Happy New Year!
In this season San Francisco Bay Area has been a quite warm winter so far. Hope everybody had nice holidays and ate plenty of chocolate,…I did too. So I wanted to have something light, fresh and fruity dessert to celebrate for the new year. Heart à la crème is a simple crustless cheesecake but super tasty and flavorful. It doesn’t need any special ingredients, either baking, yet it is very delicious. I guarantee to everyone will love it and perfect dessert for something special day; birthdays, anniversaries, and yes, for valentine day and perfect for who do not favor chocolate so much.
Traditionally the recipe calls for using fresh soft farmers cheese, Fromage Blanc (similar to cottage cheese), however it isn’t available in ordinary grocery market in America, so I often use light cream cheese or mascarpone cheese which makes a bit denser texture but get richer taste and flavor. You may make the cake and fruit sauce a day before you want to serving that is also convenient for ever busy our life. Can’t you imagene having this Heart à la crème with a glass of Champagne? ….You would have a long very special evening!
- 2 egg whites (50g)
- 2 tablespoons sugar (20g)
- ¾ cup (7oz./200g) heavy cream or crème fraîche
- 2 tablespoon sugar (20g)
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (7oz./200g) fromage blanc (farmers’ cheese or cottage cheese or cream cheese), softened at room temperature about 1 hour.
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons sugar (30g)
- 8oz (250g) fresh or frozen raspberries
- ¼ cup (50g) sugar
- ¼ cup (50ml) water
- Juice of one small lemon
- Juice of one small orange
- Pure the raspberries with other ingredients. Strain through a fine sieve. Refrigerate until needed. It is the best use same day you made.
- 8 oz. (250g) fresh raspberries
- Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
- In a medium-size mixing bowl, beat the egg white with a pinch of salt for one minute. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until form shinny meringue about 5 minutes. Set aside.
- In another medium-size mixing bowl, beat the cream, gradually add the sugar and vanilla until soft peak about 3 minutes. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened cream cheese, lemon juice and sugar until well combined. Using a rubber spatula, hold the whipped cream gently in the creme cheese mixture, and then gently hold in the meringue.
- Transfer the mixture to the mold lined with plastic food film and cover. Refrigerated for 5-6 hours or overnight.
- When ready to serve, place a serving plate over the mold and carefully flipe over and remove mold plastic film (or cheese cloth). Decorate top of the cake with raspberries and dust fish confectioners’ sugar. Serve with raspberry sauce.
- Original/traditional Coeur à la crème recipe called using fromage blanc cheese (French farmers fresh cheese; soft and a bit like cottage cheese), and using a heart shaped porcelain mold which has holes on the bottom (known Coeur à la crème dish/mold. you can find it online.), and line with a large piece of wet cheesecloth inside the mold. So it helps excess liquid to drain from the cheese mixture while chilling in the refrigerator to make the mixture fully set to the ideal consistency. I used heart shaped metal baking pan and lined with plastic food film for this recipe. Because regular cream cheese or Mascarpone is quite solid that does not necessary to use perforated mold.
