*Above: The no-cheese cheesecake. The amorphous blob in the middle is supposed to be a squirrel …. which makes sense, once you discover this tart’s ingredients.*

Well Cook Off-ers, this is it. The 6th and final week of our 2022 Great Colonial Cook Off season. A HUGE thanks to each and every one of you who cooked along with us this year. The Cook Off wouldn’t be a cook off without you.

But, before we get too teary eyed, we still have one more dish to cook!

Cheesecake not Cheese Cake

This week’s recipe is a bit of a misnomer. It’s cheesecake with no cheese …. or cake. So why the heck is it called cheesecake? Honestly, we don’t really know, but we can take an educated guess.

Contrary to what you might think, cheesecake has been around for a very, very long time. The oldest known English language cookbook - The Forme of Cury compiled in 1390 - includes two recipes for cheesecake. Both were made with fresh cheese curds, which might explain why similar dishes later appear under the name “curd tart”. Makes sense … right?

BUT….

The word curd was used to refer to either anything that curdles (like milk) or has the appearance or texture of curdled milk. Which might explain why there’s a 17th century cheesecake recipe that includes egg soaked breadcrumbs instead of cheese. There’s also one from Eliza Smith’s The Compleat Housewife (1739) that substitutes mashed potatoes for cheese.

*Above: Eliza Smith’s recipe for potato-based cheese cake.*

 Which brings us back to this week’s dish. Lori found the following recipe in Robert May’s The Accomplisht Cook, first published in 1660.

To Make Lemon Cheese Cakes
Blanch half a pound of almond, and beat them in a stone mortar very fine, with a little rose-water; put in eight eggs, leaving out five of the whites; take three quarters of a pound of sugar, and three quarters of a pound of melted butter, beat all together, then take three lemon-skins, boiled tender, the rind and all, beat them well, and mix them with the rest, then put them into your paste. You may make a lemon pudding the same way, only add the juice of half of a lemon; Before you set them in the oven, grate over them a little fine loaf sugar.

Just over a hundred years later, an almost identical recipe To Make Excelent Lemon Cheese Cakes appears in a manuscript recipe book in the collection of the Westminster City Archives. It goes like this:

To Make Excelent Lemon Cheese Cakes
Take half a pd of almonds. Pound them with rose water, but not too much, half a pd of loaf sugar. Boyle the yallow peel of a large lemon pared prity thick & pounded very well, 8 eggs, 4 whites well beat, 3 qrs of a pd of butter melted prity cool, 2 spoon fulls of rose or orange flower water. Mix all well together & bake them.

*Above: “To Make Lemon Cheese Cakes” from the Westminster City Archives.*

Both recipes call for a “paste” or pastry crust. We’ve provided a basic recipe for short crust pastry, but feel free to use your own.

Ingredients:

Short Crust Pastry

200 grams (7 oz) plain flour
75 grams (2.5 oz) white sugar
100 grams (3.5 oz) cold butter, coarsely chopped
1 egg
Cold water

Filling

113 grams (4 oz) finely ground almonds or almond flour
113 grams (4 oz) sugar
113 grams (4 oz) butter, softened/room temperature
Zest of one lemon
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
Rosewater (see note below)

Note: Feel free to leave the rosewater out if it’s not your thing. Lori hates rosewater. I think it’s awesome! I you do decide to use the rosewater remember …. a little goes a long way. Feel free to substitute almond extract or orange flower water or even Frangelico liqueur.

Method

For shortcrust pastry

Combine flour, sugar and butter in a food processor. Pulse until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Add egg and 1-2 tbsp cold water and pulse until pastry just comes together, then form pastry into a flat disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

For the Filling

Cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest until the butter is pale and beginning to look fluffy.
Add the ground almonds/almond flour and salt. Mix to combine.
Gently beat the eggs with the rosewater (if using).
Add the eggs to the ground almond mixture. Mix until everything is well combined.

Assembly & Baking

Thinly roll your pastry and line a tart pan, pressing into the sides of the pan and trimming the edges. Prick the base with a fork.
Add your filling and bake at 350 F (180 C) for about 40-45 minutes, or until the filling has puffed and is slightly golden around the edges. When you poke the centre with your finger, it should spring back.
Let cool before serving and serve with a dusting of sugar or icing sugar.

Ingredients: Almond flour, lemon peel, butter, eggs and sugar.

Bashing the Lemon Peel

You can follow Lori’s example and boil and bash the lemon peel before adding …. or just grate the zest with a microplane.

Filled and ready to bake

Kinda sorta looks like cheesecake.

All done!

According to Lori, it tastes like marzipan.

Remember, add a photo of your no-cheese cheesecake to the comments of this week’s recipe post on the Colony of Avalon’s Facebook page for a chance to win weekly and grand prizes.

Up for grabs this week? A Colony of Avalon gift shop classic - our exclusive reproduction tyg mug. Deadline for this week’s entries is 11:59 pm, Monday, September 5, 2022. That means you’ll have the entire Labour Day long weekend …. So no excuses! Can’t wait to see your cheesecake.

Week 6 - Lemon Cheese Cake