crème brûlée cheesecake with sour cherry compote

There is nothing quite as lovely as cracking through the sugary crust of crème brûlée. It’s like unwrapping a present. A crunchy, creamy, vanilla present. But you don’t have to limit this lovely topping to making actual crème brûlée. You can give the same crunchy caramel treatment to cheesecake. It's rich and creamy enough to evoke crème brûlée but with a little tang from cream cheese. This is lovely on it’s own, but even better with a sweet-and-sour cherry topping.

Baking the cheesecake in a water bath provides gentle, even heat and helps prevent cracking.

crème brûlée cheesecake:

adapted from Fine Cooking

• 1 cup graham crumbs

• ¼ cup. unsalted butter, melted

• 1.5 8-oz. packages cream cheese, at room temperature

• 4 oz. mascarpone or full-fat yogurt

• 1 Tbs. all-purpose flour

• Pinch of flaky salt

• ½ cup + 2 tbs cups granulated sugar

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 large eggs, at room temperature

• 3 tbs granulated sugar

Heat the oven to 375 F. Line the bottom of a 6” springform pan with parchment paper.

Combine graham crumbs and melted butter, mix until well combined. Press crumbs into the bottom of prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes and set aside to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 350 F. Wrap the outside of the springform pan in tinfoil to make it watertight. Half-fill a large roasting pan with water, making sure it’s big enough to hold the springform pan without overflowing.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat cream cheese, mascarpone, flour and salt on medium speed until there are no more lumps. Scrape down the bowl and add ½ cup + 2tbs sugar. Continue beating until well incorporated and smooth. Add vanilla and beat briefly. Add eggs one at a time and beat until just incorporated. Pour filling over the prepared crust and set in the water-filled pan in the oven. Bake 45-50 minutes, or until set around the edges with a wobbly centre.

Chill the cheesecake in the fridge for at least 8 hours. Run a knife around the outside of the cheesecake and release the sides of the pan. Carefully slide the cake onto a serving plate.

Sprinkle 3 tbs sugar over the cake and use a kitchen torch to melt and caramelize it, moving in steady circles over the surface until evenly caramelized. Serve with cherry compote.

sour cherry compote:

• 1 cup fresh or frozen pitted cherries

• 1 cup sour cherries, fresh or from a jar

• ¼ cup sugar (+ more if using fresh sour cherries)

• 2 tbs lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer over medium low heat. Cook until the cherries soften and the sugar and liquids thicken into a heavy syrup, about 15-20 mins. Allow to cool and spoon over cheesecake slices. 

damn fine cherry pie

I didn't watch Twin Peaks the first time around, largely because I was a toddler when it first aired and a lot of the great weirdness of it would probably have been lost on me. I always had it in the back of my mind as something I knew I was supposed to watch, and should get around to one day. There are so many cultural references to the show floating around that I had picked up a bit of Twin Peaks through osmosis. But then when I heard a new season was being coming out, I finally got motivated to watch it, and it's really good you guys! I'm sure it's news to you, but it's just as good as everyone said all these 26 years. 

I wanted to pay homage to Twin Peaks' new season with a Double R Diner special, a cherry pie and a cup of strong black coffee. 

I know it's a bit early for fresh cherries, at least where I live, so I used some jarred sour cherries and some frozen sweet cherries. You can use all sour, or all sweet and fresh cherries will work too. 

crust:

adapted from Bon Appetit

• ⅓ cup almond flour
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 big pinch salt
• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chilled butter, cut into pieces 
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup cold water

Combine almond flour, granulated sugar, salt, all-purpose flour and butter in a food processor and pulse until mixture is just combined and has a sandy texture. Combine egg yolks and water and drizzle them over the flour mixture. Pulse until just combined. Add a few drops more water if the dough isn't coming together.

Dump the dough out onto a large sheet of plastic wrap and squish it into a rectangle. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill for at least two hours or overnight. 

On floured parchment paper, roll out just over half the dough to 1/4" thickness, until it's large enough to line a 9" pie plate. Transfer the dough to the pie plate and trim excess. 

Roll out remaining dough until 1/4" thick and use a small piping tip to cut out polka-dot holes in the pie top or slice vents with a knife. 

filling: 

adapted from Martha Stewart.

Note about cherries: Fresh or frozen is fine, I like a mix of sour and sweet cherries. Because it's a bit early in the season, I used 5 cups sweet frozen cherries + 1.5 cups jarred sour cherries, drained of syrup. If you use frozen, make sure to thaw, rinse and drain well on paper towels to prevent sogginess. 

• 2 pounds cherries
• 2 tbs corn starch
• 2 tbs lemon juice
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tbs heavy cream 
• sanding sugar for sprinkling

Pre-heat oven to 400° F. 

Toss cherries, sugar, lemon juice and corn starch in a large bowl. Place filling into the dough lined pie pan. Drape the top dough layer over the cherries and trim off excess dough. There is quite a bit of extra, which can be frozen for another use. 

Pinch the two layers of dough together all around the edge. Beat together egg and cream and brush over pie top. Generously sprinkle with sanding sugar and bake on lowest rack in the oven for 60-70 minutes. If the edges brown too quickly, wrap tinfoil around the edges.

Serve with a damn fine cup of coffee, preferably in a foggy little seaside town enshrouded in mystery and cedars. 

cherry and almond ice cream pie

When I was a kid, I used to make ice cream pie quite a bit. The recipe was very easy and had lots of variations - it had a graham crumb crust filled with ice cream mixed with a can of fruit juice concentrate. If you want to try it, I would highly recommend a vanilla ice cream & lime aid concentrate combo. The vanilla and lime mixture is perfectly sweet-tart and sunny. I also enjoyed making this pie for the opportunity it gave me to eat a few spoonfuls of undiluted limeade concentrate. I had a very sophisticated childhood palate. 

This cherry & almond version of ice cream pie is a teeny bit more sophisticated but only the slightest bit more involved to make. I still used graham crumb crust, and store bought ice cream (feel free to make your own vanilla ice cream if you are so inclined), and added some caramelized almonds and some lovely, syrupy cherries. A slightly grown up but still very quick-to-prepare version of my childhood ice cream pie.

The amounts here don't need to be too exact, and the fruit and flavourings can be swapped out to whatever suits you and is on hand. Peaches would be really nice with the crunchy almonds if you prefer. 

cherry & almond ice cream pie:

• 2/3 cup flaked almonds
• 1/2 cup sugar, divided
• large pinch salt 
• 3 cups pitted cherries, fresh or frozen both work 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• about 8 cups vanilla ice cream
• 1 1/3 cup graham crumbs or finely crushed amaretti cookies
• 1/3 cup butter, melted 

In a medium frying pan on medium heat, toast the almond until they just begin to colour. Sprinkle in 1/4 cup sugar and pinch of salt, stirring constantly until sugar melts and coats almonds and the nuts are deep brown. Cool nuts on parchment lined baking sheet. 

Bring ice cream out of the freezer to soften for about 15 minutes. 

In a small saucepan, combine cherries, 1/4 cup sugar, almond and vanilla extracts and bring to boil. Reduce heat and cook over low heat until cherries soften and syrup thickens, about 10 minutes. Cool in the fridge. 

Combine graham crumbs and melted butter and press into a pie plate in an even layer. Scoop ice cream onto the crust and smoosh it down with your fingers. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the nuts onto the ice cream. Spoon cherries and syrup onto the ice cream and top with another 1/3 of the nuts. Scoop on more ice cream until the cherries are more or less covered, it doesn't need to be totally even or covered, it's nice if some cherries peek through. Freeze the pie for at least 5 hours or overnight. Slice and serve sprinkled with the remaining candied nuts.