Sweet cheesecake

Part 2 of our adventure with fresh bay leaves was a sweet ricotta-based cheesecake.  After the partial success with Part 1, we were optimistic to try a recipe using a less-salty cheese.

The ingredients for the sweet cheesecake were more or less the same as the savory, with the addition of some honey after the baking process:

4 oz. flour
8 oz. ricotta
1 egg
Bay leaves
4 oz. honey

The main prep difference came while shaping the dough on the baking sheet; instead of one larger cake, the recipe called for four smaller cakes (though these turned out to be large enough to share).  For the same reasons as the savory cheesecake, we used more than the specified number of bay leaves for each cake.

Fresh bay leaves ready for the cheesecakes.

The baking method listed for these cakes was the same as that used for the savory cheesecake, placing a weight atop the cakes before baking.  We didn't do that this time, mostly because we didn't want to either wash the weight afterward, or have the weight take up a bunch of dishwasher real estate.  We did observe afterward that the cakes would have been flatter and smoother had we used the weights; as it was, the cakes puffed like soufflés in the oven and subsequently collapsed.  If anything, this affected the texture more than the taste: we thought this might have led to a lighter texture in the finished cakes, which we liked, so next time we try the savory cheesecake we will not use the weight.

Finished cakes after being dunked in honey.  We substantially reduced the baking time from the specified 35-40 minutes to about 20-25 minutes so that the cakes wouldn't brown too much.

Overall, we both preferred the sweet cheesecake to the savory, but that comes with two disclaimers:

1. We both prefer Italian food over almost all else, so I think we're predisposed to go with ricotta over feta in general.
2. We'd want to try the savory cheesecake again with a higher-quality feta.

Both of the recipes seem to be a good use of the fresh bay leaves, but the bay flavor generally disappears after about a day in the fridge, so these dishes would be best served on the same day as baking.

A half cheesecake (minus the bay leaves): perfect for a single serving.

The Classical Cookbook (1996); Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger; p. 93

Writeup background noise: Free Practice 1 of the Russian Grand Prix (when I originally drafted this last night), and NBCSN didn't have their commentators for it, so it was basically just various levels of car noise for an hour and a half punctuated by occasional radio communications between the drivers and their engineers.

Savory cheesecake

Recently we were given a Ziploc bag stuffed full of fresh bay leaves; another volunteer at an event we were helping with apparently has a tree in his yard.  We use dried bay leaves in sauces and (when we used to make them) stews, but we'd never used fresh before.  I immediately set about finding recipes to use our bay leaves.

From the trove of recipes I've amassed, I found two cheesecake recipes that would use bay leaves: a savory and a sweet.  Both came from a book that translated Ancient Greek and Roman recipes and adapted them for modern kitchens; incidentally and appropriately enough for April 21, these recipes both came from one of the Ancient Rome chapters.  We tried the savory cheesecake first.

The ingredients for the recipe are:

1 lb. feta cheese
4 oz. all purpose flour
1 egg
2-3 bay leaves [I used way more since we have so many.]

I bought feta crumbles as that was cheaper than buying a larger brick than we would have needed.  However, I found that this led to a very dry dough; the dough would have vastly benefited from the extra moisture that the brine would have provided.  I blame Whole Foods for only having two feta choices!  Maybe I'm just nostalgic for the extensive dairy cases at Michigan grocery stores.

We had only 12 ounces of feta (again, I was too cheap to buy more), so we used 3 ounces of flour.  Obviously we still had to use a whole egg, but I hoped that this would partially make up for the complete lack of brine in the feta.

Other than the low moisture, the dough came together fairly easily; it was almost like making a cheese gnocchi dough.  As instructed by the recipe, I put the bay leaves under the cheesecake/cheesedisk before placing it on the baking sheet, then put a heavy-ish Pyrex dish on top to weight everything down.

The cheesecake/cheesedisk was probably 6"-7" in diameter.  The recipe said to score before baking (like making scones), which I guess was helpful when I went to cut slices.  More like a guideline to follow than any physical assistance with getting the pieces apart.

The recipe said to bake for 40-45 minutes, but I baked for something like 35 minutes and thought that too long.  As it was, the outside edge of the cheesedisk was already brown and, as we would discover, rather tough.  For the thin cheesedisk that we made, I'd probably bake for 25-30 minutes.

The bay leaves came out looking basically like the dried bay leaves you can get at the store.

The final product was interesting, to say the least, especially the flavour.  At first bite there was a subtle non-feta taste from the bay leaves; then the full salty feta taste would overwhelm one's taste buds.  The texture of the non-brown sections was nicely smooth when the cheesecake was warm from the oven, but after a couple days in the fridge, it's gotten progressively tougher, and the bay leaf flavour has sort of dissipated.

Complete delicious dinner.  We didn't put salt in the eggs this time, but the cheesecake wedge definitely made up for that.  The rice helped too.

Would I make this again?  Maybe.  It would make a good appetizer, though I'd want to get a higher quality feta that didn't have such a straight-up salty taste.  We have plenty of bay leaves left to use!

The Classical Cookbook (1996); Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger; p. 93-94

Writeup background noise: well, when I drafted the post originally, it was the 2nd period of the Wings-Lightning game.  Thankfully for me, I decided that the 3rd period was a fine time for a nap.