Tuesday 30 October 2012

baked italian lemon cheesecake

I'm back! It's been a very busy couple of years. I am excited to announce I am currently working on my first wholefood cook book, due for release by UQP in September 2013. I am still loving Tamborine Mountain and my garden is my passion. I have renovated my kitchen, and we are shooting the food and veggies both in the kitchen and in the kitchen garden.

OK, back to business ...

The lemon season is about to finish so I thought I'd post this delicious recipe.




Health Benefits
Lemon is found to be anticarcinogenic, which lowers the rates of colon, prostate and breast cancer. Lemons feature antibacterial properties that aid sore throats. Mix the juice from 1 lemon with a little warm water and gargle.

A cup of warm water with lemon juice and a pinch of sea salt helps with weight loss and lowers cholesterol. When applied to a burn, lemon juice will reduce the burning sensation as it is a cooling agent.

Baked Italian Lemon Cheesecake
Serves 8

Ingredients

Pastry
300 g spelt flour
150 g rapadura sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
150 g chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 eggs
Iced water

Filling
500 g ricotta
1/2 cup spelt flour
2 lemons, zest
1 vanilla bean, scraped
4 eggs, separated
1 cup rapadura

Method

Pastry
Sift the flour and sugar, place in a food processor, add the butter and pulse to breadcrumb consistency. Add the egg and pulse until the mixture forms a ball. You may need to add some chilled water; don't add too much and don't over mix. Wrap the pastry in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Grease a 23 cm spring form tin well with butter. Roll out the pastry to fit your tin. Place pastry-lined tin in the fridge for 10 minutes and then blind bake for 8 minutes. Remove the blind bake and put aside.

Filling
Pre heat the oven to 170 degrees. Fit a paddle attachment to a stand mixer, and add the ricotta, spelt, lemon and vanilla. Mix together thoroughly for about 4 minutes, stopping and scraping the mixture from the sides of the bowl into the mix. Add the egg yolks and beat for a further minute, or until incorporated.

Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form and then rain in the sugar slowly with the machine on a medium speed. When all of the sugar has been added, turn the mixer to high and whisk until thick and all of the sugar has been incorporated into the egg whites.

Gently fold the egg whites into the ricotta 1/3 at a time until incorporated. Fill the tin with your mix and bake until golden on top and firm - about 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream or vanilla labna.