November 9, 2009

vanilla & raspberry cheesecake tart



Three months since posting! The time has flown, which I guess it has a habit of doing when you move to another city and start graduate school. At first I had no time to cook; now I have time to cook but no time to post; soon, I hope, everything's going to settle down and I'll have time for everything (also, I should point out, there's a lot more to do - and eat - in Austin than there was in small town New Hampshire).

So, to apologise for my absence, I'm giving you this delicious object: Tamasin Day-Lewis's raspberry and vanilla cheesecake tart. It isn't a cheescake, except that it is; it's a cheesetart, which is a grown-up kind of cheesecake: crumbless, slender, elegant, and very, very good to eat.






Raspberry & Vanilla Cheesecake Tart
adapted from Tamasin's Kitchen Classics, by Tamasin Day-Lewis

For the shortcrust pastry:

170g / 6oz plain white flour
pinch of sea salt
85g / 3oz unsalted butter, cold, chopped into small pieces
1-2 tbsp ice cold water
2 tbsp sugar

For the filling:

140g / 5oz cream cheese, room temperature
150ml / 5 fl oz double (heavy) cream
1 heaped tbsp unflavoured Greek yoghurt
3 small eggs and 2 egg yolks
1/2 vanilla pod, the seeds scooped out from the split pods with a teaspoon
340g / 12 oz raspberries

Sift the flour into a large bowl with the salt and sugar, add the chopped butter, and work as briskly as you can to rub the fat into the flour. Use the tips of your fingers only, or a pastry cutter. Add the water bit by bit until the mixture coheres into a ball - you may not need to use all the water, and remember that the more you use, the more the pastry will shrink when you bake it blind. Form the pastry into a disc, wrap it in plastic, and chill it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Flour your work surface, your hands and a rolling pin. Roll the pastry out to fit a 20cm / 8in tart tin. Grease the tart tin, then lift the pastry with the rolling pin and place it in the tin. Don't stretch it, or it will shrink back. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F / gas 6. Tear off a piece of greaseproof paper a little larger than the tart tin and place it over the pastry. Cover the paper with a layer of dried beans or baking weights. Place in the oven for 15 minutes, then remove the paper and beans and prick the base of the pastry. Return the tart to the oven for 5-10 minutes to dry the pastry base.

Meanwhile, assemble and make the filling. Turn the oven down to 180°C / 350°F / gas 4. Scrape the cream cheese into a bowl and add the cream, yoghurt, eggs and yolks, and vanilla to the bowl. Whisk all together until smooth. Scatter the raspberries over the base of the pastry shell in a single layer, then scrape over the cheesecake mix. Bake for about 45 minutes until golden and set. Cool on a rack.

15 comments:

Samantha said...

Welcome back!!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

A delightful tart! Nice choice of filling

Cheers,

Rosa

Tessa said...

I'm glad you're having fun in Austin!

Where is that cake stand from? I love it!

bigBANG studio said...

Yay! Welcome back! I've been patiently awaiting your emergence from the black void of bloglessness, and this is a perfect post to celebrate your new life with!

Welcome to Austin, hope grad school is going well, and cheers! xo

Kristin said...

Welcome to Austin! I love your blog! Good luck in grad school!

Philomena said...

Thanks everyone! Tessa, the cake stand is from Donna Hay's range. I bought it at home in Australia about 5 years ago - I don't know if it's still available, but I'm sure I read somewhere recently that Donna Hay is going to make her homewares available online soon. I love the simplicity of her stuff.

Anonymous said...

what a beautiful tart ! reminds me of the ones i used to bake as a child in france. i will have to attempt it one of these fall days.

KYM

Ash said...

I love this... so pretty!!!

Anonymous said...

Can i use normal yogurt instead of greek yogurt? thanks!

Philomena said...

Hi Anonymous - yes, I'm sure you could use plain natural yoghurt instead of Greek. It's definitely worth a try. The original recipe uses creme fraiche - the yoghurt was my substitution.

Elise said...

This looks absolutely delicious. Saved for whenever I can find fresh raspberries!

Xiaolu @ 6 Bittersweets said...

Welcome back. This looks really delicious and I love the texture of the background in the first photo!

Sara said...

Mmmm, this looks amazing! I definitely need to give it a try. :)

The Urban Baker said...

this looks yummy....

M. said...

Beautiful!!! I wish raspberry season has started already.... :)

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