Here is a great cheese cake dessert that should once and for all settle the argument if cheese cake is best baked or unbaked. I provide a simple lime shortbread pastry crust recipe that helps provide a nice contrast between the base cheese cake and the lime’s citrus. Most cheese cake recipes use a gram cracker crust, and even though I really like gram-cracker crust, at this point they’ve become a cliche.
If you’re looking to impress, pre-bake the lime shortbread (sablé citron vert) into heart shapes using a cookie cutter. Then, use the cookie cutter as your cheese cake mold. When drizzled with the raspberry confit, is makes the perfect end to a romantic dinner. The raspberry confit (glaze/preserve) is best if made fresh but if you’re in a bind, you can use raspberry jam that you thin.
The recipe below is for a cheese cake made in a bunt cake pan. For a dinner party of six that you want to have individual servings made in molds, I would double the recipe.
Ingredients
- Cheese cake
- 825g Cream cheese – softened at room temp
- 190 g Sugar
- 175 g Egg ~3.5 eggs
- 25 g Lemon juice
- 2.5 g Salt
- Sablé citron vert – Lime shortbread
- 180 g Flour
- 150 g Butter – cold and cut into slices
- 45 g Powdered sugar
- 0.5 g Lime zest
- 0.5 g Salt
- Confit Framboise – Raspberry glaze
- 75g Fresh raspberry – pureed
- 6g Sugar
- 3 g Pectine – NH – gelatin
- 3 g Lemon juice
Process
- Mise en place – measure and prepare you ingredients prior to starting
- Make the shortbread
- Use the paddle attachment on your mixer to mix the shortbread ingredients together.
- Spread out between two sheets of film so the dough doesn’t stick to the roller. Roll to a thickness of ~2mm (~1/8″).
- Cut dough into the desired shapes (to match your cake molds). If making one large cheese cake, bake shortbread on base of the bunt cake pan.
- Bake for 15 mins at 160 C (320 F).
- Make the cheese cake
- In a food processor, mix all the ingredients together.
- For Molded Cheese Cake
- Place cheese mix into a mold. A cool dessert is to put into single serve silicone molds, like a half-sphere (7cm/2.75 in) or a bar (2″x3″), and of course the heart-shaped mold.
- Bake cheese cakes 25 mins at 120 C (250 F).
- For one large Cheese Cake
- Put shortbread on bottom of bunt cake pan .
- Bake cheese cakes 75 mins at 160 C (325 F).
- Allow the cheese cakes to cool in the molds/cake pan (first on counter thein frig).
- If you see cracks on the top of your molds, don’t worry the mold sides are the presentation sides and they should be fine. Using a lined tray, place on top of the cooled molds and flip over. Place tray with molds back into the frig. Leaving the molds on helps keep the cake fresh.
- Keep cold until ready to serve
- If you see cracks on the top of your molds, don’t worry the mold sides are the presentation sides and they should be fine. Using a lined tray, place on top of the cooled molds and flip over. Place tray with molds back into the frig. Leaving the molds on helps keep the cake fresh.
- Make the glaze– 1/2 hour before serving.
- Use a food processor or blender to puree your fresh raspberries.
- Mix the sugar and NM pectine.
- In a small saucepan on low temperature, heat the puree and lemon juice to 40 C (104 F).
- Add sugar mix and bring to a boil for 1 min. Then transfer to a container and let cool
Presentation: When the glaze is warm but not hot, you are ready to serve. Remove the molds. Place the shortbread on a serving plate and using a spatula, carefully place each cheese cake on its short bread. Drizzle the confit on top of the cake and around the plate. Sit back and enjoy the overwhelming gratitude of your guests.
Note: Do not assemble until ready to serve. Otherwise the shortbread will get soggy and the glaze will lose it’s shine and viscosity.
This dessert goes well with a strong French roast cafe, or cold champagne.
