Monday, November 29, 2010

Baked cheesecake and homemade pizza


Although my cheesemaking class was last weekend, the beauty of it is that it doesn't stop there. I have a lovely selection of cheeses to use now, and others that I am tending dutifully until they ripen. I am especially proud of my Camembert, which is growing a perfect silky white mould on it, just as it should, despite my "cheese cave" being an esky with ice in it.

I wanted a recipe to use up some of my soft fresh cheeses while they were still in their prime, and after a quick Web search, I found this recipe for a Fromage Blanc Tart on a beautiful blog that is new to me, Know Whey by Sue. Sue is from Vermont and began making cheeses when she moved there, and her earlier posts are about cheesemaking and cheese recipes.

Sue's recipe uses 2lb (~900g) of fromage blanc; instead, I used 300g fromage blanc plus 300g of quark and 150g each of whole milk and whey ricotta. The end result was a beautiful creamy cheesecake which was smooth and silky on the tongue:



I liked the fact that the cheesecake shell was a pastry rather than the crushed biscuit base which is more usual with cheesecake - I thought that the pastry housed the filling beautifully while letting the flavour of the cheese shine, rather than dominating it.





It would be dangerous for me to have this in the house for too long, so I took it to work and shared it. It went down like a house on fire - it's good to know that there are many fellow cheesecake lovers among my colleagues.




With the mozzarella from class, the obvious choice was to make pizza! I used the Daring Bakers thin crust recipe taken from Peter Reinhart, which Zorra had kindly divided down into a two person recipe which was a more friendly quantity for me to use.

I used one of the resulting two pizza dough balls to make a Hawaiian pizza - tomato paste, mozzarella, shredded ham and drained pineapple pieces:


Looks pretty good, yeah? I took the pizza to work for lunch over two days - it made a great change from my usual toasted sandwich.

In closing, I want to thank Marcellina of
Marcellina in Cucina for awarding me the Lovely Blog Award:


For the 15 blogs to pass the award on to, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some great Aussie blogs that I read on a regular basis:

To enjoy some fine Aussie food blogs, you can't go wrong if you visit these sites.
Trissa's last post is the recipe from a Sydney restaurant for their take on the Weiss mango fruit bar - check it out!

18 comments:

Gloria Baker said...

This cheesecake look amazing! and the pizza too! gloria

yummychunklet said...

Your baked cheesecake looks so smooth and delicious! The pastry shell sounds different but tasty. And, I'm glad your pizza lasted for two work meals. It's always a good sign in these economic times.

Anonymous said...

What an accomplishment to make such lovely dishes with your own cheese! They both look wonderful.

cocoa and coconut said...

I love the curved edges of the cheesecake too; something a little special. Sounds like you chose a great combination of fromage, quark etc to produce a fine, silky texture.

And congrats on your award! You deserve it.

Unknown said...

Your cheesecake looks scrumptious, Cakelaw!
I'm going to be making some soft cheeses next weekend, plus some Raclette. You should really try making Raclette!
Enjoy the Camembert; there's nothing like it... Cheers, Sue (Know Whey)

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

That cheesecake looks so light and smooth-just lovely! :D And congratulations on your award Cakelaw and thanks for the link love! That's very sweet of you! :D

Nutmeg Nanny said...

Delicious! I love cheesecake. It's one of my favorite desserts.

Cakelaw said...

Hi Sue, I had never heard of Raclette til I saw it on your blog, but I must try it - I have ordered some cheesemaking gear, so when I get it, I am good to go.

You deserve it Lorraine - love your blog (as do many others!).

Maria @ Scandi Foodie said...

Yum that looks fantastic! I could so use a slice right now :-)

The Caked Crusader said...

What a stunningly elegant looking cheesecake - and to use your own cheese...well, that's just showing off!!!

Conor @ Hold the Beef said...

I think cheesecake teachers would show these photos to their cheesecake students to demonstrate the perfect texture! I like the idea of a cheesecake teacher with a class of cheesecake students, though in my head they are morphing into cheesecake shaped people.

Congratulations on the award and thank you so much for the shout out, it's much appreciated :)

Trissa said...

Lovely cheesecake. I've been meaning to update my recipe. Yours looks like a winner! I'd like to thank you for the mention too! Very flattered!!

Cakelaw said...

LOL Conor - that is very surreal. I will probably dream of people made of cheesecake.

Hi Trissa - a pleasure - I soooo want that Weiss mango bar dessert now!

Ivy said...

Both sound delicious and how can they not be with homemade cheese!!!

Unknown said...

I am so jealous that you have access to these wonderful cheesemaking classes! Lucky you! Both recipes look fantastic!

Johanna GGG said...

that cheesecake looks excellent - and how proud must you be to have made the cheese as well as the cheesecake!

thanks for the award and thanks for all those great links - lots of new blogs to explore

Danielle said...

You took a cheesecake class? That's really cool, your cheesecake looks really good(:

sarah @ For the Love of Food said...

Making cheeses seems like some kind of magic, how wonderful you now have the touch :) I love the look of that cheesecake and particularly like the look of that perfect pastry (one of my fears is making pastry!). Thanks for the award (my first!) :)