cheesecake al limoncello

Italians love cheesecake, like Americans love tiramisu. The difference is that they don't adopt foreign dishes like we do. So whenever the dr bob cooking team is persuaded to do a cheesecake in Italy, it is a big success, but not one which inspires imitation by the locals.

Limoncello is a lemon ("limone") liqueur made in the Italian islands of Capri, Ischia, and Ponza scattered from Naples towards Rome and no doubt in many other places there as well, given that Italy is blessed with both an abundance of lemons and a well known priority for alcohol in its liquid consumable traditions. The team acquired a bottle in Capri years ago with baking in mind, but it never found its way out of the refrigerator where it is always ready to be served in its mandatory chilled state, should we ever remember that it can also be imbibed directly without prior insertion into some labor intensive dessert.

A trip to Naples with a follow-up visit to Ponza reminded us of its potential baking possibilities. Limoncello seemed to be enjoying a wave of popularity in Italy at the time, so when on very short notice a cheesecake was requested, it seemed like a logical choice for a new experiment in the killer dessert department, without having to fuss with actual fresh fruit, obvious choices for which were not readily available. With the amount of cream cheese that materialized in the original Naples improvisation, only a low profile cake was possible. Encouraged by the success of the simple no-frills version, a standard sized normal height three layer version was planned for a big 39-at-one-table-43rd-birthday-party-seafood-based-antipasto-and-pasta- blowout extravaganza on Ponza, with desserts contributed by some of the guests, among which was the dr bob team entry. Finding ourselves somewhat embarrassed by the wave of compliments for our creation, somehow miraculously divided up among most of the guests, we downed a second piece of the mascarpone cream cake (generously cut larger than the first!) to show our enthusiasm for the closest competitor. We survived.

Of course this recipe was inspired by the legendary Mother Wonderful hazelnut cheesecake, but since the local copy of the complete "What, ME Cook?" book was not kept in a prominent and immediately accessible location ("somewhere in the house, but I don't know where," loosely translated from the Italian), we had to go with an extrapolation from the three singles "No Excuses Left Cheesecake," "Simple Soft Touch Cheesecake," and "bob's Converted Lindy's Strawberry Cheesecake" all stashed together in one of the host's few cookbooks, having been obtained by letter in the early days before aggressive book distribution of the entire edition by dr bob vanity press. Naturally never used.

In the expanded version on Ponza, the vague memory of mixing plain yogurt and Fiorello (a mascarpone-creme-frais-like Italian product, see "Cheesecake Supplement for English Speaking Italians") to produce a sour cream substitute for the topping was confronted with the hard reality of availability with only fruit flavored yogurt, so mascarpone, the magic ingredient of tiramisu, took its place.

The cake was actually baked in plug-in-the-wall electric oven just big enough to fit the 22.5cm (9.5in) springform pan borrowed from Annamaria and equipped with a temperature setting, unlike most Italian ovens. We started out a bit high to get going and saved the cake just in time from getting too browned by turning it down to 180º C (about 350º F). Thinking that by using the electric coils both above and below for more uniform heat distribution turned out to be a miscalculation, since the pseudo-sour-cream layer ended up getting broiled, but in spite of its somewhat golden brown highlights, the taste was not affected, as testified to by the army of guests who wiped it out.

ingredients

units

Cu = cucchaio = T (tablespoon)

cu= cucchiaino = t (teaspoon)

c = cup (holds 1/4 liter)

instructions (italian)

La Crosta

Sbriciolare i biscotti, mischiarli col burro, e premerli nel fondo della teglia col lato toglibile (24cm circa), e 2.5 cm lungo il lato nella versione alta. [Si puo' mettere un po di buccia di limone anche nella crosta. Biscotti del tipo "digestivo integrale" vanno bene qui.]

L'Impasto

Sbattere il formaggio e lo zucchero insieme finche' l'impasto diventa soffice. Poi aggiungere le uova, una alla volta senza sbattere troppo, e poi gli altri ingredienti di questo gruppo. Versare l'impasto nella teglia e metterlo nel forno gia' a temperatura media (circa 180º C) per un ora circa finche' il centro della superficie della torta non diventa solida.

Il Topping

Versione bassa: Lasciarlo raggiungere la temperatura ambiente e metterlo nel frigo per almeno 2 ore se non di piu'. Cospargere la superficie con zucchero a velo quando si serve.

Versione alta: Togliere la torta dal forno per riposare 10 minuti. Mischiare bene gli ingredienti dal gruppo 3 e spalmarli sulla superficie della torta e rimetterla nel forno per 10 minuti circa. Lasciarla raggiungere la temperatura ambiente e metterla nel frigo per almeno mezza giornata.

instructions (usa)

crust

Crumb the cookies, mix with the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter, and press the mixture in the bottom and about an inch up the sides of a 9.5in springform pan.

batter

Beat together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time without excessive beating to avoid removing the air, followed by mixing in the remaining group 2 ingredients. Pour into the pan and bake at 350º F for about an hour until the center of the surface is somewhat solid.

topping

Remove from the oven and let rest 10 minutes. Mix together the sour cream, sugar, and limoncello and spread evenly over the top. Bake another 10 minutes, remove and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate at least half a day before serving.

notes

1. NO FAT CREAM CHEESE
   With the millennium drawing near, America's obsession with fat has finally led market forces to provide us with no fat cream cheese and sour cream to neutralize our nutrition guilt factor when consuming totally unhealthy rich desserts like this. [Note, however, that the nonfat product PHILADELPHIA Free, which is packaged exactly like the killer cream cheese version, does not have the words "cream cheese" written anywhere on the package.] We decided to go with the fake stuff twice already on this particular cheesecake. Both times the batter looked rather grainy compared to the smooth consistency of the real thing, but after baking it seems to turn out fine, except possibly for the baking time. One hour just doesn't seem to set the center of the cake, making a clean geometrical wedge serving presentation improbable. Maybe increasing baking time by 15 minutes will do the trick. We also chose low fat sour cream. The nonfat version is also acceptable here. Of course full fat products won't kill you if this is an occasional treat. Go for it.
2. GARNISHING
   When recipes say to reserve a few berries, nuts, whatever, for garnishing (translation: cute food presentation decoration for the eye and not the stomach), we ignore the advice. Perhaps we are partly guilty of a "garnishing is for wimps" mentality, kind of like the anti-nut attitude of our early baking days. [See apple bavarian torte, for example.] This time our sister-in-law foiled our no-frills unveiling of the cheesecake to our guests by commandeering the cake and placing 1 split strawberry with greens unhinged open at the greens in the center and 4 more pairs of separate split halves with greens at 8 equally spaced locations at the perimeter, with 4 blueberries filling each of the 8 gaps in between and 4 more at the tips and sides of the center split strawberry. Even we were impressed enough to take several photos [see the illustrations] of the spectacular result, perfectly blending the red, white, and blue of the US of A with the bianco, rosso e verde dell'Italia [white, red, and green of Italy]. But not enough to do it ourselves of course.
3. PS
   This recipe would not have been possible without two wonderful friends, Laura of Napoli and Emanuela of Rome, two women who have touched bob's life in very different ways with lasting impact.