On a trip to Manhatten a few years ago Daniel and I were taken to a neighborhood restaurant around the corner from a childhood friend who we were visiting.  We fell in love with it and went there a few nights for dinner.  The following year when we returned, we went back once again. There are two recipes on this blog from the restaurant: Veal and Ricotta Meatballs and this recipe for Mascarpone Cheesecake. Developing this recipe, as well as the one for the meatballs, took quite a bit of tinkering, since the restaurant refused to share, but in the end, both recipes are straightforward and easy to execute.

The recipe for the Mascarpone Cheesecake is particularly poignant for me.  It was the last trip Daniel and would take together for the foreseeable future as he was in college and the remaining summers he would devote to lab work and internships. We spent our days looking for the the best bagel in NYC, looking for a cannoli to rival my grandmothers (didn’t exist in NYC or Brooklyn), and sampling a dozen pastry shops.

COMPONANTS

• Cheesecake
• Caramelized almonds
• orange marmalata

INGREDIENTS FOR CHEESECAKE

• 8oz whole milk hand dipped room temperature ricotta cheese (weighed and then drained for 24 hours in the refrigerator in a sieve lined with doubled paper towels).
• 8 oz Philadelphia room temperature cream cheese (I like to take this out the night before).
• 8 oz room temperature Mascarpone cheese preferably imported from Italy.
• 3 room temperature eggs
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar
• 2 tsp room temperature lemon juice
• 3/4 tsp vanilla
•  lemon zest from 1/2 lemon

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a Cuisinart process the sugar and the lemon rind. Add the cream cheese and ricotta until smooth. Add lemon juice vanilla and mascarpone and pulse until smooth.
3. Add eggs, pulsing briefly, as you want to minimize aerating the mixture.
4. Work mixture through a fine mesh sieve or tami. This will strain out the lemon rind as well as making sure there are no lumps.
5. Place extra large waxed paper cupcake liners in standard size cupcake tins. The liners will rise up over the edges of the tin and that’s ok.  Alternatively you can use silicone molds with a 1/2 cup capacity.
6. Pour batter into molds. You’ll get about 8.
7. Bake in water bath for about 20 minutes. Check temperature. If it’s not at 150F put back in the oven for 5 minutes. When the interior temp is 150 degrees Fahrenheit remove from oven and water bath and chill overnight.

MAKE CARAMELIZED ALMONDS

• 70 grams (1/3 cup) superfine sugar
• 3 tablespoons water
• 198 grams (7oz) blanched, slivered almonds

1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
2. Bring sugar and water to a simmer, swirling the pan from time to time to dissolve the sugar.  Wash down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in ice water. Bring to a boil and cook without stirring until the mixture reaches 248 degrees.
3. Add the almonds all at once and stir the nuts with a wooden spoon until the sugar turns white and sandy  continue to cook until the sugar begins to caramiized.  The coating will be bumpy.
4. Immediately turn out on to the Silpat and after a few minutes, use the spoon separate the almonds

MAKE ORANGE MARMALATA

• 3 fresh oranges, supremed
• 1/4 cup seville orange marmalade

1. Supreme the oranges, working on a cutting board with a moat, to save the juice. First, you take off the skin. Cut a slice off the bottom trying not to cut through to the fruit. Take off the peel. Next, place the orange on its side on a cutting board and using a very sharp knife, cut in between the flesh of the orange segment and the membrane on both sides, moving around the orange until you’ve cut out all the orange segments. Pour the juice into a saucepan.
2. Heat orange marmalade until liquified.
3. Remove from heat and stir orange juice and fresh orange segments into the marmalade.
4. Chill

PLATE

Unmold a Cheesecake onto a  plate and carefully peel of paper.  If using silicone molds just push the cheesecakes out of the mold. If it’s hard to get them out, freeze the molds for a few minutes so the edges freeze. It should be easier to push them out of the mold. Place a few tablespoons of the marmalata on the plate and top the cake with almonds.

© Julie de Lara and onemorebitedelara.com 2017