Not Quite a Cheesecake

For this recipe you can  use twaróg, curd cheese, cream cheese or yoghurt cheese but it is quite a bit different from my usual Polish baked cheesecake.

It is a more a ground almond cake with strawberries on top.

I used the last pickings of strawberries from my garden this summer.

I used my own yoghurt cheese and squeezed it out in a cloth to get rid of as much excess liquid (whey) as possible.

Ingredients

• 115g Butter
• 115g Caster sugar
• 3 eggs separated
• 2 tablespoons of cornflour or potato flour
• 175g Ground almonds
• 200g Twaróg , Curd cheese or Yoghurt Cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
• Pinch of salt
• Topping
• Strawberries & 1/2 tablespoon of caster sugar
• Optional – Icing sugar to dust

Method

• Line a 20cm in diameter loose bottomed cake tin with a bought paper cake liner.

• Pre-heat the oven to GM5 190°C
• Cream the butter and sugar until they are soft and fluffy.
• Add the egg yolks one by one until you have a smooth mixture.
• Add the vanilla essence and the salt and mix in.
• Add the cornflour, ground almonds and the yoghurt cheese and mix together thoroughly.
• Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff.
• Fold in the egg whites into the cake mixture.
• Put the cake mixture into the lined tin.

• Slice the strawberries and place these on the top and sprinkle them with the sugar.
• Bake in the oven for 35 minutes.
• Turn the oven down to GM2 – 150°C and bake for around another 30 minutes.
• Switch off the oven but leave the cake in there until it is cool.

• Keep the cake in the refrigerator but bring to room temperature for serving.

• Served here on tea plates – Las Palmas by Aynsley from the 1960s.

Variations

• More strawberries on to top would have been okay.
• Other red summer fruits such as raspberries, blackberries or whinberries (bilberries) would also work well.