I’ve had a really busy summer and fall so haven’t had much time to do much mucking around with new recipes unfortunately. Winter is coming which oddly enough I am looking forward to so I can spend more time in the kitchen again.
Several days ago, my alum came out online with Balsamic Of Modena PGI Goat-Cheesecake and it sounded good and stuck around in my subconsious. I’m a huge goat cheese fan so anything with goat cheese in it is a winner in my book. Add in balsamic, a close favorite second ingredient and I’m totally hooked.
The problem with most recipes is when my subconsious gets hold of them, it starts messing with them and that results in a 2:00 am brain cramp with how can I adulterate it.
My method is a bit different then the CIA recipe as are some of the ingredients, but I like to try to give credit where the origin came from.
Makes 6, 5 inch mini tarts
Ingredients:
Balsamic-Rosemary Simple Syrup
1/4 cup Fig Balsamic Vinegar (I used the Saratoga Olive Oil Fig Balsamic for this, my fav!)
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon fresh chopped rosemary
Graham Cracker Crust
1 lemon zested
Juice from one large lemon
1 ½ cup graham cracker crumbs (about 8 ounces of crackers)
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted (I prefer Kate’s butter)
¼ cup fig jam (this recipe would have been even better if I had some really nice quality fig jam but stuck with the local generic brand from the local supermarket, still was super).
Cheesecake
3/4 cup soft goat cheese (similar for the wish for better fig jam, a lovely Vermont Butter and Cheese goat cheese or Coach Farm’s Triple Cream goat cheese would have been the absolutel bomb, sadly I was stuck with again what I could get at the local super.) V.B.C.’s Clover Blossom Honey Goat Cheese would have gone splendidly in this.
1/2 cup Neufchatel cheese (the American version)
1/4 cup balsamic simple syrup
1 teaspoon fresh chopped rosemary
Pinch kosher salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
Fig Glaze
1 ¼ cup fig jam
½ cup honey bourbon
1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
Method:
- For the crust, melt the butter, lemon juice and fig jam together until the fig jam is dissolved. Remove from heat and add the lemon zest. Pulse the graham crackers until finely ground. Mix the jam mixture and the cracker crumbs with your fingers until well blended and press into the tart shells and set aside.
- For the balsamic-rosemary syrup: combine the balsamic, rosemary and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
- With a mixer whip the goat cheese, Neufchatel, balsamic mix, salt and rosemary until well blended. I used a Kitchenaid with the paddle attachment. Set aside.
- Using a cold mixing bowl, whip the heavy cream and the sugar with the whip attachment until you get medium peaks, a bit beyond soft whip but you don’t want to go to far and turn into butter.
- Fold the whipped cream in thirds into the goat cheese mixture. Spoon into the tart shells and spread evenly.
- Put tarts on a sheet pan and put them in the freezer for about an hour to set.
- While the tarts are setting, melt the fig jam, honey bourbon and cracked pepper in a pot on low heat until jam is completely dissolved. Let cool to room temperature. Spoon the glaze over the top of the tarts and refrigerate for about 20 minutes. Cover with saran wrap. Unmold before serving.
This is my first time making these so I would my guess at shelf life would be 3-4 days in the fridge. I suspect they will freeze will (I am going to test). Even with generic ingredients (jam and goat cheese) this came out even better than I expected it to. The goat cheese mixture with the fig glaze sans crust served at room temp would also be a lovely spread on some toasted rosemary focaccia.
*A note these are very rich and a whole tart maybe too much for one person, so smaller tart shells especially if serving with other prepared food would be an option.