Tuesday 22 October 2013

Blue cheese cheesecake

Blue cheese cheesecake

November 27, 2011 at 12:11am

I am sifting through mounds of cheesecake recipe notes. I seem to have scribbled on every form of paper imaginable, ingenuous or foolish enough to believe I would be able to decipher my notes so many hours, weeks, even years later. I am looking for inspiration to recreate, or should I say develop, a cheesecake recipe I have never sampled; Blue cheese cheesecake. Someone special would like to eat this cheesecake again.
She was a child when a French pastry chef , working in a shop in Yokohama made this not too sweet  specialty; not too sweet, not too blue, very creamy, not too high, and laden with memories which could ,most likely, make reality  fall short of remembrance. I am forewarned by her tale that the chef said 50 percent of the customers disliked it while 50 percent loved it; a case of if you like it, you love it and if you don't, you really, really don't like it.

I was a bit wary about this request; I mean I thought of my mother immediately. What would she say?Cheesecake, New York cheesecake, to be exact, is part of my inheritance. Memories of my family are intricately mixed into it. My mother was the star baker of cheesecake; we credited her with developing it and sharing it with the world. In our case, the world meant New York. I have the recipe, in one of those lined notecards, in her handwriting, the paper aged and stained by wet fingers and smudged by ingredients wiped away. She made two types: Plain or Maple Walnut/ Pecan. My sister, to this day, will never order cheesecake in a restaurant. We are loyal. 

I have notes on pecan, pumpkin, earl gray tea, matcha, chocolate, coffee, lemon, raspberry, Bailey's, even banana cheesecakes but not one note on blue cheese. I have a description I saved of my first experience of fosse with acacia honey eaten right near the cave where the cheese was stored, but no recipe for a fosse cheesecake. So I start to think of my father as I grapple with the concept of this cheesecake and whether to use the french style and roguefort, or fourme, cambozola or cabrales, or whether it is  best to go with the creamy gorgonzola dolce, or even the danish blue. I can almost see my father shrug his shoulders and  mock roll his eyes with an impish smile as he tries to fathom why I would bother to try and make a sweet dessert from a savoury cheese.

I think of my father now mostly because cheesecake was what he always ordered when we went out to eat. (He was free to order cheesecake out because my parents weren’t together but I am certain his love of cheesecake came from my mother.)He did not ask whether it was New York Style or Chicago, baked or refrigerated, he never even asked what flavor it was. He simply asked if they had cheesecake. He never varied in all the times he and I ate out together. I never saw him eating it at his home. There were no cartons in the freezer of the ubiquitous Sara Lee, though once I did spy an Entenmann's cheese pastry ,most probably long forgotten. Once I asked why he didn't try anything else on a dessert menu. He plucked his beautifully manicured fingernails (he had beautiful hands ; he was a metro man long before the term was in use) as he struggled to answer what for him was a silly question. "Why should I? I like cheesecake." In answer to my concern that it might not be good cheesecake, he looked a bit shocked, as if an unsatisfactory cheesecake might be offered up. After all, after a certain age, and number of years back living in Florida, with so many 'early bird specials' under his belt, he knew they would have cheesecake, and most likely baked cheesecake. I never did see him push a plate away, even when it was clear he did not think it was the best example of his beloved dessert.

I often think he had the gift of not dwelling on the past. He would not wax gloriously over past meals ; he rarely spoke of old exploits; there were no long monologues of  a remembrance of cheesecakes past. It was here, it was now, fork in hand. If it were not a shining example of the art of the cheesecake, there was always tomorrow. He did once share with me that my mother introduced him to cheesecake and it was hers that triggered his love of it. It was nice to know he had at least  one fond memory of his years of marriage to her and it would be oddly romantic if his commitment to cheesecake as the dessert of choice were an  tribute to a memory of that early love. Somehow, I doubt it though.

He was a creature of habit, as we all are in some fashion and to some extent; he always woke early, got dressed, shaved, and did the crossword puzzles in the newspapers. He drank a rather weak cup of coffee and while he concentrated on the puzzle, he listened with one ear and answered in sounds rather than words; mm, aha, um. And he went out to lunch. He went out for dinner very often. and he always tried to share a taste of his meal which was equivalent to a full order. He went dancing. and did a great marenge. He told corny jokes, often during these meals before, during and after his cheesecake. His favourite was plain.

Whether he thought blue cheese cheesecake were a good, odd, or weird idea, he would try it. And he would finish the entire slice, most likely reserving judgement. He would not say anything most likely,  except for that shrug of the shoulders and tilt of the head, with that impish smile I miss so very very much right now, as I try to recreate a fond memory for someone else.

This space below will have the recipe as soon as I am done testing my recipes. And then maybe I will make a foie gras cheesecake. Rather, I’ll probably simply make an old fashioned plain cheesecake in memory of dad, and mom, of course..

Addendum: My friends made me remove the recipe because they liked it so much but now, in 2022, my former boss called asking me to teach his pastry chef the recipe so I thinks it’s fair to share  that version with the world. It’s not challenging.

Bluecheese cheesecake

Crust optional. If mini servings, such as made in the Nordic pan, bake for 15 minutes at 180c/350F.
Spray/ grease a 16 cm springform pan.line the bottom with cooking paper.
Crust: 

Pulse, in a food processor ( or in a plastic bag, using a rolling pin), 
200 g nuts: I use roasted hazelnuts , walnuts, almonds, or Brazil nuts.
Natural sugar to taste,
80g butter, melted.
Press mixture into the base of the mold and up the sides, if desired. 
Bake at 170 c for 8 minutes or until firm and you can smell the oil of the nuts slightly.

Cheesecake mixture:
Place in food processor all together,
100 grams of blue cheese ( Gorgonzola dolce, Danablu, etc but taste it to check salt level to adjust recipe)
200g cream cheese ( Kiri is good if the cheese is salty)
2 eggs
100 g marscapone
1 Tb cornstarch/ cornflour/ flour
Brown sugar  or maple sugar to taste (about 5 Tb/ 50 g)
 Opt’lDash of real vanilla ( which for me is about 1 teaspoon)
Blend until smooth.

Pour into prepared pan. Decorate with crumbs of blue cheese.
Bake  about 30 minutes, until edges are set but the center still wobbles a bit.
Cool slightly, run a knife around the edge of the pan.
Chill completely( at least 2 hours).

For a savoury version, decrease sugar, omit cornstarch, and add about 50g of finely grated Padano or Parmesan.

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