Friday, March 30, 2007

ricotta mascarpone cheesecake at last!!!

RICOTTA, MASCARPONE, CHOCOLATE, ORANGE TART

I made this easy tart for the Bornschlegel xmas festivities. We kept wanting to call it a cheesecake, for obvious reasons (like the length of the above title), but it's quite a bit lighter than a typical cheesecake because of the egg whites.

The recipe is from a Jamie Oliver cookbook, transcribed while in the Amsterdam airport bookstore on a 5-hour layover, so the wording is mine, not his.

Ricotta/Mascarpone/Chocolate/Orange Tart

Prepare and bake a tart shell. I didn't copy JO's recipe since I used meriko's pate sucree recipe (pastry scares me but I've successfully used that one before). I think a graham cracker-type crust would also be good. Underbake it a wee bit since it will get baked again.

Preheat oven to 325.

Filling:
9 oz. ricotta cheese
9 oz. mascarpone cheese
4.5 oz. confectioner's (powdered) sugar
grated zest of 3 oranges
seeds from 2 vanilla pods
2 eggs, separated

Topping
3.5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped


Combine everything except the egg whites and chocolate in a mixing bowl, whip until smooth and shiny. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold the egg whites into the filling. Pour the filling into the tart shell, then sprinkle the chocolate on top.

[The recipe called for making an extra crust to lattice on top, but that sounded like too much work for my taste, and overkill besides. If you like the idea of overkill, brush the lattice top with beaten egg and dust with powdered suger.]

Bake 40-45 minutes (light to medium brown...I believe it also looked fairly well set but don't quite remember, sorry).

notes:
The odd amounts are because Oliver's a Brit and when listed in grams they were nice neat measurements.

I used 8 oz. of each cheese since the mascarpone came in that size tub.

I used one real vanilla pod plus some vanilla extract since I'm a cheapskate.

Posted by andrea on January 01, 2003 | TrackBack

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