No Adieus, just Au Revoir

Baby Version of the Black and Yellow Cheesecake (made from extra batter)

Just when I started blogging again, I've decided to let it go for a while. The pressures of family and responsibility have forced me to... re-evaluate my life. I look around and friends have gotten married, careers, mortgages, and children. They've moved away and/or moved on. Maybe it's time for me to let go of silly childish dreams and grow up. So this will be my last post. Just until I figure things out. In the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed all my little love bites and someday, I hope to bring you more.


I was craving a lemony cheesecake complimented by big plump blackberries so I came up with the Black and Yellow Cheesecake. This cheesecake is dedicated to my former roommate Brittani, all the good times in NYC, and all the good things that the future holds.

I began by making a lemon poppy seed shortbread for the cheesecake crust. It may seem like such a tedious task to make the cookies from scratch just to ground it all up for a crust, but I think it's totally worth it. I think the lemon shortbread adds that extra burst of flavor while the poppy seeds are so pretty, especially when the crust shows halfway up the sides of the cheesecake. I found many similar recipes for lemon poppy seed shortbread online, (I thought I came up with that!) but the one that kept coming up was from Claudia Fleming's The Last Course.


Be prepared. Bake the cheesecake in the morning in order to have it for dessert the same evening. However, cheesecake is usually best chilled overnight and enjoyed the next day. If you are short on time or patience, any old cookie crumb will do: short bread, graham cracker, vanilla wafers, etc. Some cheesecake recipes don't even call for a crust. If you're not going to make the shortbread, then skip to the next part for the cheesecake.

Lemon Poppy Seed Shortbread 
Adapted from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course

• Ingredients
  1 cup (8 ounces) butter, softened
  3/4 cup (3 ounces) confectioner’s sugar
  1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
  1 1/2 tsp lemon zest
  2 cups (10 ounces) flour
  1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
  1/2 tsp salt
  Preparations
  1. Beat butter and sugar in a mixer until creamy. 
  2. Add the lemon juice and zest and beat well.  
  3. Sift the flour, and mix in the poppy seeds and salt.  Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and combine until it comes together (I used the dough hook for this part). 
  4. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and chill for 3 hours or overnight. (I was in a time crunch so I froze the dough for an hour; it worked pretty well.)
  5. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Roll out the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes and prick each piece with fork.  If you are making wedges, cut into an approximately 9" diameter circle and score lightly into 8 pieces. If the dough becomes too soft while you are working with it, return to the refrigerator and chill for several minutes. I found an antique wooden mold in my sister's cupboard so I tried it out for a few of the cookies.
  

  

   
  6. Place pieces on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake until pale golden and the edges are just starting to turn brown, about 23 minutes (depending on size). Cool on wire racks.  If you have made the wedges, cut along the scored lines to separate the pieces.

  
  

  For Crust:

  Break cookies into small pieces and put into food processor. Pulse until it becomes a fine to medium crumb (use about 1 cup). Press into a 9 1/2" springform pan and bake for 8-10 min. Cool and set aside. If not using a crust, butter and flour pan, and tap out excess flour.
  

  

   
  
  

  
  

  Black and Yellow Cheesecake

  Adapted quite a bit from Allrecipes.com
  

  makes one 9 1/2 inch cheesecake
  Pre-Prep:

  Preheat oven 300 degrees F

  Prepare a bain marie by finding a roasting pan large enough to fit the cheesecake and deep enough to hold water that comes halfway up the springform pan and set on the middle rack in the oven.

  
  

  ingredients:
  1 15oz ricotta cheese

  2 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened

  2/3 cup white sugar

  1/3 cup all-purpose flour

  6 eggs, at room temperature 

  1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

  1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

  1 tablespoon Amaretto (optional)

  1/8 teaspoon salt

  
  

  directions:
  1. Beat together ricotta and soften cream cheese until smooth. I pressed the cheese mixture through a fine mesh sieve just to make sure there are no lumps left.
  2. On medium, blend the sugar and flour into the cheeses. 
  3. Stir in the eggs, one at a time and mix on low until fully incorporated.
  4. Slowly add the lemon zest, Amaretto and salt until blended.
  5. Pour batter into the prepared pan and place in bain marie. Bake in the center of the oven for about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, until a light golden color (mine did not brown at all). Make sure the center is fairly firm, and the point of a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. It will sink slightly as it cools. Cover, and chill till serving time.
  6. Cut into slices and serve with topping of choice. In this case I used a lemon Amaretto glaze (recipe below) and fresh blackberries.

  Lemon Amaretto Glaze
  I happened to have some homemade lemon curd sitting in the freezer, but lemon curd should be easy to find next to the jams and preserves at most grocery stores.
  1/2 c lemon curd
  1 tablespoon Amaretto
  Mix ingredients in a small saucepan until warmed or microwave in bowl for 30-60 seconds. Spread on cooled cheesecake and arrange blackberries on top. Place cheesecake back in the refrigerator until set and cool until ready to serve.
  
  
  Lemon Blackberry Shortcake Bonus
  

  

  
  
  That night we went over to some friends' place for dinner. I had to come up with a quick dessert and luckily I had some extra shortbread cookies and blackberries. And of course, there's always some heavy whipping cream in the fridge. I added a tablespoon of powder sugar, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, some seeds scraped from a piece of vanilla bean and whipped on high until stiff peaks formed. I placed shortbread in a small bowl, layered on a dollop of whipped cream, a smidgen of lemon curd and a handful of blackberries and it made a lovely impromptu dessert.