Invited out for dinner and asked to bring dessert I decided to reprise the “classic cheesecake” I used to bake in my old café days. This really is a great cheesecake. On receipt of this cake my friend said “ Oh wow is it a baked cheesecake”. To which I replied, “There is only baked cheesecake, everything else is pudding”.
Cheesecake is a staple of the European Jewish repertoire, along with blintzes, nudel kugel, high cholesterol and heart disease. And while the fridge versions may be tasty and certainly quick, they aren’t really cakes, because cakes, as we know, are baked.
My childhood in Sydney was enhanced by the fact that my one of my father’s customers had a fabulous patisserie in Kings Cross, the Croissant D’Or – and it still exists, though who runs it I don’t know. One or the other of my brothers would deliver orders to him, and it always seemed to be on a Friday afternoon. My dad never charged for this service but Karl Schader always handed over a cheesecake for the Shabbbos (Sabbath) table.
I’m not going to claim that mine is as good as Mr Schader’s – nothing will ever taste as good as such a memory, but this is a recipe for a very fine “classic” cheesecake. I have just popped cheesecake MK 2 (gluten free) in the oven for a special friend and coeliac sufferer. Just substituted gluten free flour and made the base with GF rice cookies.
So if you want to throw caution to the winds and eat likes it’s 1970, this is for you.
This recipe came without a base – a very basic cheesecake but I make a base with biscuits, Marie or arrowroot:
Baked Cheesecake
In a food processor blend ½ packet plain biscuit with 1 T butter.
I use a spring-form baking pan – and just press the mixture down evenly with your knuckles.
Beat:
225 g cream cheese
225g ricotta cheese
2 lg eggs
½ cup white sugar
till very smooth
Add:
2T melted butter
1 ½ T sifted SR flour
1 ½ T cornflour
1t vanilla essence
Best till smooth then fold in
1 cup sour cream
Pour it onto the base – don’t grease the tin – into preheated oven @ 160°
Bake for about an hour till golden.
Then turn the oven off and leave it in there for 2 hours.
Remove it and when cool it goes in the fridge – and don’t worry about any cracks that appear – part of the charm (although the ones from the Croissant D’Or weren’t split.
I recommend eating this as is – whipped cream is always nice but is it too much? I think so. Now all you need is a good cup of coffee to go with it – oh Vienna!!