Cheesecake “New York” - American Pie? Improvisations on the New York cheesecake: recipes from Ancient Hellas and Old World

Cheesecake “New York” - American Pie? Improvisations on the New York cheesecake: recipes from Ancient Hellas and Old World

Approximately 3,000 years ago, when the inhabitants of the Old World had not even fully mastered the whole of Europe, in the territory of Ancient Hellas this dish was an obligatory part of the wedding ceremony.

He was also necessarily served by athletes who took part in the first Olympic Games. And only after more than one and a half thousand years, the most fashionable confectionery brand, “New York” cheesecake penetrated the American continent.

By the way, creamy, pickled cheeses were also known to ancient people. So “Philadelphia”, the main ingredient and culinary pride of cheesecake is just a more technologically adapted version of the one that was accidentally discovered by an Arab merchant 7,000 years ago, and the idea of ​​improving cheesemaking belongs to Ancient Rome, because Julius Caesar had a chance to taste more than a dozen types of cheese.

Cheesecake “New York” and other types of cheesecake - general principles of cooking

This small excursion, with a culinary bias, into history is necessary for the restoration of historical justice: the “New York” cheesecake is not an American invention, but the heritage of all mankind.

In various variations, the “American” pie was prepared by people of ancient civilizations - residents of Hellas, and Ancient Rome, Ancient China and India, and even Ancient Russia - because Byzantine influence on ancient Russian culture, including culinary traditions, was significant. From this it follows that the cake with cheese may be completely different in its composition and preparation technology.

So, if you meet the phrase “a real cheesecake is cooked only with“ Philadelphia ”- do not believe it! Cheesecake “New York” is quite possible, and it is cooked only with this type of cheese, but this does not mean that it cannot be made from any soft cheese with identical taste and properties, decorating it, if the soul asks, with any ingredients. Literally the English word “cheesecake” is translated as “cheesecake” or “casserole, cottage cheese pie”. In the English encyclopedic reference books, the interpretation of the word “cheesecake” in the translation is as follows:

“… a kind of dessert (cake) with cream and soft cheese on the basis of a cracker (Gram’s cookie) -“ Graham ”, or biscuit crumbs, usually decorated with fruit sauce.

Initially, such “cheesecakes” were made from soft, homemade cheeses, but now they use light cream cheese from the supermarket. ”

Note that not a word that you need to use only Philadelphia cheese. And about the ban on the use of fruit ingredients, too, says nothing.

To know what result can be obtained in the finished dish, it is important to take into account the biochemical composition of its ingredients. Soft pickled cheeses - “Feta”, “Mascarpone”, “Philadelphia”, “Ricotta”, “Paneer” and many other types - are made using a similar technology, and differ from each other to a small extent, according to the type of rennet, the content of food additives . The texture of these cheeses has no significant difference. If we are already talking about the freshest and high-quality product, then such cheese can be found in the farm, where cheeses are made in small quantities, and because of their high liquidity, it is not necessary to use preservatives to make them.

It can be assumed that such a strict indication that only “Philadelphia” cheese is used in the “New York” cheesecake is nothing more than a publicity stunt from manufacturers of branded cheese and pie-cheesecake, or, as usual, raised claims, to put it mildly, on national exclusivity in traditional american style. The fact is that cheese “Philadelphia” was also “invented” by a New Yorker as much as 140 years ago, having forgotten to inquire about the seven thousand-year history of cheese-making, before declaring his discovery.

Having bought cottage cheese from a familiar seller from the countryside, you can cook at least a wonderful New York cheesecake. Just try the taste of cottage cheese - it should not be sour, not dry and rather fat, with a characteristic creamy taste. Sly advice:

Pickled cheese with a delicate creamy taste, for making “New York” pie-cheesecake, can be made on its own, from real, homemade milk.

In the organized market buy cottage cheese from whole milk, that is, from milk from which cream was not removed. You need to buy a home product from those sellers who sell only cottage cheese and fresh milk. If the same seller sells cream, sour cream and butter, and fat (!) Cottage cheese - ask how many cows or goats there are in his farm in order to evaluate the possibility of producing such a rich milk assortment. And most likely, the cottage cheese from such a seller will be fat-free, without the characteristic creamy taste and without the required content of milk fat. Low fat cottage cheese has a more sour taste.

Bitterness should not be present in any dairy product.

At home, cottage cheese will only need to grind through a fine sieve or smash with a blender to a homogeneous structure. Enter into it additional ingredients will need only according to the recipe.

Of course, the “New York” cheesecake is provided with a separate niche, as a popular, in its own unique version of the pie with cheese. By the way, the Americans prepare the cheesecake in different ways. In some states and even cities, within one state, there are multi-layered cheesecakes, on sour cream, with the addition of coffee or chocolate, caramel and fruit ingredients.

To make sure that any version of “New York” cheesecake is good in its own way, try each of the following recipes, with different types of rennet cheese, with and without additives.

Recipe 1. Classic “New York” cheesecake on a biscuit basis with “Philadelphia” cheese

This recipe is an example of a classic American dessert, in a simple style, without fruit and other additions. It is based on a biscuit layer. You can use the services of a supermarket and buy ready-made sponge cake. If you are interested exclusively in homemade food, without taste stabilizers and preservatives, the recipe for sponge cake is attached. Ingredients:

For sponge cake:

• Flour 60 g

• Oil (for form)

• Egg 3 pcs.

• Vanillin

• Sugar 60 g

• Salt and citric acid.

• Syrup, lemon (for impregnation)

For curd:

• Pastry cream 150 ml

• Philadelphia cheese 1.0 kg

• Sugar (or powder) 250 g; American recipe - 375 g

• Flour, corn (or potato) 40 g

• Vanilla extract or vanillin

• Egg 3 pcs.

Cooking:

As usual, before starting any baking, preheat the oven. The temperature for baking biscuit is 170 ° C. Prepare the form and sift the flour. We take from the refrigerator washed eggs (necessarily cooled) and separate the whites from the yolks. Beat yolks with sugar, whites - separately. When whipping in the yolks, add just a little salt, so that they are whipped more fluently, and in the proteins add a few drops of lemon solution, for the same purpose. Both should be whipped until the volume increases 3 times. Gently, without shaking, fluffy mass, add flour, sifted and combined with vanilla, with smooth movements, trying not to destroy air bubbles, knead the biscuit dough and, gently and quickly, shift it into a baking dish. Immediately put in the closet, and try the first twenty minutes do not disturb the biscuit. Once a beautiful crust appears on the surface, you can check the dough for readiness with a toothpick, a match, or any wooden stick. Let the cake cool in the mold, and then reach out. It is always better to line the metal form before baking the biscuit with paper for baking so that the bottom does not get dirty when cooling. The cooled biscuit cake is soaked with any syrup, at the discretion of the pastry chef.

Biscuit is ready - go to baking American cheesecake “New York”.

If you make a sponge cake yourself, you can not get it out of the mold, because you still need to lay out the cream cheese mass on top and continue to bake the cheesecake. It is only necessary, in this case, for baking the biscuit to take the form with higher edges. The temperature for heating the oven is the same as for baking the sponge dough.

It is convenient to cook cheese mass for cheesecake in a combine, placing cheese, corn flour and sugar in the bowl. Given that the prescription requires a large amount of cheese, you can beat it in pieces, especially if the mixer power can not cope with significant loads. You need to beat the cheese for a long time, when the mass becomes very lush and is enriched with air bubbles, you can pour (or pour) vanilla, add eggs gradually, without stopping the mixer or combine, and add cream at the very end of the beating. Cream with added cream can be whipped no more than a couple of minutes, so that it does not exfoliate. The finished cream mass evenly spread and smooth on the surface of the biscuit. Hot water is poured on the baking sheet, and the form with the New York cheesecake is put into it. The water level should be no higher than half the level of the baked form. Water is needed so that the cheese mass is “boiled” with the help of steam, and not burnt or cracked during baking. Willingness can be determined by piercing the cheesecake with the same wooden stick, but not earlier than an hour later, from the beginning of baking.

Taking the form out of the oven, leave the baking dish in it to cool, then cover the surface with a film so that it does not dry out.

Recipe 2. Cheesecake “New York” and its “relative” from Greece - cheesecake with yogurt

The very first Greek cheesecake was prepared much easier, without frills. It was an ordinary cheesecake, almost like a modern classic “New York” cheesecake. But the Greek land warmed by the tropical sun is truly inexhaustible and generous with its gifts. One of the most ancient civilizations has enriched humanity with its knowledge and experience in all spheres of human activity, not excluding cooking. At the same time, Greek cuisine continues to evolve.

Ingredients:

• 15 pcs. ("120 g) Melba crackers (or vanilla crackers, thin and narrow)

• Walnut kernel 80 g • 40 ml unrefined olive oil

• Sugar 250 g

• Fat-free cheese, creamy 120 g (for example, “Neuchatel”)

• 2.5 Art. low fat yogurt

• 7 pcs. proteins (large eggs)

• Cinnamon, ground 1 tsp.

For the Greek cheesecake sauce:

• 15 pcs. large dried figs

• 2 tbsp. water

• Single orange peel

• 100 g sugar

• 0.5 Art. "Port wine"

• Essence of orange

For decoration:

• Mint leaves

Preparation:

Prepare a detachable form, with a diameter of 24 - 26 cm. Grease with oil and wrap tightly the bottom with foil in several layers, since we will bake in a water bath. Turn on the oven and set the regulator to 160 ° C. Boil water.

Grind crackers and walnuts in a food processor. In the resulting mass, add olive oil and mix to a smooth consistency. Transfer the mixture to cooked form, distribute it on the bottom and form a small side of 2 - 2.5 cm. Put the bake for about 10 minutes. Leave the finished cake to cool.

In a deep container, smash cream cheese with sugar using a mixer until smooth. Then add cinnamon, egg whites and yogurt. Continue to beat another 5 - 10 minutes at high speed. Then pour in the form on the cooled cake. Place the form in a container with a diameter larger than the form. Pour boiling water into the container so that the cheesecake mold plunges into water 2 to 3 cm.

Bake for 45 minutes. When the edges are baked, and the middle remains a little watery, turn off the oven. Do not take out the cheesecake, leave the oven door ajar, and leave it still for an hour. At the end of time, leave to cool in a cool place.

To make the sauce, steam the figs for an hour. Then add “Port Wine” and bring to a boil; after - orange zest and sugar. Continue to simmer until the liquid has halved and slightly thickened. The resulting mass is wiped through a sieve, add the essence of an orange. Put the syrup into the cornet. Remove the cooled cheesecake from the mold, garnish with syrup using a cornet, then with mint leaves.

Recipe 3. Cheesecake “New York” - a quick cake on a sandy basis, almost like an American

The basis of this dessert is a sand cake baked from cookie crumbs. Very convenient option when you want sweet, but do not have time to stand at the stove. In addition, aerobatics confectionery craft is the ability to create a masterpiece of what is available.

Fruits are used in cooking, but this is a minor violation of the recipe, which, moreover, can be easily corrected, if desired. The main ingredient and "highlight" of the American dessert, Philadelphia cheese, is still present.

Product List:

• 225 g butter, cream

• glass of “Cracker” (baby)

• pinch of salt

• rind of one lemon

• 250 g sour cream

• Fruit for decoration (optional)

• 250 grams of cheese (for example, “Philadelphia”)

• 400 grams of sugar

• 5 pieces. large eggs and 2 yolks

• Vanilla

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Cover the form with a greased parchment.

Chip biscuits mixed with salt and 150 grams of sugar. Add 100 grams of oil,

and mix with a blender until smooth.

The resulting mass is distributed throughout the form. Soak for half an hour in the refrigerator and after baking for about a quarter of an hour. Allow to cool.

Beat cheese, sour cream, butter and sugar in a deep container until smooth. Eggs and additional two yolks, vanilla and zest add to bulk. Continue to beat another 10 minutes.

Pour the mixture into the mold over the base and cover with foil. Put the form on the middle grid. At the lower level install a large container with water. So bake for about an hour.

Cool and let stand for at least 8 hours. Remove from the form. Decorate with pieces of fruit, chocolate or coconut chips. You can use any syrup or jam.

Then, if you want, prepare a cup of “American” - and at the table!

Recipe 4. “New York” cheesecake with Beilis liqueur - fantasy on American pie

Product List:

• Syrup (treacle) 40 ml

• “Mascarpone” 250 g

• Ginger root (dry, ground) 0.5 tsp.

• Flour 170 g

• Olive oil 75 ml (including for the form)

• Powder, sugar 30 g

• Culinary cream (33%) 250 ml

• 10 g of soda

• 20 ml of vinegar (or lemon juice)

• “Baileys”, liquor 75 ml.

• Egg 1 pc.

• Orange Extract

• Chocolate crumb 200 g

Cooking:

Wheat flour sift and combine with ginger, baking powder. Syrup mixed with olive oil, adding egg and orange extract. Stir the dough. Put the dough in polyethylene and allow to cool for several hours in the refrigerator.

Grease the form, preheat the oven to 180 ° C.

The resulting dough (very dense) roll out 4 cm more in area to form a small rim in a container for baking. Bake the cake should be about 10 minutes. Chill.

Cheese smash with liqueur and sugar. Melt the chocolate. Whip cream separately, then pour melted chocolate at low speed. Carefully mix the two masses with a silicone spatula.

Distribute this mixture to the finished cake. At 5 - 6 hours clean in a cool place for aging.

Decorate with powdered sugar and, if desired, fruits.

Recipe 5. “New York” cheesecake in the Italian version - “tiramisu” with cream, strawberries and chocolate

How many countries have bypassed the recipe for cheesecake, and how many pastry chefs have worked on its improvement is not known for certain. But, obviously, having fallen into the hands of a generous and irredeemable Italian romance, the “New York” cheesecake was transformed from a strict American cake into a romantic dessert, with a combination of strawberries, cream and chocolate - the classics of the confectionary genre, and even with a light, intoxicating aroma of two types simultaneously liqueur, but without coffee, which is traditionally added to the "tiramisu". But the soft taste of cream cheese is also invariably present in the Italian dessert. Product List:

• Vanillin, crystalline 4 g

• “Amaretto”, liqueur 250 ml

• Gelatin, instant 40 g

• Strawberry liqueur 100 ml

• “Mascarpone” 500 g

• Chocolate chips 150 g

• “Savoyardi”, shortbread 400 g

• Strawberry juice (fresh) 150 ml

• Eggs 5 pcs.

• Sugar 350 g

Preparation:

You will need two round shapes of the same diameter (detachable).

Prepare a strong jelly mass from the juice and liqueur with strawberry flavor: combine the purified strawberry juice with sugar (150 g) and heat it so that the sugar dissolves (you can not boil). First add gelatin to the warm syrup and mix thoroughly until the gelatin is dissolved. Then add strawberry liqueur, mix the liquid again, pour it into the mold and put it in the fridge to set.

Pour “Amaretto” into a convenient dish so that you can dip cookies in it. Put the cookies moistened in the liqueur on the bottom of the second form. The rest of his temporarily set aside.

Cook the cream:

Pound the yolks with sugar and combine them with “Mascarpone” - smash the blender into a fluffy mass, adding a little vanilla. In a separate container, whisk the proteins to a stable foam and carefully transfer them, in small pieces, into the curd, while mixing the whole cream.

Put the cream on a layer of cookies, in the form. According to the diameter of the form, set the remaining biscuit vertically, which will serve as a “side” of the dessert. Cover the cream with a layer of chocolate chips and, taking a well-frozen strawberry jelly from the mold, transfer it to the main form for dessert. Again, on top of the jelly mass, sprinkle a layer of chocolate chips and lay the remaining cream. You can decorate with the same chocolate chips, pieces of strawberry jelly. Soak dessert in the fridge so that it froze.

Recipe 6. Cheesecake “New York”, in Russian - cottage cheese casserole

The holiday of Maslenitsa or, in a different way, the cheese week, existed in Russia in the pagan, pre-Christian period. This is a direct indication that cheese and dishes from it were known to our ancestors for many centuries before the day when the discoverer of America was born. True, cheese making, as a branch, appeared in Russia only in the era of Peter the Great, but at the same time, in the old Russian cookbooks there were recipes for curd Easter, which was made from “sour cheese”.

In some recipes cheesecakes describes the technology, which states that the cheese should be cooked. In the usual, everyday kitchen, baked cottage cheese with eggs, bread or bran. For a long time, Russian cuisine was characterized by separate meals, as it is now called single-component dishes.

Therefore, adding “grainy flour” to the casserole, that is, semolina, sweeteners and other ingredients became much later, under the influence of other national cuisines. Cheese casseroles were not only sweet dishes - they were cooked with vegetables, fish, and mushrooms. Instead of sugar, which appeared in Russian cuisine only at the beginning of the eighteenth century and was considered a luxury for a long time, honey and molasses were used. In addition, the dishes of Russian cuisine for a long time kept the differences on a social basis.

The proposed recipe is a late version of Russian cuisine. Stale bread casserole is a tribute to the old Russian tradition, where careless attitude to products, and especially to bread, was considered a great sin.

Weight measures are adapted to the modern measuring system. In the original recipe, sugar is not used.

Ingredients:

• Sugar 50g

• Milk 150 ml

• White bread dryers 320 g

• Cheese (curd) 200 g

• Raisin (or dried apricots)

• salt

• Eggs 3 pcs.

• Fat (for form)

• Carrots 100 g

Cooking:

The first part of the cooking method is given in the original.

“Two slices of bread crush on crackers. The rest of the bread pour milk to become soft. Boil carrots, or take raw, and rub it. Add sour cheese, eggs and steamed raisins or dried apricots to the moistened bread. Add salt for appetite. ” Sugar can be added with the salt, if desired. Then the mass is mixed and immediately shifted to a greased form (use any fat, at your discretion) and sprinkled with breadcrumbs. Baked until cooked in the oven at low temperature.

Cheesecake “New York” - useful tips and tricks

• To store cottage cheese pastries can be frozen. However, it does not lose its taste properties. It is frozen that the New York cheesecake is delivered over long distances.

• To prevent the cracking of the curd surface from cracking - which is typical of cottage cheese products - keep the humidity in the oven during baking. For this purpose, in the bottom of the oven, in the absence of convection in it, put a pan with water.

• For whipping raw and cold curd or cheese mass, use powdered sugar, because it dissolves faster than sugar. If you beat the cottage cheese with sugar for a longer time, then whey delamination will begin, especially if cream is added to the curd.

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