17th Century Cheesecake - American Cake
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| This reminiscent of very old recipes. |
I also have had experience cooking some medieval recipes because I'm a nerd like that. I won't share the details of how I win the "I'm a bigger nerd than you contests" in which I find myself occasionally embroiled. But it has to do with cooking recipes from many centuries ago.
Shove currants and nuts and sugar and soft cheese with a little sugar and nutmeg into a crust and serve it up to your lordship, if you get my drift.
The crust on this was perfectly beautiful to assemble and roll into the pan. The walls stayed upright, the cake is gorgous but alas it doesn't hold up to what one expects of textures today. There was a certain amount of mealiness to the cheese part. While I didn't toss my portion away my daughter took a hard pass after just one bite. Again, the crust was powerfully good.
Between you and me, I'm hoping the next few cakes are winners. I need a winner.
Crust:
1.3 cups all purpose flour (the recipe calls for half whole wheat flour0
.25 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons butter
1 egg white-save yolk for filling
.33 cup cold water
Filling
.25 c finely ground whole almonds
.25 cup (4 tablespoons butter)
.25 cup sugar
.25 teaspoon nutmeg
.25 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk
16 ounce ricotta cheese
.5 cup heavy cream
.5 cup currants
In a food processor cut pulse the flour and salt. Add the butter and pulse until combined and looks like meal. Add the egg white, mix briefly, add the water slowly, reserve some, you might not need it all.
Turn out onto a piece of parchment. Form into a disc and refrigerate. Roll and place into a springform pan. It should go a 1.25inch up the side of the pan.
In the processor, grind the nuts. Transfer to a different container. In the processor cream the butter and sugar. Add the nutmeg, salt, egg yolk, ricotta and cream. Whirl until well mixed. Scrape into the bowl with almonds and add the currents. Fold together. Pour into the the crust and level the top. Bake 65-75 minutes. Cool and remove from pan.