Saturday, June 4, 2011

Mmmmmm .... cheesecake

Next week will be a Jewish festival called Shavuot. At this time of year, it is traditional to eat dairy foods. So I have re-named this festival "The Cheesecake Festival".

Cheesecake

Last night my family and I shared a cheesecake I had baked. It was delicious!!
The recipe is from a book that belonged to my grandmother, first published in 1951, called Jewish Cookery by Leah Leonard.

I've been making this cake for many years with consistently great feedback.
I don't usually include recipes on this blog but this one is so amazingly good, I have decided to share it with you ....

Ingredients

Crust
1 packet Marie biscuits
1/4 cup sugar
135 grams softened butter

Cheese filling
125 grams cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
125 grams fresh ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornflour
Pinch of salt
1 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method

To make the crust:
- Put Marie biscuits into a food processor and break down into largish crumbs
- Add the sugar and mix well
- Work in the softened butter until well mixed
- Prepare a spring-form cake tin using baking paper and butter.
- Tip the crumb mix into the cake tin and spread out evenly, pressing the mixture down to a flat smooth crust.

To make the cheese filling:
- Add each ingredient (in the order listed above) slowly into a kitchen mixer, allowing for mixing time in between each one.
- You will end up with a very loose batter.

Pour the batter carefully into the crumb-lined tin.
Bake at 180 degrees C for an hour.
After an hour, turn off the oven but leave the cake in there for another hour to cool.
Once it is out of the oven, it really benefits from a couple of hours in the fridge.

Cheesecake slice

This cake doesn't usually come out looking so great so I often sprinkle some icing sugar over the top to make it look a bit better. Once you cut into it though, it looks (and tastes) divine.

Serve on its own or with some cream or vanilla ice cream.

YUMMMMM!!!!

Andi xx

17 comments:

Jenny from Ohjoh said...

Mmmmm yum!
Can I adopt this Jewish festival? It sounds delicious.

rachelmp said...

Looks great Andi!

Cathy @ CabbageQuilts said...

I am so upset with you for tempting us with this AMAZING looking cheesecake when we can't have any. But then again I'm very happy with you for adding the recipe! Thanks for that, looks divine even though you think it doesn't!!. xo

CurlyPops said...

OMG do you know that baked cheesecake is one of my favourite things in the whole wide world?
I've never ever tried to make one though. Hmmm maybe I'll try one of these days!

Louise said...

Love, love, love a baked cheesecake and this one looks rather delicious! So sensible of you to choose cheesecake as your choice of dairy for the celebration - clever girl!! I did end up walking the other day and look forward to getting back to our weekly catchup round the track!! :D

trash said...

Yummo Andi. Think this may be added to destructoBoy's list of "things to make his mother when he is tlking to her again and she has stopped being so horrid and mean for maing him do stuff like strip his bed."

cauchy09 said...

mmm...indeed! my dad used to make a cheesecake similar to this. it was heavenly.

two hippos said...

Yum! Shavuot is one of my favorite holidays, at least in part because of all the delicious dairy food.

meli B said...

Was that a test run for Tuesday? Jealous I am. I miss cheesecake.

Mary said...

I'm really not a cheesecake kinda girl but I'm thinking I might have to make an exception.

Tania said...

I like your renaming thinking!

(and I'd be serving with cream AND ice cream).

caitlin said...

My craving has got the better of me... I'm making one now! Yum
Ps do I need to line the tin? (it's non stick)
X

Hi! My name is erica. Would you be my friend? said...

I'm going to have to try this! A dairy-laden holiday? That's the best holiday there could be! :)

CitricSugar said...

Thanks for the recipe! I love the name "cheesecake festival"... I'll have to do some research. :-)

Bubby Makes Three said...

um, YUMMO..... I have such a sweet tooth (sigh). Love your blog from a fellow crafty mumma!!

Lydia said...

YUMMMM!!! This is the best looking cheese cake!!! I'm drooling just at the picture.

www.dreampatch.com.au

Raylene Richardson said...

Thank you-it is inspiring me to do some baking