Ricotta Cheesecake

Welcome back!

Today, we have another cheesecake recipe, this time putting a little spin on the main attraction of the dish: the cream cheese, in which we incorporated some ricotta cheese. Another variation we implemented was the Ritz cracker crust. Of course, any other crust would work just fine with this cheesecake, but we wanted to try something a little different - the flavor of the crackers certainly makes for an interesting combination.

Ricotta Cheesecake

Makes a 9" cheesecake

Ingredients:

Crust:

2 sleeves of Ritz crackers
5 tablespoons melted butter

Filling:

2 8-ounce boxes of cream cheese, room temperature
15 ounces ricotta cheese
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons flour
12-16 ounces cranberry or other fruit preserves (optional)

Directions:

Prepare the crust:

Crush the Ritz crackers.
Mix the melted butter into the crushed crackers until even.
Press the crust down into the bottom of the cheesecake pan.
Bake in the oven at 350°F for 10 minutes.

Prepare the filling:

In a food processor, place the cream cheese, ricotta cheese, lemon juice, and sugar. Pulse until this mixture is even.
One at a time, add the eggs and pulse to mix.
Add the vanilla and flour and mix.

Optionally, on top of the crust, spread a layer of the preserves.
Pour the filling into the cheesecake pan.
Bake in the oven at 325°F in a hot water bath for about 80 minutes.

The addition of ricotta cheese does change the texture of the cheesecake quite a bit - it gets that sort of granular feeling that is characteristic of this ingredient. However, it still tastes great, and honestly, the flavor of the ricotta cheese blends in perfectly with the rest of the ingredients. The cranberry preserves was just a fun addition to spice things up even more, and it adds a little bit of flavor variety to the dish.

-Chefpo

Comments

Banana Chiffon Cake

Welcome back! Today, we have another recipe for when you want to use some of your extra bananas! Unlike the Banana Bread from last time, this one is basically a chiffon cake that is modified to accommodate for the bananas. It keeps the really light and fluffy texture of the cake while also having the banana flavor, and it also goes nicely with other fresh fruit like shown below. Banana Chiffon Cake Makes one 9-10" pan Ingredients: For the egg yolk mixture: 7 egg yolks 2 tablespoons sugar 2 medium bananas 80 grams oil 90 grams orange juice 110 grams cake flour 10 grams corn starch 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda For the egg white mixture: 7 egg whites 110 more grams of sugar 1 teaspoon lime/lemon juice Directions: Mix the egg yolks and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Then, add oil and mix thoroughly. Then, add orange juice and mix. Then, add vanilla extract. Sift the flour along with the baking soda and baking powder and add it in the egg yolk mixture. Gently fold ...

Tiramisu

Welcome back to Chez Chefpo! Today, we've got a classic Italian dessert: Tiramisu! No twists on this one, this is your classic tiramisu that's about as traditional as it gets. In fact, it's truly comparable to the authentic tiramisu that you could find in Italy (more about this below)! While this is not the cheapest recipe, it is actually pretty easy and is definitely worth making because it is veramente delicioso! Tiramisu Makes one 7" by 9" pan Ingredients: Cream: 4 egg yolks 50 grams sugar 16 ounces Mascarpone cheese (preferably room temperature) 200 grams heavy whipping cream 2-3 tablespoons Kahlua* Coffee Mixture: 120 mL cooled espresso (if you don't have this, 2 tablespoons of espresso powder plus 120 mL of hot water will do) 2-3 tablespoons Kahlua* You will also need: 1 package, or about 24, lady fingers Cocoa powder to be dusted onto the top *If you don't have Kahlua, you can just use rum. Here's a reference for some of the more special ingre...

Tuscan Soup

Welcome back! Today, we have a delicious soup originating from Tuscany, Italy (this is the region where Florence is in). Traditionally, this dish is a combination of various vegetables with some Italian bacon and Tuscan bread. The one we made is more Americanized, featuring Italian sausage, and it's a little heartier. However, they are still pretty similar in the vegetables used: kale, potatoes, carrots, etc. Tuscan Soup Makes 4 servings Ingredients: 1/2 tablespoon olive oil 8 to 10 ounces Italian sausage 1 medium onion, chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 tablespoons flour 3 cups chicken broth 1 to 2 cups half & half 1 large potato, diced 1 medium carrot, diced 1/2 bunch kale, chopped Salt and pepper to taste Directions: Steam the potato and carrot and save it for later. With the olive oil in a pot, cook the Italian sausage until browned. Remove the sausage from the pot. Saute the onion and garlic in the pot. Add the flour into the pot and mix. Add in the chicken br...

Search This Blog