Romanian Cornmeal Cheese Cake

My grandmother occasionally made a fabulous cornmeal dish — she called it mamaliga, the national dish of Romania — and served it with sweetened, mashed farmer cheese and sour cream. Sometimes with a drizzle of maple syrup over everything.

I never knew it as Malai, a classic Romanian Shavuot treat, but that’s what it was. But it wasn’t her usual, plain “cornmeal mush” because it also had eggs and sugar mixed into the batter.

All I knew was how delicious it tasted.

So, over the years I experimented over and over until I made a version that tastes something like what I remember.

Here it is, in time for Shavuot.

Romanian MALAI

The Batter:

• 6 tablespoons butter

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 3/4 cup finely ground cornmeal

• 1/3 cup sugar

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2/3 cup milk, half-and-half or buttermilk

• 2 large eggs

• filling

• sour cream, whipped cream, ice cream, etc. optional

• extra sugar or maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8-inch cake pan. Melt the butter and set it aside to cool. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix to distribute the ingredients evenly. Add the milk, eggs and cooled, melted butter and mix on medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until thoroughly blended. Spoon one half of the cornmeal mixture into the prepared pan and spread the batter to make it even. Top with the filling. Top with the remaining batter (spread the batter to make a smooth, even top crust). Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the cake is set.

Serve the cake warm, room temperature or slightly chilled. Serve plain or topped with sour cream (traditional), whipped cream or ice cream. (I add about 2 teaspoons of sugar for each cup of sour cream used as a garnish).

Makes 8-10 servings

THE Filling:

• 1 pound farmer’s cheese

• 1 large egg

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon peel

Mix the farmer’s cheese, egg, sugar and lemon peel until the ingredients are well blended.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Ice Cream

Cheesecake is one of the good things in life right? No matter what kind of cheesecake. New York style. Baked into Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies. Any and all really.

So why not cheesecake ice cream? The weather has turned, all the snow has finally melted, it’s hot.

Which makes it ice cream weather.

Cheesecake ice cream.

Which I made recently and just for good measure, added some red velvet cake crumbs (icing and all) from the cake I made last week.

Oh my, this was good.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Red Velvet Cheesecake Ice Cream                                                                                                                                                                               

8 ounces cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1 cup dairy sour cream

1 cup half and half cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups cut up red velvet cake                                                                                                                                                                                       

Cut the cream cheese into pieces and place in a food processor or electric mixer. Add the sugar and salt and process or mix at medium speed until well combined. Add the sour cream and blend it in thoroughly. Gradually add the half and half and blend it in thoroughly. Stir in the vanilla extract. Chill in the refrigerator for about an hour or until cold. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Just before the mixture is finally thick enough to place in the freezer, add the cake pieces and mix them in. Spoon into a container to freeze.

Makes about 6 cups

Eli's Cheesecake

It’s cheesecake season. Whatever the reason: Shavuot, Mother’s Day, graduation, upcoming pool or patio party, Father’s Day and so on.

So last week I handed out my very special recipe for cheesecake. 

Which got a terrific response and one particularly nice one for me from Eli’s Cheesecake in Chicago, Illinois, which I became familiar with many years ago when I was at college at Northwestern University.

When the good folks at Eli’s read my blog and saw how I was bragging that my cheesecake recipe is unsurpassed, they offered to send me one of theirs to compare.

So here’s the deal.

My cheesecake is smooth, creamy, dense and tangy. I mix in freshly grated orange and lemon peel to infuse it with a refreshing citrus flavor.

Eli’s cheesecake is smooth, creamy, dense and tangy, pleasantly sweet and spiked with rich vanilla. 

It’s the old apples-oranges thing. They are too different to compare.

If you like baking your own, try my recipe. If you’re looking for scrumptious bakery-bought cheesecake, order one (or more) from Eli’s. In addition to plain vanilla there’s lots of other flavors including gluten-free versions as well as chocolate, salted caramel, turtle, cappuccino, blood orange, key lime and more (including sampler packs that include several flavors together).

Either way, you can’t go wrong, especially now. Cheesecake season. Whatever the reason.

New York Cheesecake

This is my no-better-than-this-one cheesecake.

Honest.

I have tasted all sorts. Plain, chocolate, gloppy-cherry-topped, graham cracker crusted, pumpkin-infused, brandy-spiked, caramel swirled. Sara Lee’s, Lindy’s, Eli’s, Junior’s.

Not that I spend my life eating cheesecake. In fact, cheesecake is a rare item at our house because, let’s face it, there are enough calories in one slice for an entire meal.

Nope. Cheesecake is reserved for special occasions, like Shavuot (which begins at sundown May 14 this year). It’s tradition to eat dairy on this holiday, and cheesecake has always been the most popular holiday dessert.

As far as I’m concerned, because cheesecake is such a rarity in my life, it has to be worthy. Worthy of a celebration. Worth adding all those calories to my day.

This one is.

Honest.

New York Cheesecake

• 1-1/2 teaspoons butter or margarine
• 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs (approximately)
• 1-1/2 pounds cream cheese (3-8 ounce packages)
• freshly grated peel of one small orange
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon peel
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1/3 cup dairy sour cream or unflavored yogurt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the butter on the bottom and sides of a 9” springform pan. Sprinkle the inside of the pan with the graham cracker crumbs. Shake the pan to coat the bottom and sides of the pan completely. Beat the cream cheese, orange peel and lemon peel together in the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until the cheese has softened and is smooth. Gradually add the vanilla, cream and sugar and beat for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture is smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula. Add the eggs one at a time, beating them in after each addition. Stir in the sour cream. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Prepare a bain-marie, that is, place the springform pan inside a larger pan. Fill the larger pan with enough hot water to come at least 1-inch up the sides of the baking dish. Bake for 70-75 minutes or until the top of the cake is lightly browned. Remove the springform pan from the larger pan and let the cake cool in the springform pan. When the cake has reached room temperature, refrigerate it for at least 4 hours or until it is thoroughly chilled. Remove the sides of the pan to serve the cake. Slices best using a knife that has been inserted into very hot water. Makes one

Half and Half Cheesecake

Why wait for a holiday to eat cheesecake?

We didn’t.

Last week as the family gathered I wanted to make a dessert we hadn’t eaten in a while, so I played around with my basic cheesecake batter and came up with this sort of striped, half vanilla, half chocolate version.

When even my grandson Remy, who is 2 and will not eat cheese, asked for “mo cheesecake, mo cheesecake!” I knew I had a winner. (Everyone else liked it too.)

You might think cheesecake is too heavy for summer eating. But it doesn’t have to be. This recipe is light, but creamy and soft. Nice even on a hot hot day.

You can make this cake all vanilla, of course (I would add some freshly grated lemon and/or orange peel, maybe 2-3 teaspoons grated) or all chocolate (increase the melted chocolate to 10 ounces).

Among the great things about cheesecake is that you can make lots of changes easily to suit yourself and it’s still cheesecake. Like, you can serve it plain or cover it with glazed fruit. Or you can build a graham cracker crust inside. And so on. Also, you can save leftovers for another day: wrap in plastic and put in the freezer for months.

Try this first and let your tastebuds take you from there:

Half and Half Cheesecake

6 ounces semisweet chocolate

1-1/2 pounds cream cheese (3 8-ounce packages)

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup whipping cream

1/3 cup dairy sour cream or unflavored yogurt 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the chocolate in the top part of a double boiler over barely simmering water (or use a microwave oven). Set aside to cool. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and set it aside. Beat the cream cheese and sugar with an electric mixer set on medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture is smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract, cream and sour cream. Remove half the batter to a second bowl. Add the melted chocolate to one of the halves and blend it in thoroughly. Spoon one of the batters into the prepared pan. Top with the second batter. Place the springform pan inside a larger pan. Fill the larger pan with enough hot water to come at least 1” up the sides of the springform pan. Bake for 65-70 minutes or until the cake is set and doesn’t shake when the pan is moved gently. Remove the springform pan from the larger pan and let the cake cool in the springform pan. When the cake has reached room temperature, place it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or until it is thoroughly chilled. Remove the sides of the springform pan and cut the cake into slices using a knife that has been heated under hot water and dried. Makes one cake, 8-12 servings 

Sweet Potato Cheesecake

Is it a yam or a sweet potato? This question comes up every year and, true to form, my sister-in-law and I talked about the very subject yesterday.

The answer is: unless you go to a special, local market or grow them yourself, you are not going to be able to buy yams. You will be buying sweet potatoes, no matter what the supermarket or greengrocer calls it. Yams are not grown commercially in the United States.

There are many varieties of sweet potato. Some almost white, some yellow, others are dark, rich almost burgundy-orange.

They’re all sweet potatoes.

As is the stuff in the cans.

Centuries ago some sweet potato varieties were called nyami by American slaves, who thought the vegetable looked like the African yam, a completely different plant species. And that’s how the confusion all began.

No matter. Whatever you call them, most people love them and will be making some sort of sweet potato dish for Thanksgiving.

If you need a really quick and easy recipe without all the sugar and butter and other stuff, here’s the simple way I make yams, er — sweet potatoes: I buy the dark orange organic sweets, roast them and when they are cool I spoon the flesh into a bowl. I grate the rind of a fresh orange over it, sprinkle in a few shakes of cinnamon and mix. Then I stir in enough orange juice to get the texture I like. That’s all there is to it.

This recipe is less caloric, less fatty. So that if you have any leftovers you can make an awesome, not-so-low calorie cheesecake for the rest of the weekend. Here’s a recipe:

Sweet Potato Cheesecake

• ground toasted almonds (about 2 tablespoons), optional

• 1-1/2 pounds cream cheese

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1/4 cup white sugar

• 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon grated fresh nutmeg

• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon grated fresh orange rind*

• 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 4 large eggs

• 3/4 cup pureed sweet potatoes

• 1/2 cup dairy sour cream or plain yogurt

• confectioner’s sugar, candied ginger, etc. for garnish, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter an 8-inch or 9-inch springform pan (or cheesecake pan). Sprinkle with the toasted almonds and twirl the pan to lightly coat the sides and bottom with the nuts. Beat the cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium for 2-3 minutes or until smooth. Add the brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, orange rind and vanilla extract and beat the ingredients for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time beating after each addition. Mix in the sweet potatoes and sour cream, blending thoroughly.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan. Place the pan in a larger pan. Fill the larger pan with enough water to come up about 1-inch on the sides of the springform pan. Bake for about one hour or until set. Remove the springform from the larger pan and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before removing the cake from the pan to cool completely. Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar or candied ginger if desired.

Makes one cake, serves 8-10

*if you use leftover mashed and seasoned sweet potatoes, cut down on the orange rind by half.

Soggy Cheesecake Crust

Hi Leslie - sorry that your cheesecake crust comes out soggy. It may be that water leaks into the seams of the springform pan. You can line the bottom with tin foil (overhang it), then attach the side, then take the overhanging part and crumple it to try to seal all the edges. That may help.

On the other hand — it may be the recipe. It’s important to bake the crust for at least 10 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. Then let it cool. Then fill it.

Another trick you can try — add some ground nuts to the crumbs. Nuts always crisp up nicely and stay crispy better than crumbs do.

Another tip: bake the crust for 10 minutes, brush it with an egg wash (beat an egg with a small amount of water) and bake for another 3-4 minutes.

And another: let the crust cool, then layer on a thin layer of melted chocolate, jam, lemon curd or the like. This adds a flavor dimension of course, but it also helps keep the crust crispy.

After sitting in the fridge, even after all that, eventually cheesecake crust will become soggy just from the moisture in the cheese. But the tips above will help get you a better crust at least at the beginning.

When I Judged a Cheesecake Contest

I was once a judge at a cheesecake contest. It was at a cookware shop in Darien, Connecticut, and each of us, three judges in all, were given clipboards with survey sheets for cakes numbered 1 through 50.

50 cakes!! How much we would actually be eating by taking 50 bites, one from each cake??

The shop owners reassured us that there were only 32 cakes to sample.

Only 32???

There were tall cakes, fat cakes, plain cakes and glitzy ones. One, covered in mounds of white chocolate curls and festooned with pink satin ribbon, looked too gorgeous to cut.

One cake was already cut. The contestant’s husband had taken a piece for himself, not realizing it was for a contest.

The garlic-and-herb flavored savory cheesecake (with bread crumb crust and tomato rose garnish) was the biggest surprise. We started there.

We tasted New York Cheesecakes, Italian style ricotta cheesecakes, nut-filled cheesecakes, cherry covered ones and a couple topped with glazed or chocolate-dipped strawberries. In between each taste we drank sparkling water.

We tasted all 32 and each finished 3 liters of water.

The white-chocolate fancy cake was terrible, an overload of sugar and no cheese flavor. But it got a special “most beautiful” prize.

The cut cake was very good, but out of 32 entries there were three excellent tasting-looking cheesecakes that were clear winners.

It’s really difficult to be a judge at a local food contest. When the contestants and their families started to file into the store just before the winners were to be announcedwe realized how hard everyone worked and how eager they were for us to like their recipes.

And yet, we could only choose three. First place, by a lot, was Leslie Sutton’s chocolate and vanilla layered cheesecake enveloped in a chocolate cookie crust. It was capped with a thin, sweet-and-tangy sour cream icing cover and decorated with dark chocolate leaves and a white chocolate swan. The cake’s delicate beauty was matched by an exquisite flavor.

We announced the winners, prizes were given and then it was all over but the Alka Seltzer.

Leslie, wherever you are now, thank you and you should know that this is still my favorite. And so, on National Cheesecake Day, I am sending this recipe out to any readers who might want to try your recipe for the best cheesecake I ever tasted.

Leslie Sutton’s Layered Cheesecake

Crumb crust:

• 1-3/4 cups chocolate wafer crumbs
• 5 tablespoons melted sweet butter
• Mix the crumbs and butter until all the crumbs have been coated. Butter the sides of a 9-1/2 inch springform pan. Press the crumbs onto the bottom and sides of the pan. Set aside.

Cake:

• 3 8-ounce packages cream cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup dairy sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 7 ounces melted semisweet chocolate
• topping
• garnish: chocolate leaves, swan, etc. optional

Topping:

• 2 cups dairy sour cream
• 1/4 cup sugar

Mix sour cream and sugar. Use as a topping for cheesecake.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat the cheese, sugar and salt together (use a mixer set at medium) until smooth, creamy and well-blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract and blend thoroughly. Pour half the batter into the springform pan. Add the melted chocolate to the remaining batter, bend thoroughly and slowly pour the chocolate batter on top of the vanilla layer. Bake the cake for 40 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and let it sit for 15 minutes. Reset the oven to 450 degrees. Pour the topping over the cake. Return the cake to the 450 degree oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool to room temperature. Remove the sides of the pan and refrigerate cake until well chilled. Garnish with chocolate leaves, swan, etc, of your choice.

Makes one cake

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