To make the crust, brown the almond meal slightly in a pan. To this add the butter and sugar. Mix thoroughly. Once the mixture is cool enough that you can touch the flour, place the mixture in a pre-greased (with very little melted butter) pie dish. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Then, in a large bowl, beat the egg whites and add the ricotta cheese. Blend thoroughly. Then sequentially, add the flour, honey and vanilla extract, blending at each addition. I used a spatula to blend the ingredients. Finally add the spices. Now, pour this cheese filling onto the pie crust and bake at 350 F for about 30 minutes or until a fork, when inserted into the cheese filling comes out clean. In the meantime, make the berry sauce by combining all the ingredients in a sauce pan and cooking the berries until they are soft (but nor squishy!). Make sure you have some liquid in the sauce pan, it can be handy for decoration. Serve a piece of the cheese cake in a serving dish and decorate with the berry sauce.
Using the recipe given, Jay, Esha, and Anjali each set out to compete for who would make the best cheesecake, documenting their experiences along the way. The cheescakes would be ranked by Dr. Dixit herself.
Cheesecakes are a quintessential part of New York cuisine. When we think of the perfect New York dinner, we think of stretchy cheese on a hot pizza, or the crunchy zing of a hot dog, but a nice dinner is always rounded off with a thick slice of cheesecake. Although Dr. Dixit is not a native New Yorker, she has impeccable knowledge of creating recipes with explosive flavors and putting her own unique spin on iconic dishes. Dr. Dixit was kind enough to supply me with her recipe for a ricotta cheesecake, based on a recipe she had at a bed and breakfast on the Mendocino coast.
Dr. Dixit’s recipe is different from the New York cheesecake in a couple of ways. First off, her recipe calls for ricotta cheese rather than the usual cream cheese. This gives the cheesecake a much more creamy feel, as ricotta is softer than cream cheese. The crust of the cheesecake is made from almond flour, which ties beautifully with the tart berry sauce that accompanies the dessert. The filling is sugar-free. Instead the sweetness is pronounced through the honey, which provides the subtle aftertaste that we all associate with cheesecakes. The final texture is incredibly creamy, complemented by the soft flavors of the toasted almond flour crust, making this dish the perfect dessert.
My experience making the cheesecake was a smooth-sailing one, and the recipe was quite easy to follow. The format of the recipe was geared towards a more experienced baker, due to the absence of detailed explanations. The recipe starts with the crust, composed of toasted almond flour combined with small portions of butter and brown sugar. I had some trouble getting the crust mix to conform to the pie pan with equal thickness, and decided to use a spatula to press the mixture firmly onto the pan. After popping the pie pan in the fridge, I began working on the filling.
When making classic cheesecake previously, I had always found the filling to be quite thick, so I was expecting something similar with Dr. Dixit’s recipe. This, however, was not the case. Her recipe called for soft ricotta cheese instead of firm cream cheese, completely changing the texture of the filling and leading me to believe that I had done something wrong. I decided to continue with what I had, because I used all of my ricotta cheese. The pie went in the oven for 30 minutes, during which I made the berry sauce. The sauce was pretty simple, composed of only blueberries and water with some sugar and cinnamon. When my oven timer rang, I was surprised to see that the center of the pie was still raw and the edges of the pie were still quite pale. I added another 10 minutes to the timer, and when I checked the oven again, the top of the pie had turned a lovely golden brown with the crust being slightly darker. By then it was nearly 10 pm, so I let the pie cool for about 15 minutes before putting it in the fridge overnight. I tasted the pie with the berry sauce the next morning, and at first taste, I was not amazed. It was nothing like the classic cheesecake I was used to. The texture of the filling was slightly grainy, and the taste of the almond crust was very prominent. But as I kept eating my slice, I realized how well the flavors worked with each other. The earthy tones of the almond perfectly balanced the tartness of the blueberries and cheese, leaving my taste buds fulfilled. This recipe is really different from an original cheesecake, but I highly recommend this cheesecake for anyone looking to try something flavorfully different. Thanks to Dr. Dixit, I was able to make a new delicious dish, and I look forward to the next teacher's recipe in the coming months!
First, I had to make the crust. The instructions said to use almond meal, but almond meal is…basically almond flour. The instructions also say “molasses”, so I decided to make my own. The cheesecake called for a minuscule amount of 2 tablespoons of the substance, not enough to put on the stove, but enough to heat up in the microwave. To make molasses, I needed brown sugar, cream of tartar and water. I didn’t know what cream of tartar was, but I knew it's an acid. So, I thought lemon juice might work instead. I heated it up in the microwave, and it did not come out as I’d hoped-- molasses isn’t supposed to be liquidy, is it? I decided the only way to fix it was to put it on the stove. Jay later told me that brown sugar is just molasses and white sugar — meaning I didn’t need to make my own. But, it didn’t ruin anything.
I finished making the crust dough, but when I was trying to shape it into the pan, it began to fall apart. So, I poured way more butter than needed to help mold it. Unfortunately, even after baking, the butter’s taste still lingered. The crust was probably the most time consuming part — it took me over an hour.
Finally I started on the filling — it was fairly simple, pouring in all the ingredients and mixing! When I tried Jay’s cheesecake, I thought it lacked the flavor I wanted in mine. I put in my cheese, 3 eggs, honey, and vanilla (I didn’t have cinnamon). I accidentally used the full egg instead of egg whites —but it just makes the filling thicker which is fine. I knew I had to add something to make it better. Dr. Dixit’s recipe called for a berry compote to be put on top, and the best flavor to go with berries is lemon! Seeing a dry lemon in my peripheral vision, I zested lemons and squeezed a few drops of lemon juice in. I didn’t measure it though — I don’t believe in measurements. When Jay tried it, he told me that lemon separates the ricotta cheese, making it taste like cottage cheese. And maybe it does taste like cottage cheese, but at least it has lemon: a new, fresh flavor.
It was 11:40 pm when I finally put my cheesecake in the oven. I was tired, on the verge of falling asleep right there and then, but I still persisted and made the berry compote. I love blackberries, so I used them instead of blueberries. I let the blackberries, brown sugar and water boil over as I sat on my phone in my misery. Again, I sought a new unique flavor and added vanilla and lemon juice to the mixture. I was so tired; I lost track of time, wallowing in my cheesecake’s demise. Finally, after 40 minutes in the oven, I took the cheesecake out. And finally at 12:20, I went to sleep, anticipating the big taste test tomorrow.
The making of this cheesecake culminated into my fourth time baking. EVER. I’m not much of a baker (or cook for that matter), though I am proud to say my past creations in my kitchen include muffins and actually a cake! Baking was still a new process to me, so the crafting of Dr. Dixit’s one-of-a-kind almond meal, ricotta cheese based cheesecakes, was going to be a challenging undertaking.
To start off, I needed to buy 3 main ingredients - ricotta cheese, eggs, and all purpose flour. The first thing that came to my mind was Why break the eggs and make my own egg whites when I can buy premade ones from the store! So that’s what I did. I also saw that instead of brown, granulated, sticky molasses sugar, I had white, powdery, thin sugar! I personally believe in breaking boundaries, so I decided to use this as a substitute. I knew I was going to ace this recipe when I started off working smarter, not harder.
The first part of the recipe was the crust. I looked at it and thought, It seems too stressful, I will save that for later. Instead, I started with making the cheese filling. I first added 1.5 cups of ricotta cheese to my small mixing bowl. Next, I added 9 tablespoons of egg whites from the container I bought, the equivalent of egg whites from 3 eggs. As instructed, I mixed them with a spatula. I bought a whole bag of all purpose flour only to use 2 tablespoons. Feeling like it would be a waste of flour, I may or may not have slipped in another half a tablespoon or so.
The honey required by the recipe was super difficult to get into my bowl because of how viscous it was. I only had one tiny honey jar and most of the honey stuck to my spoon, so in the end I was only able to add around 4 tablespoons of honey instead of 6. Then I took out my half empty vanilla extract bottle to measure out the 4 teaspoons. This was the first time I was using a teaspoon measure in this recipe, and it was at this moment that I realized I only had scoops measuring ¼ tsp, ½ tsp, and 1 tbsp. It also occurred to me that I didn’t quite know the difference between the size of a teaspoon and a tablespoon (sure one was larger, but by how much?). It turns out a tablespoon is 15 mls and a teaspoon is 5 mls! This revelation also showed me I didn’t have enough vanilla extract. I would need 20 mls, and I had more than half of my 30 ml vanilla extract bottle empty.
Anyways, I poured what was remaining into the bowl and mixed again. The most difficult part came with measuring the spices, which needed ⅛ of teaspoon each. Since the smallest I had was ¼, I just guesstimated and made sure both the nutmeg and cinnamon powder filled the scoop. (I also really liked the cinnamon smell so I added some more.)
For the crust - I added the almond meal, but since it was already brown, I needed the help of Vinay Prabhu, known to me as Father, to help me see how much browner was enough (the recipe said to brown the…already brown meal). Vinay Prabhu felt it was necessary to supervise me as I used the stove, so it was under his oversight that I added the sugar and butter (two hotel-style butter cubes that I microwaved to warm) to the almond meal and, after greasing the pie dish with ghee, added in the whole crust mixture. I patted the almond meal down to make it more even and packed.
Finally, I poured in my cheese filling and put everything in the oven! From start to finish, I had a total of 45 minutes of prep time. After 30 minutes, I took the cheesecake out from the oven and poked it to see whether the filling had congealed enough. I served my parents the first slice, and since neither one of them cared for another piece, both looking very intently at each other, I can only imagine that the taste must have blown them away so much that they were worried they would never be able to enjoy food again after tasting my cheesecake.
P.S. I also bought the blueberries for the sauce, but I thought that Jay and Esha did not make the berry sauce when they served their cheesecakes to Dr. Dixit! Turns out they did, and I should have just made the sauce. Oh well.
Even before Dr. Dixit announced the results, we knew Jay’s would win; his expertise was unmatched. Every time she passed him in the hallways, she would remind him of how “superb” his cheesecake was. She even said that his was just as good or even better than her making of the recipe. In the end, all that mattered was if Esha, with her chunky cheesecake, or Anjali, with her inexperience, would place second. Dr. Dixit finally revealed that in her opinion Anjali’s cheesecake won second.
Dr. Dixit’s recipe was not easy to follow and was intended for more advanced bakers, but in the end, Esha and Anjali were still able to make tasty cheesecakes to enjoy. Anjali did a surprisingly good job at following a recipe with very few instructions, considering she has only baked a few times. Esha and Anjali can only wait for Dr. Chaudhri’s recipe next month to redeem themselves.