Baked Lemon Cheese Cake With Passion Fruit Syrup

Call me and my previous cheesecake dense if you must. It was true. I could never figure out why my cheesecakes, although tasting decent and cheesy enough, were always dense, and not "light and fluffy" like the commercial ones. I'm not talking fluffy to the extent of those cotton cheesecakes they sell at Jusco for RM12.99 per block, that's just air with a hint of cheese. But you know, something in between.

Mind you, the preference for cheesecake is as varied as cupsizes amongst female (and some male) bloggers. Some like theirs chilled, some only eat baked ones, some like it dense, some like it not so cheesy, some want it so cheesy, that a C grade movie pales in comparison. And there's the issue of the flavour as well. So, for the greater good of mankind, I guess one has to stick to one own's preference, making it the New International Version, while letting the deviants find their fix elsewhere. Or by special order. There are some who've even asked me, almost to the effect of, "Mista ah, your cheese cake donch put cheese can or notch ah? My great grandfather donch like cheese wor."

So, on those sleepless nights, when one resorts to counting sheep, in whatever position they fancy, one also ponders the great mysteries of life and questions that affect humanity, such as, how do bananas multiply, since they don't have seeds, or better still, how do seedless grapes multiply. Actually, how ah? Amidst this cornucopia of difficult questions, arise the "why is mine so dense"? I've followed the recipe to the T. Even Domestic Goddess just blitzed everything in her food processor, for her chocolate cheesecake. It must have tasted like a reconstituted chocolate and cheese cadbury bar. Mind you, nothing wrong with that.

And then, one rolls over and omits an ominous gust of flatulence, and EUREKA, the answer like that light bulb in a speech bubble appears. WIND!!! or rather, AIR!!! You need to incorporate AIR into the darn thing. Slap forehead at the obvious solution. I think, hmmm, maybe whisking the egg whites separately might do the trick, since it seems to work for just about every other type of cake. But gee, wont the egg white just drown in that sea of viscous cheese? But yes, that inner voice tells me, try the egg white.

AND THEN, I stumble across local chef's cookbook, Alex Goh's Creative Making of Cakes. And lo and behold, like a wayward sinner who had finally seen the light, the confirmation was there before me in writing. He advocates the same thing. Whisking egg whites separately. Sheesh, even Donna Hay, my "guru" and favourite recipe book authoress, didn't teach us that. Such obvious solutions.

So ya, here's my version of Baked Lemon Cheesecake, very easy to make and rather delicious. The pictures don't really do it justice, not because of the photography, but because it was at home, and I couldn't be bothered to smooth out the sides, and use a sharp, hot knife to give it a clean cut. But the ragged bits does give an indication of its texture, ie, its "fluffy" and not dense and the messiness gives it that glorious home made feeling. I want my grandchildren to reminisce about their grandfather's desserts when I'm gone.

Recipe:

1 biscuit base - Go search elsewhere in this blog for that, or email me, I'm too lazy to type it out.

Filling :
500gm cream cheese, which now costs a whopping RM18 or more in the supermarkets.
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons corn flour
400 gm whipping cream
zest of one lemon
1/4 cup of lemon juice or more or less

3 egg whites (from the same eggs from whence the yolks came...so if you were doing this in sequence and threw away the whites before reading on...tough titties...moral of story, always read till the end)
1/4 cup of sugar

Preheat oven to 160C

Cream the cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. (St Lemongrass, James of Ooze, Skinny Cheeks and Age of Innocence, creaming is a baking method)
Add yolks one by one
Chuck in the zest, lemon juice and mix until smooth.
Stir or slowly mix in whipped cream. Batter should resemble a thick viscous pancake batter.

In separate bowl, beat the egg whites and slowly add the sugar bit by bit, (not grain by grain), until soft peaks. Fold the whisked egg whites into the batter.

Pour filling into prepared biscuit base and bake in a water bath for 1½ hours or until set. Don't forget to line your pan (springform or removable base) with aluminium foil before the spa treatment, or water will seep in through the orifices.

After that, switch off oven, leaving cake in there door closed, for ½ an hour. Take out from water bath, and leave to rest in oven for another hour, with door slightly ajar. (oven door that is, not your main house door).

Take out and refrigerate overnight. Use a hot palette knife to cut around the perimeter and release the cake from the pan.

Serve with whipped cream, or passionfruit syrup. (Passionfruit plus some boiled sugar syrup)








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