Burnt top Cheesecake

Burnt top cheesecake

This is a lazy person's baked cheesecake, no folding or separating eggs. No adding topping. The ingredients get added in series and the most complicated thing is tidily getting the mixture from the bowl to the cake tin. 

Why cheesecake? Apart from pure greed, I've had some double cream in the fridge sitting and turning sour. For some reason I bought a big pot when I only needed a small one... Turning to browsing some cookery books I found this recipe for a simpler cheesecake that uses sour cream. The original recipe says use a 20cm/8" loose bottomed cake tin, but once the mixture was ready to decant I realised it would make a massive cake, so used two smaller tins, 15cm/6" and 18cm/7". Both a good size, and more manageable than one vast cheesecake both for cooking and eating. 

it looks creamy and it tastes creamy

Recipe: Burnt Top Cheesecake

The caramel coloured crust on this cheesecake gives it a slight burnt caramel flavour, matched by the creamy interior to make a delicious mouthful.

Prep

You don't need to butter the tin if you're lining it with baking parchment. I used a combination of a round cake liner and parchment. The height of the parchment stops the top of the cake from browning too much (burning), as the cooking temperature is quite high.

ready for the oven

Ingredients

800g soft cheese

225g caster sugar

2tbsp plain flour

200g sour cream

4 eggs

2tsp vanilla

Half quantities:

400g soft cheese

112g caster sugar

1 tbsp plain flour

100g sour cream

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Method

You decide what size tin you want to use, the mixture is enough for two 18cm/7" cakes. Line lose bottomed or springform tins well with baking parchment, so that the parchment sits well above the edge of the cake tin.

Set the oven to 220C fan/240C/gas 9, don't crowd the oven.

in a large bowl mix the soft cheese and sugar until smooth and even with an electric mixer

add the sifted flour, soured cream, eggs, vanilla and salt. Mix together until you have a smooth batter.

cooling after cooking for 30m

Pour or ladle into your lined tin/s, and bang the mixture in the tin sharply on the counter to get rid of any bubbles.

Put the tin/s into the hot oven and cook for 20-30 minutes - the top with darken, but the mixture will still have a wobble.

Brown Betty

This Brown Betty is a delightful, warming apple pudding and easy to make. The combined taste of the cloves, apple, treacle and sherry is hard to beat and they combine to make a smell make that's heavenly. It’s a dish that can be eaten hot or cold, my preference is for hot, but it’s unlikely I’d turn down a helping of it cold - the flavours seem to grow that longer it's kept.

In our house this was a standard Sunday pudding, my father developed a liking for it cold, cooked in a charlotte tin and turned out, which seems like an unecessary complication. With lots of cream. You could liken it to an Apple Charlotte, a deconstructed one that tastes much better. Unlike a Charlotte that uses melted butter brushed into place, the dobs of butter sit alongside the morsels of apple and make their own way through the crumbs while it cooks. You might imagine, reading the recipe, that it might seem to be a bit dry: it isn’t.

When I was trying to remember the recipe I read quite a lot of American versions, which aren't the same and seem more complicated. I found a reference to 'old fashioned Brown Betty' in a Pan Dowdy recipe, and perhaps our family version takes its molasses (black treacle) from there. You can see that here, and I'll include the version that my father wrote, although I never saw him make it… I've written it out the way I remember making it with my mother.

The quantities are a guide - you’ll probably manage to get everything in the dish. Give it a go. And use Bramley apples if you can.

Dad's write up

Brown Betty Recipe

Ingredients

2lb/scant 1kg apples

1/2lb/250g fresh breadcrumbs

¼ kb/125g unsalted butter

Brown sugar - more than a cupful

Black treacle - about two tablespoons

½ mug/1 wine glass sherry

Several pinches of ground cloves

Pinch Cinnamon 

Method

Set the oven to 170C/Gas Mark 3/325F

Use a deep pie dish

• Peel and core the apple and cut it into bit sized piece

• Generously butter around a deep pie dish

• Scatter a layer of breadcrumbs, then some apple pieces, pinches of butter alongside dustings of cloves and some cinnamon, sprinkle over with sugar and repeat until you’ve used up all the apple - then add one last layer of breadcrumbs

• Drizzle the treacle over in a random way - if you warm the spoon in boiling water and then dry it the treacle will flow more easily

• Pour the sherry over, covering as much as possible 

• Bake for around an hour, or until the apple is completely cooked (test with a skewer)

The cooked dish has a lovely crust - eat with cream, yoghurt, ice cream, or on its own.

pan dowdy

Apple Pan Dowdy
[A TASTING-TEST KITCHEN ENDORSED RECIPE]

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 quarts sliced apples
1/2 cup dark molasses
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup water

Line a casserole with pie crust. Mix sugar, spices, and salt and sprinkle over apples. Fill casserole, add molasses, butter, and water. Cover with punctured pie crust, tuck edges together, press to sides of casserole. Bake in moderately hot oven (425°) 45 minutes, decrease temperature to 325°. When crust has browned slightly and apples are tender, remove from oven.

Take a silver knife, chop up mixture, being sure that the pie crust is thoroughly mixed with apples. If dry or not sufficiently sweetened, add more water and molasses. Return to oven and bake 1 1/2 hours at 325°. Serves 10.

When finished, the pudding will look very much like Old-fashioned Brown Betty. I was told that New Englanders served Apple Pan Dowdy hot with butter. The pudding can be warmed over, in fact it is even more delicious on the second or third day if you can keep it that long.