Easy Lemon Curd Tart--with a Splash of Limoncello

I don't think I have ever met anyone who would not like lemon curd tart. It is just too good to pass on. No matter what season or time of the day I serve it, it always disappears to the last crumb. But it has been a while since I made it last time. Recently, a friend brought from a pastry shop a very nice lemon tart. My son enjoyed it a lot wondering why I have not made mine anymore. So I served lemon curd tart when I had friends over for dinner during the holidays.

I love this recipe as it is the easiest I have ever found. I believe it comes from Gourmet magazine.

The crust is made entirely in a food processor and lemon curd topping is the simplest one can imagine. All the ingredients are cooked, chilled, and spread without even separating eggs or staining the curd after. In my recent version I also added a spoon of limoncello to underscore the lemon taste.

Served with fresh fruits, lemon curd tart not only tastes great but presents itself nicely.

Lemon-Limoncello Curd Tart

(For a 9" tart pan with removable walls)

Ingredients for the crust:
1 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour,
6 tbsp cold, unsalted butter,
2 tbsp vegetable shortening,
a pinch of salt,
4 tbsp icy cold water,

Ingredients for the filling:
4 medium eggs, preferably organic,
3/4 cup sugar,
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice,
lemon zest grated from 2 lemons,
6 tbsp unsalted butter,
1 tbsp limoncello,
fresh raspberries and blueberries for decoration,
1 tbsp convectional sugar to finish.

Preparation:
1. To make the dough, place butter, shortening, flour, and salt in a bowl of food processor and pulse until crumbled.
2. Add icy cold water to the crumbles and run the food processor until a smooth ball forms.
3. Roll the dough on a working surface slightly dusted with flour to 10" diameter circle. Gently transform it to the tart form greased with butter and let it chill for at least 30 minutes (it can be chilled overnight).
4. Preheat oven to 350F and bake the crust until dark gold. Let it chill completely.
5. To prepare the filling, put eggs, sugar, and lemon juice in a medium pot. Whisk until combined. in a medium pot.
6. Add the butter to the egg mixture and cook over a medium heat stirring all the time until it thickens and first bubbles appear on the surface of the curd.
7. Cool the curd to room temperature add limoncello and mix it into the curd.
8. Spread the curd on the baked tart crust. Cool again for about an hour.
9. Before serving, decorate the top of the tart with fruits and dust with confection sugar.

Lemon Meringue Pie--Classic Delicacy

Lemon meringue pie comes to my mind always when the weather gets hot. The sourness of the filling and the lightness of the meringue topping make it a wonderful spring dessert. I have eaten lemon meringue pies several times but, surprisingly, never made one myself. I often make lemon desserts or tarts but not this pie.

The other day I was invited to a friend for dinner. His cook--yes, he has his private cook, prepared a lemon meringue pie for dessert. And it was delicious. I am very fastidious when it comes to crust--it should be very delicate and not too sweet--but I must admit that his was absolutely perfect. Too full after the whole feast I was able to try only a small piece of the pie. On the next day I regretted it very much and dreamed about another piece of lemon pie to go with my afternoon coffee. Well, then there was the only solution--to make it myself.

Next time I visit my friend I will ask his cook for his recipe for the crust but meanwhile I drew on my own recipe, which I use for all kind of pies and savory tarts. It does not contain eggs, which I like as there are many already in the filling. And of course I made it in a blender, which speeds up the whole process. For the filling I used juice and peel from fresh organic lemons and organic eggs. In no time my lemon meringue pie was ready.

Lemon Meringue Pie
(For a 9-inch baking pan)

The crust

Ingredients:
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) sweet unsalted butter,
1/4 cup vegetable shortening,
1 and 1/3 cup all purpose unbleached flour,
1/2 tsp salt,
1 tsp sugar,
3 tbsp ice cold water.

Preparation:
1. Cut butter and shortening into smaller pieces and place in a food processor. Add flour, salt, and sugar. Run a mixer until the mix turns into crumbles.
2. Add 2-3 tbsp ice cold water and pulse the mixer until the crumbles turn into a smooth dough. Stop right after.
3. Roll the dough on a working surface slightly dusted with flour to about 10-inch diameter. Using a rolling pin transfer a dough to the form. Push gently, form edges, and let it cool down for at least half an hour or overnight.
4. Bake at 370 F for about 30-35 minutes until crust becomes gold. When the crust bakes prepare lemon filling.

Lemon Filling

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar,
1/2 cup corn starch,
1 and 1/2 cup water,
1 tbsp unsalted butter,
four eggs (separate yolks from whites),
1/2 cup lemon juice (from about four medium lemons),
peel from one lemon.

Preparation:
1. Put sugar and corn starch in a medium pot. Mix them together. Add water and mix again until you obtain a smooth paste. Cook it until it becomes thick and starts to bubble.
2. Remove from the heat, beat the yolks slightly with a fork and add them gradually to the mixture. Return it to the heat, bring the mixture to boil, and remove from the heat again.
3. Add gradually lemon peel and lemon juice. Mix well.

4. Transfer the mixture onto the already baked pie crust.

Meringue

Ingredients:
4 egg whites,
1/2 tsp vanilla,
1/2 cup sugar.

Preparation:
1. Beat the egg whites in a large bowl until stiff but not dry. Add sugar in three steps while beating continuously for about 2 minutes between each sugar addition.
2. Add vanilla essence, mix, and pour over the pie with the filling.
3. Bake at 375 F for 10-15 minutes, or until the meringue becomes slightly brown.

Let the pie cool and serve it.

Easy Lime Cream--with Berries Soaked in Crème de Cassis

In the first months of blogging I posted a recipe for lemon possets--a lovely and extremely easy dessert. But maybe because of the typically British name, which does not say much to others, this dessert did not become as popular as some others I shared and as it deserved. Recently, I have been busy with many other things in my life, so whenever I have friends over I have been making this dessert, as one of the easiest I know. Last time, while preparing lemon possets I made some changes and experiments, which made it taste even better and, in my opinion, elevated it to the top three desserts I have ever made.

At the same time, for the last few weeks I have been having a new culinary obsession--Crème de Cassis. I recently bought a bottle of it and I tried it with different desserts. I love the taste of blackcurrant and delicate spiciness of the not too strong alcohol combined in that liqueur. Blackcurrants are very popular in Poland and remind me of my childhood. They grew in my parents yard and every summer we made from them preserves, juices, and sometimes liqueurs. If you asked me, I would call them a Polish national fruit.

Last week, while making possets I used limes instead of lemons. It spiced up even more the taste of the cream. Then I thought about adding some extra color to that dessert. I mixed two boxes of very sweet blackberries and blueberries and added a bit of Crème de Cassis and let the fruits soak in it. When I tried it later, they were so good that I made a dessert of their own. But when I put them together with sour lime cream and soft biscuits they were irresistible. I never recycle old posts, because I have already dozens of them waiting to be shared, but the modifications I recently introduced to that dessert made it taste so new and delicious that I think it is worth to bring it up again in the new light.

Lime Cream with Berries Soaked in Crème de Cassis
(Serves six)

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream,
one lime, preferably organic,
1/2 cup sugar,
6 oz box of blueberries,
6 oz box of blackberries,
1/3 cup creme de cassis,
mint leaves for decoration,
3 fresh lady fingers biscuits,

Preparation:
1. Place heavy whipping cream and sugar in a medium pot. Mix and bring to boiling on a medium high heat. Let it boil for about 5 minutes while stirring it often. You have to be very careful as at the beginning the cream will rise and may spill. You need then to take it from the heat for a couple of seconds and put it back on. Eventually, the mixture will become thicker and it will boil safely. Afterwards, take it of from the heat and set aside.
2. Wash the lime well and using a peeler remove thin stripes of the peel for decoration. Cut the lime in half and squeeze out the juice. Add the lime juice to the cream mixture, stir well, and let it cool to room temperature.
3. When the cream is cold divide it between six small dishes and place in a refrigerator for a minimum of four hours, but it can be done even a day ahead.
4. Half an hour before serving, mix berries, pour over them some Crème de Cassis and let the berries soak in it.

Later divide them between six small bowls and decorate with mint.

5. To serve, take out the lime cream, decorate with lime peel, and half a of the biscuit. Place the bowls with cream and fruits on medium plates and serve.

Profiteroles or Cream Puffs--Plain Vanilla

I put a picture of a vanilla stick on top of today's post because profiteroles or cream puffs, as they are called here, to me are mostly about a perfect vanilla cream. I like them most plain vanilla, no chocolate sauce, just dusted with icing sugar on top.

You would not believe how many years ago I made them for the first time. I perfected this recipe and baked for weekends very often. I would say, probably a hundred times. When I moved out from Poland, I did not make until four years ago when I was doing dessert catering for a restaurant and the parties they organized. Profiteroles seemed a perfect finger dessert--delicious and easy to eat just in two bites.

To some, profiteroles seems so complicated to make, that they prefer to buy them ready-made and stuffed with whipped cream. But, in fact, it is a very easy dessert and unbelievably rewarding, when a smooth, aromatic vanilla cream melts in your mouth together with the delicate pastry, which, first crispy, softens with the cream inside the puff. I like to add a little bit of fresh sour cream cheese as Lebne or just a bit of Greek yogurt to the cream, which gives the vanilla cream a little bit of extra taste.

Vanilla Profiteroles

Pastry

Ingredients:
1 cup water,
1 cup all purpose flour,
4 eggs,
1 stick unsalted butter,
a pinch of salt,
1/2 tsp baking powder,
icing sugar for dusting.

Preparation:
1. Pour water in a medium pot, add butter cut into smaller pieces, salt, and bring it to boil.
2. Turn down the heat and add all the flour at once, incorporating it with a wooden spoon. Stir until a smooth and shiny dough forms and the dough does not stick to the wall of the pot. Take it aside and let it cool slightly.
3. Using a large whisker or a hand mixer, add eggs, waiting in between until each is incorporated in the dough.

At the end, add half a teaspoon of baking powder and mix it well with the dough.
4. Preheat oven to 400F. Grease with butter a large cookie sheet. Using a large spoon scoop a dough and place on a baking sheet leaving space between as they will double in size. This should make 22-26 profiteroles.

5. Bake for 20-23 minutes until profiteroles rise and turn gold. Turn off the oven and let them stay there for another 10 minutes.

Place them on a cookie rack and let cool.

Vanilla Cream

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cup milk,
1/2 cup sugar,
2 eggs,
2 and 1/2 tbsp corn or potato flour,
2 and 1/2 tbsp all purpose flour,
1 stick of vanilla or 1 tbsp a good quality vanilla essence.
2 sticks of butter,
1/4 cup fresh sour cheese (optional) as Lebne, or 2 tbsp of Greek yogurt

Preparation:
1. In a small bowl mix eggs, both flours and 1/2 cup milk.
2. Pour remaining cup of milk into a medium pot, add sugar and vanilla stick cut alongside, or vanilla essence. Bring to boil. Discard the vanilla stick.
3. Pour a hot milk into flour and eggs mixture. Mix well and transfer it all back to the pot where the milk was boiled. Return to heat and bring to the boil. Take off from the heat and cool.
4. Cut butter into smaller cubes. Add them gradually to the custard and using electric mixer beat until it becomes smooth and shiny. If you like, add fresh cheese or Greek yogurt at the end.

5. Cut the profiteroles in half, put a generous spoon of cream on each bottom half, cover it with the top half,

and dust with the icing sugar on top.

Hint: You can keep the finished profiteroles in a refrigerator--they will be soft, or assemble them before serving--this will make them more crunchy. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.

Pots of Chocolate Cream--Amar​etto Flavored

Last year when I was in Paris, while shopping for food, one thing in particular had caught my attention: a huge variety of excellent ready-made desserts, chocolate including.

I tried many of them, including crème brûlée, white chocolate and raspberry mousse, and all the milk- and dark-chocolate choices. Not only were they beautifully served, often in ceramic or glass pots, but also tasted amazing. Honestly, if I lived in France I probably would not bother making any desserts and I am not sure I would have any culinary aspirations.

I usually prefer fruit or vanilla desserts, but those chocolate I discovered were irresistible. I got totally addicted to two of them. One was milk chocolate mousse, layered with thin flakes of dark chocolate. The other one was chocolate cream. It was something between a cream and custard, but more on a creamy side. So delicious that every single day during the week I spent in Paris I had at least two of them one after another. I even carefully washed the cute little pots they were served in and brought them back home to show how supermarket desserts are sold in France.

The memory of that chocolate cream was coming to my mind every time I looked at these pots and I looked everywhere for a recipe that would imitate this dessert, which reminded closely a very thick chocolate pudding, but much more rich in chocolate than a regular pudding. And I think I have finally found something almost as good and easy to make.

Chocolate Cream
(Serves six)

Ingredients:
3 tbsp granulated sugar,
1 tbsp all purpose flour,
1 and 1/3 cup whole milk,
4 oz( about 100 g) good quality milk or dark chocolate,
2 tbsp Amaretto liqueur,
1 tbsp unsalted butter,
1 tbsp roasted slivered almonds for decoration.

Preparation:
1. In a medium pot, using a whisker, mix until smooth sugar and flour with 3 tbsp milk. Heat it over medium heat until ingredients make a creamy, custard like mixture.
2. Whisking continuously add the rest of milk and follow with chopped chocolate. Mix until it thickens. At the last moment add butter and incorporate it into the mix.

3. Divide the mix among six small glass bowls and chill for a minimum of two hours.

4. Serve decorated with roasted almond slivers and amaretto biscuits.

Frozen Meringues and Berries Dessert

It is hard to let go this recipe as it belongs among my top three desserts--easy, impossibly indulging, and elegant. Probably, it is a dessert that I make most often, particularly as a finale to summer dinner parties. Also, it is a recipe for which my guests most often ask. I love it myself not only because I like meringues and can it them just dry, but also because it is a beautifully looking dessert and, even more importantly, because it can be made a long time ahead and stored for a month or so.

Although it is so simple, it is not easy to guess what is made from, and no one has ever got it one hundred percent right.

The idea for a meringue dessert came to me accidentally one summer, when after a dinner party I was left with some Pavlova reminds. Everyone knows that is not so good on the second day when meringues become soft, and even less attractive in presentation. So I decided to freeze it. The result was not bad but it gave me an idea how to improve it.

I started to experiment with it until one day I decided "that is it". It was perfect. To describe it, I would say that it is a fusion of Pavlova and Vacherin, but frozen. And if you like either, you will be loving this one too. This dessert is sweet but also refreshing because of the fresh fruits and the fruit sauce. Meringues are not overwhelmingly sweet as I add yogurt to cream, and I add no sugar at all, to the cream, just honey which when frozen turns into a delicate caramel-like brittle.

Sometimes to make it even more fancy I add a spoon of liqueur, like Grand Marnier, to it. If I am too lazy to make home-made meringues I buy them at a store; those from Trader Joe's are my favorite. As I mentioned, this dessert can be stored frozen for several weeks, but it needs to be placed in a tightly closed container, as it may catch some freezer aromas. I am having friends over for a grill dinner this weekend and guess what dessert I am going to serve? Of course, frozen meringues, which have been waiting in my freezer since last week.

Frozen Meringues and Berries Dessert
(Serves six)

Ingredients:
2 cups vanilla meringues,
1 cup Greek yogurt,
1 cup heavy whipping cream,
1/2 cup running honey,
1 tbsp Grand Marnier,
1 cup raspberries,
1/2 cup fresh blackberries,
1 tbsp sugar.

Preparation:
1. Crush meringues into smaller pieces.

2. Whip the heavy whipping cream until stiff.
3. Put yogurt into a large bowl, add the whipped cream and liqueur, if used, and mix gently.
4. Fold gently the meringues into the yogurt-cream mixture.
5. Drizzle everything with honey and fold it gently in--honey should be mixed cream but still visible, so do not mix it too hard.

6. Transfer everything to a medium-sized plastic container, preferably a big round one or six small ones and freeze for a minimum of 4 hours.
7. To make raspberry coulis, mix half a cup of raspberries with a tbsp of sugar and purée them with a hand blender.

Take the dessert from a freezer 15 minutes before serving. Take it out of the container on a serving plate (if it does not come out easily, dunk the bottom of the container in a hot water for a few seconds), pour the coulis all over it, and decorate with blackberries and raspberries. Cut like a cake and serve.

Frozen Halva Pie--Easy and Delicious Summer Dessert

Once in a while I crave for halva. I buy then a big box of it in my Middle Eastern grocery store imagining myself eating it whole. But those who like halva, also know that a small piece of it goes a long way. Although delicious, halva--as many Middle Easter desserts--is also so sweet that a couple of bites can quickly satisfy the most unsatisfiable craving.

I usually buy Greek or Turkish halva, which is very finely grind, and turns in mouth into a sandy paste. My favorite is the plain vanilla, sesame seeds halva. I eat it until I feel totally "sweetened". Later, when I am very full, a two-pound box rests in my refrigerator for months, or until my mother, who is a big halva lover, visits and in a couple of weeks finishes that box for me.

A few years ago I found in Gourmet magazine a recipe for a cake using halva. It sounded perfect for halva leftovers that I had in the back of my refrigerator. I experimented with that recipe and prepared for my summer dinner party. All the guests loved it and could not really guess what I served--a frozen cake or ice cream cake? So I would rather call it a dessert than a pie. The fact that I served it after an outdoors dinner on a hot and humid summer evening made it even more perfect.

I made some changes to the original recipe and replaced sugar with honey, which is healthier and gives it a more interesting taste. I also like it more textured, so I did not dissolve halva completely, and added hot milk instead of boiling milk. And the last nice thing about this dessert is that it can be made ahead and kept in a freezer for about two weeks.

Frozen Halva Pie
(For a 9-inch pie plate)

Ingredients:
Nine graham crackers, makes 2 cups of crushed,
5 tbsp unsalted butter (about 70g),
1/3 cup honey,
2/3 cup milk,
1/2 tsp vanilla,
1 cup crumbled, vanilla halva,
1 cup chilled heavy whipping cream,
1/2 cup shelled toasted pistachios.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Using food processor grind finely crackers. If you do not have a food processor, place crackers in a large plastic zip bag and using rolling pin crush them until they resemble bread crumbs.
3. Melt butter, add to the crackers, and mix well. You can do that in the food processor and run motor for one minute or mix in a bowl, using spoon.
4. Press the crumb mixture onto the bottom and the sides of a 9-inch pie oven dish--I use a flat bottom measuring cup or a small ramekin to press the crackers mixture.
5. Bake for 6-8 minutes, until the crust is darker. Cool down completely.
6. In a medium saucepan warm up milk until almost boiling. Add honey and remove from the heat and let it cool for about 5 minutes.
7. Add crumbled halva and vanilla essence to the milk. Mix until halva almost dissolves. Let the mixture cool completely.
8. In a medium bowl beat cream until stiff. Fold whipped cream into halva mixture and pour over cold crackers crust. Freeze uncovered for an hour.
9. Remove the pie from the freezer, sprinkle pistachios on top, and freeze again for 4 hours minimum.

Before serving let it stand at the room temperature for about 15 minutes, then cut and serve.

Festive Berry Cake--A Birthday Treat European Style

Last week, I made a birthday cake for my son. Initially, he asked for a chocolate cake, but since I was also making a chocolate fondue for kids, he decided that a fruit cake would be better.

Born in the USA and having participated in many of his peers birthday parties, he has developed a much sweeter tooth than the rest of the family. For many years, for his birthday parities I was buying a typical cake, that I knew all the kids would enjoy. And even if they left hardly bitten pieces of it I did not suffer throwing them away as I would have had I made the cake myself and put my whole heart in it.

Philip is very fond and proud of my cupcakes and cakes, but I am afraid that deep in his heart, he still enjoys better those typical cakes with colorful icing. Last Friday, before I cut the cake, he said diplomatically to his guests: "My mom made this cake and it is unlike any other in the world". And I am not sure if he meant or did not want to say that it was "the best."

The cake I made was light, healthy--with fruits for only decoration, and not overwhelmingly sweet. We did have some leftovers, but they were all eaten to the last piece on the next day.

It is a simple sponge cake, for which I do not use any butter or its substitutes, but it is very moist because each layer is drizzled with a sweet punch, which I prepare for this purpose. To finish it, I use a French cream (crème patisserie), which is based on eggs and enriched with butter. Preparing such a cake is more labor intensive than just spreading a ready to use icing all over, but the whole preparation is not as complicated as it may seem, so this time I am putting a few more picture to explain all the steps. You can also use any kind of fruits to decorate it. For his birthday cake, I chose my son's favourite.

Festive Berry Cake
(Serves twelve)

Sponge cake base for 9-10" pan

Ingredients:
5 large eggs,
1 cup sugar,
1 cup bleached flour,
1 tbsp cornflour,
1 tsp baking powder,
butter and breadcrumbs to coat the pan.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 370F.
2. Put eggs in a large bowl, add sugar, and using an electric mixer beat for 5 minutes or until eggs acquire a very thick, mousse-like consistency. I use Kitchen Aid stand mixer and the machine does the job beautifully.
3. Mix together flour and baking powder and fold into thick egg mixture until completely incorporated.

4. Grease the baking tin with butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, until gold on top.

6. Cool down completely and, using a knife to loosen up the sides, remove the cake from the pan.

7. Cut the cake horizontally in half using a long and sharp knife.

Punch:
2 cups of warm boiled water,
4 tbsp sugar,
juice from 1 lemon,
Mix all the ingredients, cool.

Cream:
2 cups of milk,
4 egg yolks,
1 cup sugar,
1/3 cup corn starch,
1 1/2 sticks soft butter,
1 tbsp vanilla extract.

Preparation:
1. In a large bowl whisk egg yolks and sugar until smooth and pale.
2. Add flour and the vanilla extract to the yolk mixture and mix until it becomes quite thick.

3. Cook milk up to the boiling point in a 3 qt pot.
4. First, add about a cup of hot milk into yolks mixture and using whisker gently mix until all the ingredients turn in a smooth cream. Then, add the rest of the milk and mix again.
5. Transfer the mixture back to the milk pot and cook on the lower heat constantly stirring with a whisker until the mixture becomes thick like custard. Let it bubble for about 20 seconds and remove from the heat. Cool until it is still slightly warm.

6. Cut butter into smaller pieces and using an electric mixture incorporate into the custard. All the butter should quickly disappear in the custard and create a shiny cream. Cool down completely.

Fruits:
3 cups of different fruits of your choice.

To put the cake together:
1. Put the bottom of the cake on a large serving plate. Using a soup spoon drizzle half of the punch on it, including on the sides of the cake, as they tend to be quite dry.
2. Use a little less than a half of the cream to spread it all over the first disk.
3. Cover the first (bottom) disk with a second sponge disk and sprinkle it with the rest of the punch. Cover evenly with the cream on top and on the sides.
4. Use some toasted slivered almonds or flakes to finish the sides and decorate the top with seasonal fruits of your choice.

Cut the cake using a very sharp knife after dipping it in a hot water (and drying it subsequently); this would make it easier to cut through the cream.

I like it most with a cup of espresso.

Pomegranate Cheesecake Dessert--A Delicious Mood Enhancer

Rain is pouring down and clouds have turned a bright morning into an evening. No complaints though, as the drought has been lasting for too long already. On a day like that, how about a mood enhancer and a ray of sunshine for the palate? And what would that be? There is only one answer for me: a sweet, satisfying, and unfortunately also a high-calorie dessert.

When I took two beautiful red pomegranates out of my shopping bag, all I thought about was this cheesecake I once made for one of the DC restaurants. When I had to produce 30 cakes for one evening, this one was easy to make, tasty, and original. It also preserves well and can be refrigerated for up to one week. And because of the pomegranates it is also very in-season now. Pomegranates are best early in the fall and can last until early winter. I came up with this recipe looking at the leftover ingredients, after having baked already 20 cakes but still needed another dozen.

I have never succeeded in making a good cheesecake in America with Philadelphia cheese as a main ingredient. I used to make the most delicious and fluffy cheesecakes in Poland, but back home we use quark, or farmer's cheese, which we whip with butter, eggs, and sugar. Somehow my American cheesecakes were not as good as those from Cheesecake Factory, and disappointed with the results I gave up on making them. There are not many dishes that you can buy at a store and taste better than home made, but I resigned myself to this one being an exception.

But since making desserts is my biggest culinary romance and cheesecakes have always played an important part in it, I had to come up with something that would be irresistibly delicious and at least in the cheesecake family--a cheesecake dessert, which does not need to be baked, is very delicate in texture and taste, and is more of a dessert than a regular cheesecake.

Finishing this dessert with pomegranates gives it crunchiness and also a dose of antioxidants that this fruit is particularly reach in, and therefore became such a craze in recent years.

Those who come from or traveled to Afghanistan say, that there is no place on earth where pomegranates taste better than there, but also here the most dark and ripe can be very sweet, juicy and worth trying, if you do not mind their kind of seedy texture.

I make my cheesecake dessert in a 10" baking form with a removable wall.

Pomegranate cheesecake dessert

Ingredients

Crust:
6 oz (200 g), or about 15-16 pieces of Graham crackers,crushed into small crumbs,as you do for regular cheesecake,
1 stick butter (100-112 g)

Filling/Topping:
3 packs of Philadelphia or other cream cheese (room temperature),
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk,
1 tbsp vanilla extract,
1 pomegranate,
1 pack of Dr. Oetker red cake glaze or you can make your own,
1 cup pomegranate juice,
1/2 tbsp sugar,
1 tbsp corn starch.

Preparation

Crust:
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Melt butter, mix with graham crackers, and spread this crust over the bottom of the pan and around 1" on the side.
3. Bake 15-20 min until dark gold and let it cool down completely.

Filling/Topping:
1. Using a stand-up or hand mixer whip all the cheese together.
2. Add condensed milk with vanilla essence and mix with cheese until it turns into a smooth filling.
3. Working with your fingers, scoop the pomegranate seeds out of the fruits.
4. Put the filling on the crust and cover it with pomegranate seeds.
5. Make a ready glaze according to instruction or mix together sugar, starch and juice in a pot to make your own. Bring it to boiling stirring continuously. Let it bubble for two minutes until the mixture becomes transparent. Cover pomegranate seeds with the glaze and put the dessert immediately in the refrigerator.

If you are very impatient you can try this dessert a couple of hours later, as I did. It will resemble more a dessert than cake and the filling will be still soft and creamy, running from the crust. With the first bite of it in my mouth, the sun came up again.

If you chill it over night, the filling will set up, the dessert will be easier to cut, and will resemble more of a cheesecake than a dessert. Whatever you prefer, both ways I think this is a really wonderful mood enhancer. In different seasons, this recipe would work as well with blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries, but in my opinion, pomegranates make it really special.

Almond Sponge Cake with Fresh Fruits--an Elegant Idea

I always expect desserts to be not only indulging, but also elegant. Desserts come last and should crown the feast. But every single dish, before we even taste it, appeals to us first by its looks. That is also how we choose certain recipes and that is the reason why cookbooks with pictures sell better than those without them. I always pay a lot of attention to the presentation of food I serve, especially when I have guests over. A simple salad nicely arranged on a plate can be forgiven for its simplicity, if the presentation is attractive. It also shows that someone cared, made an effort, and put an extra touch, which is what counts most. A nicely presented dish can also spark an interesting conversation.

Today, I made an elegant dessert with the very sweet figs I had bought the other day. The recipe is simple and the good news is that there are two versions of it. For the lazy or inexperienced cooks there is an easy one and for those more ambitious I have a more difficult version. Both look and taste great. I used figs for decoration, which were in the original recipe from a French cooking magazine, that I used to read in Switzerland, but feel free to use any seasonal fruits you have available: peaches or plums, or more exotic ones, like mango or kiwi. A remarkable thing about this cake is that it is done without flour and, instead, ground almonds are used to make the dough.

For this post, I made a dozen of tartelette-size cakes from this recipe, which I think look very attractive, but this amount of dough is sufficient to make one big cake in a 11'' tart pan. It can be decorated and cut later into small triangles.

Almond Sponge Cake with Fresh Fruits

Cake ingredients:
1 cup ground almonds,
1/2 cup sugar,
2 eggs,
6 tbsp (room temperature) butter,
1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp sugar for the baking pan.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 325F(180 C.)
2. Spread butter over the baking dish and dust with sugar.
3. Using a mixer whip the butter with sugar until smooth.
4. Add eggs and, when they blend, add almonds.
5. Mix well and transfer to the baking tin.
6. Bake for 15-20 min.

Let the cake cool down before you transfer it on a serving plate, pour the vanilla sauce over it, decorate with fresh fruits of your choice and serve.

Vanilla Sauce

The easy version:
1 cup sweet condensed milk,
1 tbsp rum,
1 tbsp vanilla extract,
Mix all the ingredients and pour sauce over the cake, following with fruits.

Home made--the more ambitious version:
1 egg yolk,
2 tbsp sugar,
1 cups milk,
1 tsp corn starch,
Vanilla pod or vanilla essence,
1 tbsp rum.

Preparation:
1. In a bowl beat eggs with sugar, add corn starch, and mix well.
2. If you use a vanilla pod, cut it in half, scoop up the black seeds with a knife and add them to the milk.
3. Boil the milk and pour hot into the yolk mixture.
4. Return to the heat and cook until sauce boils and becomes thicker.
5. Cool down the sauce, add rum, and pour over the cake. Decorate with fruits and serve.

This really simple and elegant dessert will certainly impress.