Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Goat Cheese Cheesecake



After polishing off the last of the pumpkin cheesecake from earlier in the week, I found my craving cheesecake had not been satiated. This is a problem and must be dealt with swiftly and with extreme prejudice.

My initial thought was to make a chocolate cheesecake, something I've only had I think once. In thinking about that, I moved on to maybe making a flourless chocolate cake, an example of which remains my absolute favorite chocolate cake to this day, barely edging out the warm chocolate cake from Loulou. I'd tell you where I had the flourless chocolate cake, but I can't remember the name of the restaurant. It's in Chelsea, on 10th somewhere. If I remember, I'll update the post.

Anyway, as I was making yesterday's post, I went through all the pictures I'd taken in the last year. In looking at the pictures from The River Cafe, I saw the goat cheese cheesecake I'd had for dessert that night and suddenly that was a possibility as well. A few reader comments confirmed my suspicion that this was, in fact, the right choice.

So here we have it, my attempt at a goat cheese cheesecake. As with the pumpkin one, I haven't actually tried it as of this writing, but I'll update the post when I do.

Fluffy Goat Cheese Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tbsp butter, melted
1 tbsp sugar

Filling:

11 oz. goat cheese, softened
1 tsp lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
6 eggs, divided
3 tbsp all-purpose flour

Topping:

2 cups mixed berries (I used strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.



In a mixing bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar. Fold together until the crumbs are evenly coated. Press into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 5 minutes, then set aside.









In a stand mixer, combine the cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar. Mix until smooth.



Add the egg yolks, two at a time. Mix evenly before adding the next two. (Yeah, one of my yolks broke. Sue me.)







In a separate bowl with a clean whisk, beat the egg whites until firm but not dry. Mix 1/3rd of the egg whites into the cheese mixture and beat until even, then fold in the rest slowly.



Pour into the pan and bake for about 40 minutes. Make sure a toothpick in the center comes out dry.





For the topping, combine the fruit, sugar, and water in a pot over low heat. Stir frequently and cook for about 15 minutes. Once the fruit has reduced somewhat, refridgerate the topping.





When the cake is cool, cut and spoon some of the fruit onto it.


So how did it come out? Pretty great. The egg whites give it a very fluffy texture, which is great, but it meant that it didn't hold the crust as well as I'd hoped. Next time I might forgo the crust, or use some more butter to make it a little more solid after baking.

Still, it's pretty tasty. Go ahead. Make it.



Also, goat cheese is pretty good on a graham cracker.

8 comments:

Color Me Green said...

I'm not the biggest fan of cheesecake, but I'm going to forward this to my sister - she can only eat goat cheese, not cows milk cheese, so I think she'll appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

We're making this recipe as I type this. Like Julia's sister, my girlfriend can't eat cow's milk.

Only flaw in the directions: it doesn't say at what point to add in the flour. We'd already poured the mixture in the pan when we realized we hadn't added it. Whoops!

Anonymous said...

We made the cheesecake and it was delicious... Curious if anyone else has made this and if so, if you have any thoughts as to how to make it more dense? It actually ended up being more cakey than rich and cheesecake like. Maybe we should have left the flour out after all? Added more goat cheese and less egg? I'm not an experienced baker and will definitely take any recommendations.

Anonymous said...

OMG you topped yourself! Goat Cheese ahhhh. What is next?

Brian said...

This recipe did turn out very fluffy and cake-like, and I agree it could have been denser. There's another recipe I have that i want to try that uses a fair amount of cream cheese in addition to the goat cheese. Rest assured, I'll post about it when i give it a shot.

I did find this one settled down a bit after being in the fridge overnight.

James Le Cordon Bleu said...

I made this cake in Culinary class, work the egg whites a bit more to knock down some of the lift when folding, plus as mentioned before, cooling down overnight in the fridge tightened it up a smidge.

PuffsPlus said...

This recipe is meant to produce more of a sponge cake than a true cheesecake.

If you want more of a traditional cheesecake texture, try cooking it in a water bath (bain marie).

Also, for something much more closely resembling traditional cheesecake, try Mario Batali's recipe for lemon goat cheesecake. It has a much higher ratio of cheese to eggs than this recipe does.

James Sklar said...

Funny - this is my recipe! But imitation is the best form of flattery!