Cheesecake for Dorie

I am very blessed in my sisters-in-law who are much more sisters than the “law” part and Dorie, married to my brother Shlomo, lives in Baltimore so I don’t get to see her as often as I’d like.

We just got back from the States and paid a visit to them, and whilst there, natch, the talk got around to food. Since the holiday of Shavuot is nearly upon us, Dorie was feeling overwhelmed since this year for those who don’t live in Israel, it is a three day affair. Hence, both many meals and both dairy and meat.

She specifically wanted a good and fast recipe for cheesecake. I told her not to worry, I have a very nice recipe which isn’t complicated. Yes! she said, post it for me. So, although I’m not yet over my jet lag, I told her I’d get it online for her asap.

This is a result of lots of playing around with cheesecake over the years but is somewhat based on the Magic Blender cookbook I’ve previously mentioned. This is a classic sort of cheesecake with no exotic add ons that hits the rich notes we expect and love with a luscious mouthfeel and a bit of lemon peel for that extra something as well as real vanilla, well, just because.

Now here in Israel, I’ve not seen graham cracker crumbs since I wanted a cookie crust (it’s quicker and also yummy) and anyway, I’ hope I’ll be forgiven for saying that they aren’t exactly my most tasty choice in any case. So I took a package of Lotus caramelized biscuits/cookies and decided to chop them fine in the food processor. In order to determine how much I needed, I searched high and low on the internet for crumb crusts and literally every other place tells you something different. This is seriously annoying, so I simply weighed the amount it said you need for a crust (also different all over) and I chose 150 grams of cookies and chopped them up fine in the food processor.

and chopped fine. Then I measured the amount in a cup to see how much I actually ended up with. It’s a cup and a quarter. And then add a quarter cup of cubed butter

Whirl this with a quarter cup sugar till it gets a crumbly look as below

Then, pat this into a 9 inch springform pan lined with parchment paper on the bottom and a bit up the sides.

Next, take your filling ingredients, and after you wipe out the food processor (don’t wash it, and just wipe out and you can continute using the processor) and put in the cream cheese, eggs, sour cream, grated lemon rind, vanilla, salt, flour and sugar and whirl thoroughly till all is incorporated and the consistency is like heavy cream. This is a fairly liquidy batter, don’t worry, it should be. It’s like baking a custary thingy, it thickens up so don’t be tempted to add any more flour, this is correct.

Pour the batter over the crumbs (make certain you’ve locked the springform tightly, nothing is worse than realizing you didn’t and it starts seeping out all over, yeah, it once happened to me. Not cool.)

Now you’ve preheated your oven to 325 degrees so that you can pop your cheesecake in and it’s not hanging about waiting. Remember my mentioning that 350 degrees is not what your oven is locked on? Well, here the lower temp is CRITICAL to the proper baking and texture of your cake. Don’t say to yourself, no big, or it’ll bake faster. Nay nay I say, 325, not a degree more. It will bake fluffy (but not too) and no cracks and you don’t have to leave it in the oven for an hour. I bake it on convection bake 325.

Now it is a classic cake but when you plate it nothing will stop you from adding gorg berries as a garnish or a lovely dab of whipped cream if you wish. Please, however, don’t insult your cake with gloppy canned fruit on top. Just no. So savor your cheesecake au naturel or with lovely garnish but pure classics. Ummmmmm.

Cheesecake for Dorie

Cookie Crust:

150 grams or 5.3 ounces or 1 1/4 cups of cookies, preferably the caramelized Lotus cookies

1/4 cup of softened butter

1/4 cup sugar

Filling:

4 eggs

1 pound or 1/2 a kilo full fat cream cheese (once a year, you can afford it)

1 cup of sour cream

grated peel of a half a lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla

a pinch of salt about 1/4 teaspoon

3/4 cup of white sugar- don’t use less – if you do it’ll taste like cream cheese not like cheesecake, trust me

2 tablespoons flour

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325, really, not 350 only 325, it’ll make all the difference in texture and success of your cake.

First make the crust, it will save you washing out your food processor and anyway, you will pat it in your pan first. Take a 9 inch springform pan and spray with oil and lay down a circle (cut out or buy premade as you see fit) of parchment paper on bottom. Please do this to make serving the cake much much easier. Set aside.

Take your food processor and put in the lotus biscuits and whirl till crushed fine. Then add the softened cubed butter and the sugar and pulse till you get a nice crumbly mixture (see above). Take out of the processor and pat on bottom and a bit up the side of the prepared pan.

Next wipe out with a paper towel the remnants of the crust and place the eggs first in processor to make the whirling easier and all the rest of the ingredients into the food processor- cream cheese, sour cream, lemon peel, salt, sugar, vanilla and flour. Process till smooth (don’t overprocess) and the texture should be like heavy cream (see pic above). Pour the mixture over the cookie crumb mixture having ascertained that your springform pan is correctly closed so you don’t get aggravated and I suggest putting it on a sheet pan with a piece of parchment paper so you keep it all clean.

Put into a 325 oven on convection bake for one hour (otherwise it may take longer to bake on regular by 10 minutes or so) until the cheesecake has no more jiggly center and the edges are a nice medium brown. Remove from oven and let cool on cooling racks or your stovetop grate till completely cold. You should not have cracks and it should be a lovely consistency. Put in fridge for at least two hours but preferably overnight if you can. You want this cold. Either serve in it’s full majesty, or plate with berries, or mint or whipped cream as the mood moves you. Luscious!