your cheesecake pan really well and consider putting it on a lined baking sheet just in case.

The ingredients. I served this to another Franco-American family, and we had a long discussion about the proper cream cheese to use in cheesecake. My friend Amy, who has lived here for more than 15 years, claims that St. Moret shouldn't be a substitute for cream cheese. I've had good luck with it so far, though--except with cream cheese frosting. There's another product called Kiri that works better, but it comes in tiny foil-wrapped squares, and I can't be bothered. And I believe I've mentioned that the real Philadelphia is available and expensive. On the same shopping trip that saved me 22 Euros on the Drambuie, I was saved at least 15 Euros on cream cheese because the cheese shop was closed. I should probably shop more on off hours.

But I went upscale with my cheesecake anyway. See the black specks? I used vanilla bean instead of extract. I got a really good deal on vanilla beans a few weeks back.

And I have to say that the tiny frozen wild blackberries they sell here are really great--not as sour/bitter as some of the berries you might get in the States. Fortunately, the frozen food store was open. Otherwise this would have been a "mixed-red-fruit" cheesecake, which would probably have been good as well.

So to summarize this cheesecake: you've got creamy and crunchy. You have buttery and sweet and tart and rich. No matter how and where you source your ingredients, this is a cheesecake worth making.

Here's the recipe. I highly recommend making this the day before you want to eat it.

Blackberry with Scotch Cheesecake

1 c. (4 oz.) sifted flour

1/4 c. (1.75 oz.) sugar

Generous pinch salt (it's not in the original recipe, but I like a bit of salt in my shortbread)

1/2 c. (4 oz.) cold butter

Heat the oven to 375. In a food processor or just a regular bowl, mix the flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in the butter to form very small crumbs. Pour the crumbs into a 9-inch springform pan and press down on them to make an even bottom crust. Wrap the bottom of the springform with a double layer of aluminum foil. Consider putting the springform on a foil-lined baking sheet as well. Bake the crust for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges just begin to brown. While the crust is baking, make the filling.

19 oz. cream cheese, room temperature (I imagine that some light cream cheese would work here)

1 t. vanilla

2-1/2 T. (1.25 oz.) Drambuie or other whiskey

1/2 t. cinnamon

Grated rind of 1 (organic) lemon or 1/2 (organic) orange

3/4 c. (5 oz.) sugar

3 large eggs

1 T. (0.5 oz.) lemon juice

2 c. (8 oz.) frozen blackberries

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cheese until soft and smooth. Beat in the vanilla, booze, cinnamon, and lemon/orange rind just until mixed, then add the sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Mix in the lemon juice.

Carefully butter the sides of the springform: I just ran a stick of butter around the warm pan. Pour the cheese mixture over the crust. Then sprinkle the blackberries over that, pushing down on them so that they are covered. Full disclosure: I didn't push mine down far enough, and they didn't work their way into the cake as they probably should have. Do as Maida says, not as I do.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the sides have puffed and browned a bit. Take the cake out of the oven and let sit for 20 minutes (leave the oven on). Make the topping while the cake waits.

2 c. (16 oz.) sour cream (in my case, crème fraîche legère)

1-2 T. sugar (Maida calls for 1 T; for a change, I think a bit more is nice)

1 t. vanilla

Whisk these ingredients together. When the cake has finished its rest, spread the sour cream mixture over it and return it to the oven for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the foil, and let the cake cool completely. Maida wants you to take the sides off the springform before you put the cake in the fridge. I didn't and it was fine.

In any case, let the cake chill at least 4 hours before serving. If you're daring, you can try to slip the cake off the springform bottom; if not, no one will care after they've had a bite of this.

Chocolate-Brownie Cheesecake

Some recipe titles just speak for themselves.

This New Year's Eve was a series of changed plans. At first, we had invited friends to come over for dinner and to watch fireworks from our balcony. Then the plan was for us to have dinner at their place and then come over to ours for dessert, Champagne, and fireworks. But finally we had the whole party at their house, since they had invited more people than could fit into our small apartment. No matter--especially since the Eiffel Tower fireworks had been cancelled due to austerity or security or both.

It was quite the lively international gathering--at least six nationalities and four languages going on simultaneously. We shared stories and ate delicious food and drank delicious wine. The kids and many of the adults set off illegal fireworks at midnight, and the rest of us watched the countdown on TV--in France, instead of the ball dropping at Times Square, you get half-dressed showgirls. To each his own.

And there was this cheesecake. In my usual disorganized rush, I had brought the cheesecake still in the pan, still somewhat warm, and put it out on our friends' balcony to chill. Much later in the evening, someone came in from the balcony--where she had probably been smoking--with the cake. "Are we going to eat this?"

Um, yes. The cake was nicely chilled by that time and was unmolded to oohs and ahhs. "What kind of cheesecake is that? Is it American or German?"

"Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake," I replied. Stunned silence, followed by a rush to get a piece.

My friend Gabrielle, who was at the party, calls the Maida recipes "Disney desserts". She has the feeling that birds twitter around the kitchen while I randomly throw ingredients around to create a miraculous dessert. And certainly some of the desserts have elements that can seem random and unexpected to the French palate. But let me just say that a brownie cheesecake brings together the best of American desserts in the best of ways, and this was a great dessert to end 2010 with.

Here's the recipe. Make it when you have a lot of people to impress.

Chocolate-Brownie Cheesecake

1/2 c. (4 oz.) butter

3 T. (0.6 oz.) cocoa powder

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate

1 t. instant coffee or espresso

1/2 t. vanilla

1/4 t. almond extract

Pinch salt

1 scant cup (6.5 oz.) sugar

2 large eggs

1 c. (4 oz.) sifted flour

1 c. (3.5 oz.) walnuts, in large pieces

Heat the oven to 350. Line an 8-inch square pan with foil or parchment and butter the foil. In a saucepan or the microwave, melt the butter with the cocoa and chocolate. Stir in the coffee, vanilla, almond, and salt. Add the sugar and then the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the flour and then the walnuts. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out just barely dry. Cool and then freeze or chill--you could and probably should make these the day before you make the cheesecake. When you are ready to make the cheesecake, cut the brownies into 1/2 inch dice. You will only need 3/4 of the brownies for the cheesecake, which gives you a nice "cook's bonus". Put the diced brownies back in the fridge or freezer until you are ready to mix them into the cheesecake.

2 lbs. cream cheese, room temperature

1 t. vanilla

1-1/2 scant cups (9.5 oz.) sugar

4 large eggs

1/3 c. (1.3 oz.) graham cracker crumbs, optional

Heat the oven to 350. Get out a deep round cake pan--a 9-inch springform wrapped in aluminum would probably work--and butter it well. Also get out a baking dish large enough to hold your cake pan--probably a jelly roll pan will work here.

Beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer until nice and smooth; scrape the bowl often to be sure you don't have any lumps. Add the vanilla and sugar and beat some more. Then add the eggs one at a time and beat just until mixed. Pour enough of the mixture into the prepared pan that you have about a 1/2-inch layer. Now carefully mix the brownies into the rest of the cheesecake batter and pour that in the pan. Put the cheesecake pan into the larger baking dish and put all that in the oven. Pour enough hot water into the baking dish that it goes up 1-1/2 inches (I just poured in as much as I could--my baking dish wasn't that deep) and then let the cheesecake bake for 1 hour 30 minutes. The cake will be a lovely shade of brown (see first picture) and if you want to be picky, its temperature should be 170-175. Let cool a few hours.

If you are organized and love crust, unmold the cake upside down, sprinkle the bottom with the graham cracker crumbs, and then turn it right-side-up for a fabulous presentation. If you just want to dig in, unmold, chill, and slice at will.

Maida says this serves 10; the 16 of us were all completely satisfied.

Charleston Cheesecake Bars

We are in cookie overload right now--not that there's anything wrong with that. I have about four containers of cookies sitting on the counter, and I have cookie dough in the fridge. There's snow predicted for tomorrow, and the impending chaos that comes with it, and what did I get on my trip to the store? Flour, sugar, butter, and eggs. We must not have a baking crisis!

I have been bringing cookies to every possible event. I send cookies with the girls and Sami whenever there's the least occasion. I give cookies as tips. Just now, the postman came with a package, and after I buzzed him up, I quickly made a package of cookies.

These were a favorite. I brought them to a coffee, and they were appreciated there; I gave them to one of Claire's teachers, and I hope she likes them. And of course the family tried to eat as many as possible before I could give them all away.

This is a really great recipe in that it combines two really great dessert items: streusel and cheesecake.

The cheesecake is creamy and lemony; the streusel is crunchy and buttery.

And you eat it in bite-sized portions so it doesn't seem quite so decadent.

Here's the recipe. Make it when you want a cookie for dessert, or a dessert as a cookie.

Charleston Cheesecake Bars

1/2 c. (4 oz.) butter

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. salt

1/2 c. (3.5 oz.) brown sugar

1 c. (4 oz.) sifted flour

1/2 c. (2 oz.) toasted pecans, chopped

1 c. (2.8 oz.) quick or normal oats

Heat the oven to 350; line an 8-inch square baking dish with foil or parchment. If you're using foil, grease it.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter, cinnamon, and salt until soft; add the sugar and beat another minute or until light and well mixed. On low speed or by hand, mix in the flour, pecans, and oats. Set aside one cup of this mixture for later; pat the rest into the prepared baking pan and bake for 15 minutes. While it's baking, make the filling:

8 oz. cream cheese

1/2 c. (3.5 oz.) sugar

1 egg

2 T. (1 oz.) sour cream

Finely grated rind of 1 lemon

1 T. lemon juice

You can use the same mixing bowl that you just used for the crust. Put the cream cheese in there and beat until soft. Beat in the sugar, egg, and sour cream just until smooth. Stir in the lemon rind and juice.

Pour the cheese mixture over the baked crust and sprinkle the reserved streusel over that. Press the streusel to make it even and keep it firmly attached to the filling. Put the dish back in the oven and let it bake for 25 minutes, or until the topping is nice and golden brown. Cool this completely at room temperature and then either freeze it for an hour or chill it overnight. Remove from the pan, cut it into squares, and put it back in the refrigerator: these are best cold. Enjoy giving or keeping these.

Triple-Threat Cheesecake

I could also call this the Battle of the Birthday Cakes or Why I Should Always Let My Children do My Food Photography. For the latter, you'll see for yourself. If it's fuzzy and out of focus, I probably did it. If it looks beautiful, chances are it's Julia. See?

But on to the battle. It's Halloween, and we're helping host a Sunday lunch at Sami's parents' house: one of Sami's school friends, his brother, his son, and his 88-year-old pistol of a mom. The mom could be a blog entry unto herself. She takes lengthy hikes through the forest and yet remembers living through the Normandy invasion like it was yesterday. Wow. So far, so good.

So after lunch, we're cleaning up the kitchen, and Sami's mother asks me, "So, what do you have planned for Sami's birthday?"

"Well, I was going to make a cake..."

"Well, I was going to make the cake I always made him for his birthday."

"Ah. What time should we come over?"

How are you going to argue? Number one: it's his mom--the one who caused the birthday to take place. Number two: it's a good cake. My mother-in-law can make it in her sleep, and we always eat it up. It's light and fluffy and definitely not Triple-Threat Cheesecake. Number three: Even if I were to "win", I would still lose. In-laws would push said cheesecake around on their plates, mutter something about "so rich" or "so sweet" and then ask whether I didn't like MIL's cake better.

So what did I do when we got back home? I baked cheesecake. We ate it at lunchtime, before we went over for birthday cake. Who says you can't have one cake and then eat two?

OK, on to the cheesecake. From this dimly lit, poorly focused picture, you see that the usual suspects are at work--cream cheese, eggs, sugar, butter, chocolate. Who could ask for anything more?

Part one: crust. They don't sell graham crackers or even digestive biscuits at my grocery store, so I used some butter cookies. One kind doesn't like to be crumbled. Oh well.

Next comes the cream cheese filling, which I blended in the food processor instead of the mixer so that I'd have fewer dishes to wash.

And now comes the triple-threat part: this chocolate sauce stuff, which involves unsweetened chocolate, semisweet chocolate, and cocoa, along with butter, cream, and coffee. I bet it would be heaven on vanilla ice cream. Maida says that whatever I did, I shouldn't let the sauce fall in globs. Oops.

Finished product. Can you tell who photographed this? Look how cute it is--I halved the recipe and baked it in a 6-inch springform because 1) I don't have an 8-inch springform but I do have this one; 2) we were going to go have more cake later. How much cake can a person handle?


Oh, yeah--that is a birthday cheesecake. I'm sure if I had done better at drizzling the sauce, the chocolate would have been more evenly distributed. No problem--it was still delicious. Pictured above is what was left about 20 minutes after I put the cake on the table. Then Julia had friends over. Then Claire got up early and beat Sami to "his" breakfast piece.

Definitely this was a success overall. Maybe my in-laws lost out by not getting to try this. I just know we gained (tight jeans, I'm looking at you) by having this to ourselves.

Here's the recipe. Cut it in half if you're feeling restrained; do the whole thing if you want more than one piece.

Triple-Threat Cheesecake

1 c. (5 oz.) graham cracker crumbs

1 T. sugar

1 T. cocoa

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. instant espresso

2 oz. (4 T.) melted butter

[Before you start anything, get your cream cheese out to come to room temperature.]

If your crumbs are not already crumbly, get out your food processor--you can wipe it out and use it for the cheesecake as well. Also get out an 8-inch springform and butter just the sides. Wrap the bottom in aluminum foil, and find a large roasting pan or casserole dish you can fit the springform in with room for a water bath.

If you're doing the food processor thing, pulse together the graham crackers, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and espresso until the graham crackers are finely ground. Then pour in the butter and pulse until that holds together. Turn the mixture into the pan and carefully press into the bottom and as far up the sides as you can go--I couldn't go very far. Let that sit while you make the other stuff.

2 lbs. cream cheese (I've always used a mixture of regular and low-fat)

Pinch of salt

1 t. vanilla

1-3/4 c. (12 oz.) sugar

4 large eggs

Heat the oven to 350. In the bowl of a mixer or food processor, mix the cream cheese until it's perfectly smooth. Add the salt, vanilla, and sugar and mix until that's smooth as well. Then add the eggs one at a time, beating just until incorporated. Set that aside and make some chocolate sauce.

1/2 c. cream

2 oz. (4 T.) butter

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate

3 oz. semisweet chocolate

1/3 c. (2.3 oz.) sugar

1/3 c. (2.3 oz.) brown sugar

2 t. instant coffee/espresso

Pinch salt

1/2 c. (1.5 oz.) cocoa

In a medium heavy saucepan over medium heat, heat the cream, butter, and chocolates; whisk until the chocolate is melted. Then add the sugars and coffee and whisk until they are all dissolved. Take the pan off the heat and mix in the salt and cocoa; whisk until smooth.

Now work faster than I did to make sure the sauce doesn't get thick right away.

Pour half of the reserved cheese mixture into the reserved crust. Now drizzle half the chocolate sauce over that. Pour half of the remaining cheese mixture over the chocolate and drizzle the rest of the chocolate over that. Finally, pour the remaining cheese mixture over all that. If it's not already there, put the springform pan in the larger pan and put that in the oven. Very carefully, pour enough hot water into the larger pan that it's about an inch or so up the side of the springform. Bake for 1-1/2 hours--mine was done after less than an hour, but it was smaller. If you have an instant-read thermometer, you want the temperature to be over 150 but under 160, according to what I've read. Mine was about 156 and perfect. Take the springform out of the water (Careful! Don't get your potholders wet!!) and let the cheesecake cool to room temperature. Then chill 5-6 hours overnight and enjoy the victory.

Emilio's Cheesecake

My copy of American Desserts is beginning to fall apart. I guess that is a reminder that I've been working with this book seriously for a long time (and it's made a lot of trips!).

This cheesecake was the last Maida dessert I made in our second house in Pontlevoy; in the next entry, whenever that comes, I will post pictures of my new kitchen. It's definitely not as well equipped as the last one, and I'm not sure about oven temperatures and such, but I will manage. In fact, we have guests coming over Thursday. Sounds like a day for a prune-walnut layer cake...




But let's talk about this cheesecake. This is a different kind of cheesecake than the ones I’m used to. First of all, it’s baked in a 9x13-inch pan rather than a springform. It’s actually very easy to serve a cheesecake in this form. Also, it has a lot of cream and quite a bit of cornstarch in it, which makes it seem lighter. Someone asked me what made the cheesecake so light. I don’t think they wanted to hear that the answer was cream. And butter.



You may wonder what's up with the "pattern" of the cheesecake. The answer is that you need a very large bowl to fit all the cream cheese and cream and such. I did not. So I poured part of the mixture in the pan before I had added all of the cream, and then I added the rest of the cream to the remaining mixture and poured that in. I didn't notice any density difference in the finished product...

Another difference of this cheesecake is that there’s no crust. I don’t think any of Maida’s cheesecakes so far have had a traditional crust. Ah, but I see that the next one does. Something to look forward to…

But in the meantime, B+. I liked this, and it certainly disappeared very rapidly at the party we took it to (and that’s saying a lot, since this is a lot of cheesecake!), but I guess I like a dense cheesecake with a crust. And a sour cream topping. In short, I like the cheesecake my mom used to make from the 1970s Joy of Cooking. But if you’re looking for a light (well, “light”) cheesecake to feed a crowd, you could do worse than this recipe. Did I mention that it takes about 10 minutes to put together (if you’ve remembered to get the cream cheese and butter out of the fridge)?

Here’s the recipe. Be sure to make it the day before you want to serve it.

Emilio’s Cheesecake

2 lbs. cream cheese, room temperature

4 oz. butter, room temperature

1 T. vanilla

Grated rind of 1 lemon (not in the original recipe, but I liked it)

1-1/2 c. (10.5 oz.) sugar

7 T. (1.8 oz.) cornstarch

7 large eggs (Maida doesn’t specify, but room temperature is probably good here as well)

2 c. cream

1/4 c. lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

Heat the oven to 350. Get out a 13x9-inch pan and also a roasting pan big enough to hold it and some water. Put on a kettle to boil some water. Butter the smaller pan. In a large bowl (bigger than mine), beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla, lemon zest, sugar, and cornstarch, and beat some more until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and then add the cream on low speed. If your bowl isn’t big enough, you’ll have to be careful of splashing. Don’t ask me how I know. Finally add the lemon juice. The mixture should be thin and absolutely smooth. Put the buttered pan into the roasting pan, and then pour the cheesecake into the prepared pan. Put the pans in the oven and very carefully pour hot water from the kettle into the roasting pan. The water should come about an inch up the side of the pan. Now close the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes. When that time is up, turn the oven up to 375 and bake the cheesecake for another 10-15 minutes. The cheesecake will be brown on top and quite puffy. Remove from the oven, and very carefully (wet potholders will burn your hands!!) remove the cheesecake pan from the larger pan. Let sit on the counter until cool. Then cover a large cutting board with parchment or foil. Invert the cheesecake onto the cutting board. If you buttered your pan well enough, it should drop right out. Cover the cheesecake loosely with plastic and refrigerate overnight. Serve plain or with berries—I put halved strawberries all over it, and that made it look and taste nice. This should serve at least 16.

8 (no, make that 5)-hour cheesecake

Welcome to my new, improved kitchen in Pontlevoy! Just a couple of blocks away from the old place, but oh so much better in terms of space and modern conveniences! Yes, it's messy, but have a look:

Big kitchen table for prepping and eating at.

Gas stove and electric oven. Lots of appliances. Even a dishwasher! Not much counter space, but whatever.
So my first Maida dessert in this kitchen was the 8-hour cheesecake. By the way, Maida's seeing a bit of a revival: David Lebovitz did a nice tribute to her in his blog today (and please, whatever you do, make those popovers!! They are super easy and irresistible.). And I found through his blog that another woman blogged through Maida's cookie book from 2005-7. Very fun.
OK, so the cheesecake. This is a recipe that Maida adapted from a recipe written by Andrew Schloss, and it involves baking your cheesecake at a very low temperature (200 F or 95 C) for a very long time. I was worried about it because I wasn't sure yet how reliable my oven was going to be or how this all would work out. And how would I know it was done, aside from the 8-hour cooking time? Through an Internet search, I found that some people put their cheesecakes in the oven, went to bed, and woke up the next morning to a brown and rubbery disk. Their advice: bake the cheesecake during the day and check on it after 4 hours or so; it will be done at about 180 F.
This turned out to be an excellent suggestion: I put my cheesecake in the oven at 2 and it was ready at about 7. Which was perfect because I actually needed the oven to prepare dinner. And you'll see that it's white and creamy and mostly everything a cheesecake should be.

OK, here are the ingredients. You see that this is a pretty straightforward recipe, aside from the baking technique. The French make this stuff called "fromage à tartiner" (spreadable cheese) which is pretty much cream cheese. I got 5 packs of it and still needed to add about 2 oz. of crème fraîche to get to the 2 lbs. of cream cheese required. The vanilla is not pictured here. And that bottle of Cognac was empty when the cheesecake went in the oven, and I don't drink Cognac...

Here's the cheesecake on a pretty cake plate. Note its firm white creaminess. When I say it's almost everything a cheesecake should be, I mean that it's crustless. I like a little crunchiness with my cheesecake. Fortunately, I had some crunchy spice cookies in my purse (they come with coffee here), which Julia and I crumbled up and used as ersatz crust. That made a perfect cheesecake experience.

Mmmm...cheesecake on a plate, ready to be eaten. This is about how much is left, less than 24 hours after I first served it.

Here's the recipe. Plan your day around it!

8-hour cheesecake

2 lbs. cream cheese, room temp
1 heaping c. (7.5 oz.) sugar (in a strange twist, I felt that this recipe needed more sugar than called for!)
2 T. (1 oz.) vanilla extract (yes, that's right!)
2 T. (1 oz.) brandy
2 T. (1 oz.) dark rum
5 eggs, room temp
Graham cracker/cookie crumbs

Heat your oven to 200. Get out a one-piece cheesecake pan or a deep cake pan or a soufflé dish and butter it. You'll also need a large roasting or sheet pan to put the cheesecake pan in. Beat the cream cheese until it's smooth and fluffy, scraping the bowl and beaters to be sure. Then add the sugar, vanilla, brandy, and rum and beat until incorporated. Now add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Pour this mixture into the cheesecake pan. Put the cheesecake pan into the roasting pan and carefully pour hot water into the roasting pan until you have a couple inches of water. Then carefully put all of this into the oven and set the timer for about 4 hours. Go about your business. When 4 hours have gone by, assess your cheesecake. Does it look dry on top? Is it not too jiggly? Is its temp 180? Does the thermometer come out clean? If you can answer yes to all these questions, your cheesecake is probably ready. If not, let it go another hour or so, checking every once in a while.
Once you feel good about the doneness of the cheesecake, take it out of the roasting pan and let it sit at room temperature for a while until it is completely cool. Then unmold it onto a plate and refrigerate it for a few hours or overnight. Serve with or without cookie crumbs sprinkled on top. This should serve at least 8, unless one of your guests is Claire, in which maybe 5 is a better bet.