I try to keep my fridge stocked with the basics - eggs, milk, and butter. The jar of white flour should be full, and there should be extra whole wheat flour stashed away somewhere. I keep sour cream or yogurt around because I tend to cook with it, but I try not to keep multiple packages of cream cheese around. Its dangerous!
So what to do when I just have to have cheesecake? (these are the important questions)
Yes, cheesecake. Very dangerous. Very rich.
It turns out, you don't need to use cream cheese. There are recipes for cheesecake which use a variety of other cheeses - like ricotta, or farmer's cheese. The beauty of using Farmer's Cheese, of course, is that you can make it yourself, and flavor it however you like while making it.
I tried this recipe using cheese made from apple cider vinegar and sprinkled with cinnamon and topped with applesauce. Awesome.
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 gallon Milk
- 2-3 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 4 whole Eggs
- 1 Egg White
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- 1/2 cup Sour Cream
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Crust
- 1 3/4 cup Flour White
- 1/2 cup Confectioners Sugar
- 3/4 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 cup Butter
- 3 Egg Yolks
- 3 tbsp Sour Cream
Servings: people
Instructions
- Pour your milk into a large pot, and gently warm until it is frothy. Use the apple cider vinegar to separate the curds from the whey and drain. Add cinnamon if desired. (this is just the standard Farmer's Cheese recipe adapted; you can find more details here.
- Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Cut in butter, as if you were making pie crust dough.
- Beat 3 egg yolks and 3 tablespoons of sour cream together, and then add to the flour mixture. Mix until it forms dough (again, resembling pie crust dough). Roll out and place in pie plate.
- Beat the 4 eggs and one egg white at high speed until frothy. You will probably want to use an electric beater!
- Put farmer's cheese, granulated sugar, 1/2 cup sour cream, and vanilla extract in a blender. Blend well. The Farmer's Cheese will be naturally rather granular when first made; it should be chopped up until very fine and liquid. Add some of the egg mixture if necessary.
- Fold together the farmer's cheese mixture and egg mixtures. Pour into the pie plate.
- Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 40 minutes. The cake will rise in the oven, turn golden, and set.
- Cool for a few hours in the refrigerator before serving. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
One thing I like about this recipe is that it does have instructions on making its own crust. You could definitely still do a typical graham cracker crust with this, but if you don't keep graham crackers around either, this makes it simpler.
As long as you have eggs. Lots of eggs.
Based off of Country Cheesecake.
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A soul cake, a soul cake, a penny for a soul cake!
In honor of All Souls Day
These sweet biscuity-cakes are a traditional food for Halloween, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day; the cakes were given out to beggars and children who went door to door on All Hallow's Eve. There's not really one "official recipe" for soul cakes; I imagine that people used different combinations of sweet spices and dried fruit over the years. But this recipe is nice!
Instructions
- Cut butter into the flour. Do yourself a favor and use a food processor. That way, you won't warm up the butter too much, and it goes faster.
- Add sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger to the flour mixture. Mix well.
- Beat the egg, apple cider vinegar, and milk together in a separate bowl. Add the wet mixture to the dry, and then mix / knead until it forms a stiff dough.
- Roll the dough out to about 1/4 of an inch in thickness. Cut out rounds with a glass or cookie cutter. The number of cakes you get will of course depend on how big your glass or cutter is!
- Poke your cakes 3-4 times with a fork. This will make them a bit fluffier.
- Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
The original recipe called for Allspice. I bet it tastes great, I just can't ever seem to find it in my cabinets! (or remember to buy it)
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Carrot cake is great. Its nice, and moist, and cakey. But it has a veneer of healthiness. After all, it has carrots! And. . theoretically less sugar!
Its cake. And veggies. And cake!
Ingredients
- 2 Whole Eggs
- 1/2 Cup Olive Oil or other vegetable oil
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 3 tbsp Pumpkin Puree or Applesauce
- 2 tbsp Molasses Blackstrap
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Cup Flour do half all purpose, half whole wheat
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Nutmeg
- 2 Cups Carrots grated, or mashed
Servings: pieces
Instructions
- Prepare your carrots. Finely grating them in fine, but so is cooking them down and mashing them. Put to the side.
- Beat your two eggs. Add in oil, sugar, pumpkin puree, molasses, and vanilla extract. Mix well.
- Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in another bowl. Combine your wet and dry mixtures.
- Add carrots to your batter. Mix well. Pour the carroty mixture into a buttered 8x8 baking pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about one hour. Make sure the cake is done by inserting a knife into the center; it should come out clean.
Recipe Notes
Its fairly common to cut the oil required in a carrot cake recipe with applesauce, but pumpkin puree works well too! Its especially practical if you've been cooking down a lot of pumpkin recently.
Blackstrap molasses actually tastes acceptable in this cake - possibly because it is not the main sweetener, it just gives the cake a nice brown color. You could probably also use brown sugar and no molasses.
This cake is good enough to be dessert for sure, especially if you ice it with cream cheese frosting. But I like to leave it plain and have it for breakfast with my morning coffee. Yum!
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