In Good Food I saw a recipe for quark and mascarpone cheesecake. And Bailey’s and coffee cream. It was a no-bake recipe. I wanted to bake, which is why I took from the recipe what I enjoyed, which are the two types of cheese. Quark is a fine cheese, fresh, with a taste of yogurt. It is made by heating buttermilk until a certain point. The milk is then strained. Mascarpone is an Italian fine cheese (and not a type of cream, as some cooking course teachers know) obtained by the denaturation of the cream. Now that everyone’s clear on quark and mascarpone, let’s proceed to today’s recipe, which I dedicate to Ana from Easypeasy, because it’s her birthday today:
I left the cheeses in their packaging so it would be easier for you to identify them. I used half a kilogram of each. If I had found no flavor quark cheese, I would have used a vanilla pod to flavor it. But I did find vanilla flavored quark, so I’m cool.
For the crust, I used 300 grams of simple crackers, the petite beurre type.
I melted a pack of butter and poured it over the crushed crackers (I practically powdered them).
I mixed the butter and the crackers very well.
I put the mixture in a round cake pan with 20 cm in diameter. I tried to spread it in a uniform manner and I was careful not to press it too hard (I wanted the cake to absorb a part of the moisture of the cream). I put the tray in the fridge for ten minutes, until the crust hardened.
I put the cheese in a bowl, along with 300 grams of sugar. I mixed them with a whisk.
Over them, I poured 50 milliliters of a good quality brandy, for flavor.
I added four eggs to the cream, one by one (you put them like that as they will incorporate better and in order to prevent exaggerated whipping, it’s not recommended to whip the cream because it incorporates too much air and you risk the cheesecake to slouch when you take it out of the oven).
I put the cream over the cake and the tray in the oven. I preheated the oven at 150 degrees Celsius. I left the tray on the oven for an hour (if you see it starts browning on top, cover it with aluminum foil).
Tricks from Bogdan Mureșan (Cassa Loco): after the cheesecake is baked, leave it in the oven for a few hours, until it cools completely. This way it won’t crack in the middle (I saw many cracks in cheesecakes throughout my life, but this time it wasn’t the case). When it’s baked, the cheesecake has to be slightly soft in the middle, but not liquid. Don’t worry, it will harden in the fridge, where you should keep it at least for three hours before cutting it, this is after it has cooled in the oven.
I wanted to make a chocolate topping for it and I actually made it, but the idea didn’t turn out to be that great.
For this reason, I decided to complement it (although it was rather complete as it was) with some some blueberry jam.
Could it have been better? Probably. Was I satisfied with the result? Absolutely.
Will I make some again? Of course. Why is the first layer so dark-colored? Because I have an oven that bakes too much on the bottom. I will find a way to protect the cakes in the future. I’ve heard that if I put an oven tray with a layer of coarse salt, I obtain a rather good isolation. I have to try that. Stay healthy.
Special thanks to
Oana Bodnariuc, Authorized Translator
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facebook.com/oana.bodnariuc