Your Easter dessert?: Mascarpone cheesecake

A couple of weeks ago, I had a few friends over for appetizers and desserts. One of the desserts we had that night has already been featured, the more aesthetially pleasing one. This is the…somewhat-less-aesthetically-pleasing-but-still-delicious one that I made.

This was actually my first time making cheesecake. I’d been thinking about making one for a while, mostly because we’d been trying a lot of sweet dessert wines in class that seemed like they might go well with cheesecake. I found the recipe here:

Ingredients

For crust

• 70 vanilla wafers (8 1/2 oz), finely ground in a food processor (2 1/3 cups) (check the cookie aisle)
• 1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For filling

• 20 oz cream cheese (2 1/2 eight-ounce packages), softened
• 8 oz mascarpone cheese at room temperature (about 1 cup) (it’ll be in the “fancy cheese” section of your grocery store)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For topping

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Make crust:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter bottom and side of a 9-inch springform pan.

Stir together cookie crumbs and butter in a bowl. Reserve 1/4 cup crumb mixture for sprinkling over cheesecake, then pat remainder onto bottom and 1 1/2 inches up side of springform pan (about 1 inch thick). Put pan in a shallow baking pan and bake until golden, about 10 minutes. Cool completely on a rack, about 25 minutes. Leave oven on.

Make filling while crust bakes:
Beat cream cheese, mascarpone, and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium high speed until fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, lemon juice, and salt and mix at low speed until combined. Pour into cooled crust and bake until cake is set and puffed around edge but still trembles slightly when pan is shaken gently, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool slightly in springform pan on rack, about 20 minutes. (Cheesecake will continue to set as it cools.) Leave oven on.

Make topping:
Stir together sour cream, sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, and salt in a small bowl and spoon over cheesecake, spreading gently and evenly, leaving a 1/4-inch border around edge.

Bake cheesecake until topping is set, about 10 minutes. Run a thin knife around edge to help prevent cracking. Sprinkle top with reserved crumbs and cool completely in pan on rack, then chill, loosely covered, at least 8 hours.

Cooks’ notes: Cheesecake can be chilled, loosely covered, up to 3 days. Cut cake with a long, thin sharp knife dipped in a tall glass of hot water.

Here’s the stuff they don’t tell you in the recipe:

– Never start making a cheesecake at 9:30pm. Between the mixing, the baking, the cooling, the adding of another layer, the baking, the cooling, the adding of the topping, the baking and the cooling, the entire process takes something in the neighbourhood of 4 hours. By 12:30am, I was dying. I felt like this cheesecake had hijacked my sleep.

– Never buy a springform pan with a “lip” along the bottom edge. It’s impossible to serve pieces without them falling apart between the pan and the plate. Wondering why there are no pictures of individual slices? Basically, they all looked like cheesecake goulash. Here’s the wreckage once the springform part was removed:

– Cheesecake tastes just as good frozen as it does at its proper temperature. I’m always trying to freeze desserts so that I won’t gobble them down and it never works. Ever. I’ve also chipped teeth on frozen cookies but the freezing part never slows me down.

Suggested beverage pairings: Because this cheesecake is not too sweet and quite neutrally flavoured, you can really have fun with this. Some ideas to consider: Icewine (Vidal, Riesling or Gewurztraminer varieties would all be great), Hungarian Tokaji, Sauternes (if you’ve got the cash) or sweet fruit wines (e.g., ice cider). If you don’t feel like wine, consider Bourbon, Grand Marnier, Drambuie, spiced rum or vanilla vodka (if you like that sort of thing).

Have a very happy Easter, everyone!