živjela Kata

Passport & Plate - živjela Kata Croatian Cheesecake

Croatia | Tuesday, February 3, 2015 | 6 photos

Ingredients
CRUST:
1 ½ cups grape nuts (or generic brand) cereal
2 cups crushed graham crachers
2 tbl sugar
6 tbl melted butter

BATTER:
2 cups small curd cottage cheese
1 cup whipped cream cheese (room temperature)
1/3 cup mascarpone
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup + 2 tbl fresh lemon zest (divided)
1/3 cup sweet white or moscato wine (you can omit and substitute 1/4 cup sour cream + 3 tbl sugar)
5 beaten eggs
2 tbl sifted rice flour (or all-purpose flour)

TOPPING:
2 (6oz) Greek lemon yogurt (plus 2 tbl lemon zest)
Fresh Berries

 

How to prepare this recipe
Crust:

(Note: Mom always baked her cheesecake in a square or rectangular baking dish. I prefer to use a springform pan.)

In a medium size mixing bowl combine the grape nuts, graham crackers and sugar and blend. Drizzle melted butter on mixture and using your hands blend together well. Coat a 8-9” springform pan with cooking spray. Put crust mixture in the pan and press firmly allowing some to go up the sides. (I cover a measuring cup with plastic wrap and use this to press and firm the crust into the bottom of the pan.) It will not be uniform and perfect. That’s o.k. It’s all about being rustic. Cover the bottom/sides of the pan with foil. The cheesecake will be placed in a larger skillet with water that will come up about 1/3 on the pan.

Batter:

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cottage cheese, cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, lemon juice, 1/3 cup lemon zest, and wine. Blend and beat about 3 minutes with a whisk. You do not want to beat out the cottage cheese lumps entirely. You are blending in the cream cheese, etc.

Add the beaten eggs and whisk about 30 seconds until all is well incorporated. Sift the flour on top of the batter then blend in. Pour into the springform pan with the crust.

Bake in preheated 325 oven for about 45 minutes. Then cover the cheesecake with a lid or loose foil. This will keep the top from getting too brown. Cook for about another 60 minutes. The center will jiggle slightly, but a toothpick will basically come out clean.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan about an hour. Run a butter knife around the perimeter to ensure a clean release. Remove from springform pan and let cool another 30-45 minutes. Refrigerate for about 4 hours before serving.

When serving pieces dollop a scoop of the Greek lemon yogurt on top (or spread like icing) and serve with fresh berries.

This cheesecake will be good for several days, almost up to a week (if it lasts that long!), when refrigerated.

 

The story behind this recipe
When I was a little girl growing up in the West Virginia Mountains, my Croatian mom would always tell me the story of her parents, my grandparents, coming to America from Yugoslavia when they were just teenagers. You see in the old country they and their families were peasant farmers, uneducated and with not much of a future—my grandparents were two dreamers searching for a better life. Somehow their paths crossed not in Yugoslavia but in the coal-mining country of Appalachia.

Hard-working and industrious, they both labored tirelessly at keeping their ethnic legacy alive but assimilating into becoming Americans—this was their grand dream—to become American citizens. One of the best ways to keep their heritage of the old country alive was through food. Grandma taught Mom how to make traditional Croatian dishes, and Mom taught me.

One of the most favorite recipes was cheesecake. Now this is not the typical fancy French-like cheesecake. This is the rustic peasant cheesecake that my Croatian grandmother made using cottage cheese, as is found in many Eastern European recipes. And, because it was a ‘special’ kind of cheesecake with ‘expensive’ ingredients like lemon and cream cheese, growing up, we had it mostly on holiday occasions—Christmas and Easter.

I call this cheesecake ‘živjela Kata Croatian Cheesecake’, which means ‘long live Kathryn’ who is my strong Croatian mom who’s passed down to me through this simple cooking more of the heritage of my grandparents and family than can be imagined. Just two years ago, with only tattered copies of almost 100-year-old passport documents and church christening records, I returned to the towns of Disnik and Garešnica , Croatia, small peasant villages where my grandparents lived searching to find more of my roots—like a ‘Lifetime’ movie, I found this and more. The powerfulness of the food that sustained over decades my Croatian heritage now lives on through me with my children and grandchildren.