The Festival of Shavuot = Cheesecake Time

The Festival of Shavuot (2019).

Cheesecake. Cheese Blintzes. Lokshen Kugel. Yes Please!

You all know how much we adore the Jewish festival of Shavuot. We know it well as a time to eat dairy products. It is a time where many Jewish people all over the world fress (eat with abandon!) cheesecake and cheese blintzes. Any opportunity!

There are a number of reasons offered as to WHY.  The main one is that at the time Moses received the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai, it was Sabbath in the desert, and the new rules meant the meat they had already prepared for eating was not in fact kosher and they had no choice but to eat a dairy meal. (There are several other compelling reasons which you can read about by googling the question…)

But on this page, we are focussing on the food. As we love to say, it’s always about the food. It’s quite funny how things morph over time. We can imagine that centuries ago, a simple dairy meal would suffice. Now there are books, articles, blogs, competitions . . . all about the BEST cheesecake recipe or giving 8000 versions of cheesecake.

At the Monday Morning Cooking Club, we think we’ve done some of the hard work for you. Our years of research, testing and eating (yes it was so difficult . . . but someone has to do it) has produced the recipes for some of the best Shavuot recipes that can be found. Not to say that there aren’t still some great ones out there not yet discovered, but these ones are truly tried, tested and simply EXCELLENT. And we are honoured that ‘our’  wonderful cooks have chosen to share these recipes with us and with the world.

In our first book  ‘Monday Morning Cooking Club’ we have superb cheese blintzes from Melanie Knep,  ricotta lokshen kugel from Natanya and two types of cheese cake, a South African one from Lauren and a Hungarian version from Eva Grunstein.

In The Feast Goes Onwe also have a few Shavuot options: Judy Kaye’s sour cherry slice and Paula’s melktert. And of course Suzanne Goldberg’s wonderful ricotta cheesecake. This Shavuot, we are sharing it with you. Enjoy!!

 

 

 

Ricotta Cheesecake

Course Sweet Things
Servings 10

Ingredients
  

  • 7 eggs
  • 290 g Caster (Superfine) Sugar
  • 1 kg fresh ricotta cheese ,drained if wet
  • 250 g Sour Cream
  • 3 tbsp custard powder
  • 1 1/2 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 28 cm springform cake tin or a 24 cm square cake tin.
  • Using an electric mixer, whisk the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cheese and beat until smooth, then add the remaining ingredients and beat until well combined.
  • Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour, or until golden and puffy. The cake will rise during baking, then fall once cooled.

5 Comments

  1. Rosalie Weisman

    I don’t know if you received my last e
    Mail . I wanted to know what you mean when you say 11/2 tblspoon what does the 11 mean?

    1. Gail Bank

      One and a half tablespoons

  2. Bruce Goldman

    Hi, do you suggest cooking at 180 degrees C in a fan forced oven or do you suggest cooler? Thank you in advance

    1. Lisa Goldberg

      Hi Bruce. Our temps are for conventional (non fan) ovens so I would suggest you reduce it to 165 ish, depending on whether you find your oven particularly hot or not. Watch it during cooking to make sure it doesn’t over cook. And of course you may need to cook it for a bit longer. if you find it is still extremely wobbly at the end of the cooking time. Some wobble is good, but it needs to be cooked through.

  3. Lisa Goldberg

    Hi Bruce. Our temps are for conventional (non fan) ovens so I would suggest you reduce it to 165 ish, depending on whether you find your oven particularly hot or not. Watch it during cooking to make sure it doesn’t over cook. And of course you may need to cook it for a bit longer. if you find it is still extremely wobbly at the end of the cooking time. Some wobble is good, but it needs to be cooked through.

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