Coconut cheesecake

I mean what else are you going to do if you have 500 g of cottage cheese together with some milk and butter in your fridge and you want to defrost the fridge…you need to get rid of everything and so I went for this coconut cheesecake.

This cake was ok, nothing special orextraordinary and a good change for lemony-cheesecakes. Next time though I would substitute regular milk for coconut milk and would process coconut flakes extra small, so that they wouldn’t stuck on your teeth while you are eating it.

The dough came out very tasty though…So here’s what you will need.

For the pastry, I used this recipe. I did not want to change the amounts of the ingredients, just to be sure to get the right consistency, so I ended up making too much of the dough – I could have made 2 pies from this amount…but the good thing was that I could store the leftover dough in the fridge and make something sweet the next day.

This dough, called “pâte brisée” in French is according to Estelle the base for all quiche and pie recipes. And I guess you know it already that if you take the time to make your own crust, the result will taste a million times better (at least!) than if you buy it ready-to-use. As said, the ingredients below are enough to make 2 thin crusts. Use one half of the dough right away and freeze the other half for your next recipe. You will need:

250 g flour (1 and 3/4 cups or a little over 1/2 pound, unbleached, all-purpose)

125 g unsalted butter (1 stick)

1 egg

1 tsp crème fraîche (or sour cream if you can’t find it) – I used ricotta, because that was all I had

1/2  tsp salt.

I also added 1.5 tbsp grated lemon rind because I wanted the dough to be a bit lemony – feel free to leave it out.

 

# Sift the flour over a large bowl and add the salt. Also add the grated lemon rind if you are using it.

# Cut the butter in tiny cubes. Incorporate the butter to the flour with your finger tips (you can’t really use a spoon here… You could use a pastry blender but you’d loose all the fun of making your own “pâte brisée”). The dough will feel like coarse sand grains between your fingers.

# Push the flour and butter mix on the sides of the bowl, digging a hole in the center.

# Break the egg and pour it in the hole in middle of the bowl. Beat it a little with a fork then use a wooden spoon to incorporate the flour little by little. Add the crème fraîche or sour cream (or ricotta) and mix again until the dough is homogeneous. Use your hands to knead the dough and form two balls of the same weight.

# Place the balls of dough in plastic wraps and let them rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour before using or freezing.

# Let the dough warm up a little before rolling it out.

Not that difficult, isn’t it? Now you’ll need a filling for this pie crust. I guess this is the time to improvise, like I did. Wasn’t 100% happy with the result, as I already mentioned, so I have pointed out what I would do differently the next time, in order to get a soft and creamy pie:

500 g cottage cheese (curd or ricotta would probably give you much smoother consistency)

2 eggs

4-5 tbsp sugar (depending on how sweet tooth you are)

a pinch of salt

150 ml milk (if you like the pie to taste more like coconut, use coconut milk instead)

1 tsp vanilla extract

6 tbsp flaked coconut (process the flakes into extra tiny pieces if you like your pie to be more creamy and not very grainy)

 

# Have all ingredients at room temperature when starting.

# Beat eggs in top of double boiler (if you have one – I don’t have and I used a heavy saucepan instead). Add sugar, salt and milk and cook over boiling water (or at low heat, when not using a double boiler), stirring constantly, until thickened.

# Remove from heat and add vanilla. Gently fold in coconut flakes.

# Process the cottage cheese with a blender until smooth – this way you’ll cake comes out more creamy and not very custardy (or use curd or ricotta, mashed through a sieve). Combine cheese with the rest of the ingredients, stir thoroughly.

# Now you have the dough and the filling ready and you can start baking. Remove one dough ball from the fridge, let it warm up a bit and roll it into a ring which would cover the bottom and the edges of the pan you are using (I used 23 cm springform pan). Place the dough into the pan and pour over with the filling.

# Bake at 190 degrees C for about 30 minutes.   

It’s a nice and light cake for a change with very simple and clear flavours. I liked it – coconut and vanilla paired very well I thought – but I guess some people might find it a bit bland. Probably you can spice it up by adding some of your favourite flavours in the filling. Im sure one can have lots of fun coming up with variations and toppings for this recipe