Pausing for Cheesecake

Cheesecake got me back in the kitchen. Sadly, I haven’t spent much time there lately other than to dash in for quick meals before rushing to the next task. But with Shavuot arriving, I had to take some time out to bake cheesecake. After all, it’s cheesecake!

Shavuot is a Jewish holiday that marks the day Moses received the Torah at Mount Sinai. Festive dairy dishes are traditionally served, which may be due to Shavuot falling in spring when sheep, goats and cows are producing an abundance of milk. Luscious treats such as cheese blintzes and cheesecake are happily eaten to celebrate. Our community in Seattle even hosts a cheesecake bake-off each year. I’d love to do that here in the Methow Valley some year!

I just got some new little spring form pans in at the store – so cute! – which inspired me to try making baby cheesecakes using a terrific recipe for New York style cheesecake that I’ve tweaked and baked countless times over the years. I prefer its classic, simple flavor, adorned only with a few berries.  Let me tell you, this one is dense and rich and creamy.

While the crust is usually made with graham crackers, any cookie crumbs can be used. Shortbread, ginger snaps or vanilla wafers made wonderful crusts, too. For these mini cheesecakes, I decided on chocolate wafers.

When making cheesecake, you really need to plan ahead. It’s important that all the ingredients are room temperature so that they blend together easily. Once baked, cheesecake must chill for at least six hours or preferably overnight. It’s a marvelous dessert to make ahead, especially since it will keep for a few days in the fridge. Something else I learned more recently is that you get the smoothest texture possible when the filling is whizzed in a food processor rather than using a mixer. I definitely recommend this method.

Being back in the kitchen baking was quite restorative and a welcome respite. Those tasks I mentioned earlier? More transition. We have decided it’s time to move our life here completely, which means packing up 20 years in Seattle and moving it to a house here in the valley. This house is over 100 years old and we are painting, pulling carpet, hanging drywall, ripping out cabinets and getting to know it inch by inch, making it our home. It’s by the river and the soothing sound of water rushing by is already familiar.

And there’s yet one more very big transition … Isaac graduates from high school next week! Which means 20 years of full time parenting is winding down. There are no words for all the emotions I’m feeling. I’m a proud mama with much to celebrate.

So I guess that’s all the big news. And I didn’t even mention them until the end of this post. I guess I’m still coming to terms. It’s been a whirlwind, many weeks counting down towards Isaac’s graduation, the end of an era, a new beginning, a new house. But I’m happy.

Cheesecakes with Chocolate Crust
Makes 6 – 4 ½ inch spring form pans or 1 – 9 inch spring form

1 ½ cups finely ground chocolate wafer crumbs
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
5 - 8 ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Juice of ¼ lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 eggs, room temperature
2 egg yolks, room temperature

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the spring form pans on a rimmed baking sheet. In a medium sized bowl, stir together the chocolate wafer crumbs and butter until well mixed. Divide the crust mixture evenly between the pans and gently smooth onto the bottoms. Set aside.

Place the cream cheese, sugar, flour, lemon juice and vanilla in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until it begins to come together (the bowl will be very full). Add 3 eggs and pulse a few times. Add the remaining 2 eggs and egg yolks and pulse. Scrape the sides and bottom carefully with a spatula. At this point, turn the food processor on and blend until the batter is very smooth.

Divide the batter evenly between the 6 pans and smooth the tops. Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes, until just set. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the cheesecakes cool.

Once cool, cover each one and pop into the fridge to chill for at least 6 hours. They will keep for up to one week. Serve with fresh berries.

If baking in a 9 inch spring form, increase the baking time to 1 hour.

Shavuot Feta-Herb Dip

Dairy and I are very good friends. I have a not-so-secret desire to keep a cow, and while I don’t know if dairy farming is in my future – I like to keep my options open – cooking with dairy always makes me happy.

Dairy dishes are traditionally eaten during Shavuot, the Jewish holiday commemorating the day Moses received the Torah at Mount Sinai. One explanation of this custom (my favorite) is that Shavuot falls in spring when sheep, goats and cows produce an abundance of milk as they give birth and graze on new grass.

Dairy it is! While we like (love) blintzes and cheesecake, I decided to make a savory dairy treat for this Shavuot. I especially love cheese and yogurt. Creamy feta cheese and lusciously thick yogurt seemed a natural pairing, so with a dip in mind I stirred them together.

Over this past sunny weekend (now gone and turned to a thunderstorm!), I also spent time planting my fragrant new bounty of herbs from my sons’ marvelous school orchestra fundraiser. I could not resist chopping a large handful of dill, mint, parsley and chives to include in this dip. Fresh herbs sing of spring and you can use any combination you may have on hand. Quick to stir together, with lemony zip and tangy richness, this dip is bursting with green freshness. It’s wonderful to scoop up with crunchy veggies to celebrate Shavuot this week or any time!

Shavuot Feta-Herb Dip
Makes 1 1/2 cups

8 ounces feta cheese
1/2 cup thick, plain, whole milk yogurt
Zest and juice of 1/2 large lemon
1 packed cup fresh herbs, finely chopped (I used mint, parsley, dill and chives)
A few grinds of black pepper
Flaky sea salt (optional, depending upon how salty your feta cheese is)
Cut up veggies to dip

In a medium sized bowl, mash the feta cheese lightly and stir in the yogurt, lemon zest and juice.  Gently mix in the herbs and black pepper. Taste for seasoning – since my feta was salty I didn’t add any salt, but if your feta is not very salty add a little flaky sea salt.

Mound the dip on a serving platter with some cup up veggies and serve. You can prepare it ahead and keep it in the fridge until ready to serve.

Cheese Blintzes with Strawberries for Shavuot

It’s that time of year ... time for dairy delights! Shavuot is this weekend, and it is customary to eat dairy products to mark this Jewish holiday commemorating when Moses received the Torah at Mount Sinai. I’m looking forward to a delicious celebration with cheesecake, ice cream and my favorite Shavuot treat – blintzes.

Blintzes have a certain elegance to them. A soft, crepe-like pancake drapes itself around the creamy cheese filling under a blanket of berries. The luscious textures and flavors blend together beautifully.

When making the blintz crepes, I often find myself trying to flip them too soon in the pan and end up tearing the delicate pancakes. I’ve discovered the key is to let them really brown and loosen up so they're easy to flip, then it only takes a few seconds to finish on the other side.

Blintzes take a bit of time to prepare but all the components can be made ahead and assembled at the last minute, or the assembly can be done the night before a brunch and baked just before serving. While the blintzes are baking, slice some strawberries and sprinkle a shower of sugar over them to serve alongside. I can promise you, nothing smells as good as a pan of hot blintzes emerging from the oven!

Happy Shavuot!

Cheese Blintzes with Strawberries
Adapted slightly from The Book of Jewish Food
By Claudia Roden
Makes 18 small blintzes

Pancakes:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/3 cups water
2 eggs
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons canola oil

Filling:
1 pound cottage cheese
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping:
3 cups strawberries, quartered
3 tablespoons sugar

In large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, milk and water until well blended.  Add the eggs, salt and canola oil and stir until smooth.  Let sit for 1-2 hours at room temperature.

Heat an 8-inch, non-stick frying pan over medium high heat.  Using a paper towel dipped in canola oil, wipe the bottom to lightly grease it.  Pour 1/3 cup of the blintz batter in and swirl the pan to cover the bottom.  When the pancake browns lightly and releases easily, flip it over and cook for a few seconds on the other side.  Repeat with remaining batter, stacking the pancakes up as you go.  The pancakes can be made ahead and covered until ready to use (chill them if preparing the night before).

In the bowl of a food processor, whiz the cottage cheese, cream cheese, sugar, egg yolks and vanilla until smooth.  Set aside until ready to form the blintzes (again, cover and chill if making the night before).

Butter a 9x13-inch baking dish.  To form a blintz, lay a pancake flat and spoon about 2 tablespoons of the cheese filling in the middle.  Fold the two side edges over the filling and roll the open edges over to encase the cheese (like a little burrito).  Place the rolls side by side in the prepared dish.  The dish can be covered and kept chilled at this point to bake later, or baked right away.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Bake the blintzes for 25 minutes. While they are baking, stir together the strawberries and sugar in a small serving bowl.  Serve the blintzes hot with the bowl of strawberries.

Israeli Cheesecake

Shavuot is a Jewish holiday being celebrated this week that remembers the time when Moses received the Torah at Mount Sinai. It is also an agricultural holiday marking the end of the spring barley harvest and beginning of the summer wheat.

It is a delicious holiday and dairy foods are traditionally eaten. When faced with the new laws of keeping kosher (separating meat and dairy) at Mount Sinai, I guess it was easier to eat only dairy foods. From a seasonal perspective, goats, sheep and cows graze more in springtime and produce more milk. This allows for a lot of yummy churning and cheesemaking. To represent the harvest, grains such as barley and wheat berries are also eaten. I just love how the season and holiday observance are woven together!

Ask many Jews what represents Shavuot and you’ll get the quick response, “Cheesecake!” Our community holds an annual cheesecake bakeoff and this year a lovely variety of cheesecakes were displayed, including a classic New York, a vegan delight, a fig and basil, a savory, an apple and caramel, a New York fudge, a raspberry swirl, micro minis, Oreo crust mocha and Israeli cheesecake. Wow! That’s a lot of cheesecake tasting and, not surprisingly, a large crowd always turns out to sample.

I contributed the Israeli cheesecake, which comes from Janna Gur’s lovely book The Book of New Israeli Food. Her photos and recipes are a real treat for the eye and palate. Plan ahead when making this cheesecake because it needs to be chilled for at least 24 hours. Also, it calls for gvina levana, which is an Israeli soft white cheese. If you do not have access to a market that sells it, you can substitute quark or cream cheese in an equal amount.

Israeli Cheesecake (for an 8x8 inch square baking dish)
from The Book of New Israeli Food by Janna Gur

The crust and topping:
7 ounces crumbled petit-beurre cookies (or any butter cookie or biscuit that isn’t too sweet)
4 ounces melted butter
2 tablespoons sugar

The filling:
7 ounces butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg, preferably organic, room temperature
1 egg yolk, preferable organic, room temperature
9 ounces gvina levana (or other cheese such as quark or room temperature cream cheese)
7 ounces sour cream

Combine the crumbled cookies with the sugar and melted butter. Press two-thirds of the mixture onto the bottom of the baking dish. Freeze for 15 minutes until the crust solidifies. Keep the rest for the topping.

Beat the butter with the sugar, egg and egg yolk in a mixer until creamy and fluffy. Gently fold in the cheese and sour cream and pour the filling into the prepared crust. Coat with the remaining cookie crumb mixture and refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.