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Lemon Meringue Tart for Two

A mile-high meringue is possible only if the egg white, bowl and beaters are at room temperature.


Ingredients


All-purpose flour, for dusting

1 large egg, at room temperature, separated (see Baking Tip)

2 tablespoons plus 4 teaspoons sugar, divided

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
 
Preparation


1.Preheat oven to 375°F.

2.Prepare Crust for Two.

3.Dust a work surface with flour and turn the dough out onto it. Dust the dough with flour and roll into an 8-inch circle, dusting with flour as necessary to prevent sticking. Transfer the crust to a 6-inch tart pan with 1-inch sides and removable bottom (see Sources or Equipment Tip). Press the crust into the bottom and up the sides, folding the overhanging dough back into the pan to form double-thick sides. Prick the bottom and sides with a fork.

4.Bake the crust until lightly browned, 20 to 22 minutes. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to 425°.

5.While the crust is cooling, whisk egg yolk and 2 tablespoons sugar in a medium bowl until thick and pale yellow, about 1 minute. Whisk in cornstarch until combined.

6.Bring water, lemon zest and lemon juice to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from the heat. Whisk about half the lemon mixture into the yolk mixture in a slow, steady stream. Whisk the combined mixture back into the remaining lemon mixture in the pan. Return the pan to the stove and cook over low heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and puddinglike, 1 to 3 minutes. Pour into the prepared crust and spread evenly to the edges.

7.Beat egg white in a small bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Beat in the remaining 4 teaspoons sugar in a slow, steady stream until stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla. Mound the meringue over the warm filling; spread to the crust’s edges, forming peaks with a rubber spatula.

8.Bake the tart until the meringue is lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature before serving.

Tips & Notes

Baking Tip: To warm an egg to room temperature, either set it out on the counter for 15 minutes or submerge it (in the shell) in a bowl of lukewarm (not hot) water for 5 minutes.

Nutrition

Per serving: 360 calories; 15 g fat (5 g sat, 5 g mono); 121 mg cholesterol; 49 g carbohydrates; 6 g protein; 2 g fiber; 182 mg sodium; 70 mg potassium.



Nutrition Bonus: Vitamin C (15% daily value).



3 Carbohydrate Serving



Exchanges: 1 1/2 starch, 2 other carbohydrate, 3 fat

Gingerbread Cheesecake

Now here is something a little different.
1 pound cream cheese (at room temperature)


1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 cup molasses

4 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon fresh nutmeg, grated

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup flour



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.



In a mixer bowl, beat the cream cheese on high speed until light and smooth, about 3 minutes. With the mixer on, beat in the vanilla extract. Add two of the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until thoroughly blended. Gradually add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 3 minutes; set aside.



In a medium saucepan, heat the molasses over low heat until bubbles begin to form around the sides. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, until completely blended. Scrape the molasses into a medium bowl and stir in the ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Add the brown sugar and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth. Let cool to room temperature.



Beat the remaining 2 eggs into the gingerbread batter, 1 at a time, until well blended. Stir in the baking soda, then beat in the flour in 3 batches until completely incorporated. Using a tablespoon, drop half the gingerbread batter in spoonfuls into the prepared pan. Use one-fourth of the reserved cream cheese mixture to fill in the empty spaces. Dollop the remaining gingerbread batter on top of the cream cheese mounds. Fill in with another one-fourth of the cream cheese mixture. Swirl with the flat edge of a knife to marbleize the batters (be careful not to overmix). Smooth the remaining cream cheese mixture over the top. Bake in the middle of the oven for 50 minutes, or until the top of the cake begins to crack. Let cool to room temperature. Remove the sides of the spring form pan, cover and refrigerate. Serve chilled.

Red Velvet Cheesecake

Crust:


1 box of red velvet cake mix

1/2-3/4 stick of butter, melted



Filling:

4 (8 oz) pkgs of cream cheese, softened to room temp

1 1/3 cups light brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs, at room temp

1 1/3 cups sour cream or heavy cream, or a combo of the two

Green Food coloring



Directions:

Spray a 9 inch spring form pan w/ non-stick cooking spray. Wrap the bottom of the pan w/ three layers of heavy duty aluminum foil. Set aside.



Mix 1/2 stick of melted butter with the cake mix. Do not use anything other than the powdery cake mix and the melted butter. Mix together until the batter becomes a thick, not crumbly "dough". If it is too dry w/ only the 1/2 stick melted butter, add in another 1/4 stick of melted butter. Try not to use too much more than this, or else it will be too greasy.

Press the "dough" into the greased pan. Press it into an even layer on the bottom circle, but also press some up the sides, at least and inch up. Try to make the corners as even as possible (I didn't do a great job of that as you'll see in other pictures, but it was still good).









Put a small saucepan of water on the stove top and bring to a boil. While the water is boiling, make the batter.



Beat the cream cheese at medium speed until it is soft, about 4 mins. W/ the mixer running, add the sugar and continue to beat about another 4 mins, until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one by one, beating a full minute after each addition. Reduce the speed to low and add the sour cream/heavy cream (I usually only use sour cream).



Take out half of the mixture and place in a large bowl. That is going to be the plain white part of the cheesecake.



Leaving the other half in the mixer, add a couple of drops of green food coloring. Blend. If you need more, feel free to add as much as you want, but remember, you don't want to over beat the batter, so try to stick to only one more addition after adding the first few drops, just in case.



Using equal sized measuring cups (I used half cups), sprayed w/ cooking spray for both batters, pour in a scoop of the white batter right in the middle of the prepared pan. Then pour a scoop of green batter right on top of the white batter. The white batter will spread out underneath the green. Then repeat w/ the white batter right on top of the green batter, and keep going until you're completely out of batter.

It'll look somewhat like this:





I have to scrape the last bit of the white out of the bowl, so it wasn't as pretty and circular. But that's ok, I go for edible not just visual perfection :)



Once you've filled the pan w/ all of the batter, place a large roasting pan on the oven rack. Place the cheesecake pan in the middle and then slowly and carefully pour the boiling hot water into the roasting pan. Slowly and carefully push the rack into the oven and bake the cheesecake for 1 1/2 hours.



After the cheesecake has finished backing, turn off the oven and prop open the oven, just enough to let the air escape. You can see a picture of this in my Pumpkin cheesecake post.



Take the cheesecake out of the roasting pan and allow it to cool to room temp on the counter. Once it has reached room temp, place the cheesecake in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, but overnight is preferred. And in all honesty, this isn't a cheesecake you want to make the day of. Making the batter and baking it and cooling it enough to refrigerate it... It's a lengthy process.







Unfortunately, I was making this on Christmas Eve and we were also making galopita (recipe coming soon) and pasticio so I couldn't let my cheesecake sit in the oven longer than 20 mins. We really had to get moving. So I took it out of the oven and put it on a cookie sheet on the table. I left the foil on b/c it is still baking a bit in the pan in the oven, so I was thinking I should keep it insulated w/ the foil to keep the heat in and slowly cool like it would in the oven. After a while, I took the foil off and let it sit in just the pan. I finally braved taking it out of the pan a little while later.









I managed to do a good job getting the dough up the sides as much as possible. For some reason I can never do this w/ crumb crusts and I really wanted people to be able to see the red crust, so I was really happy this worked. Much better than coloring melted butter red and mixing that w/ Nilla Wafers or shortbread cookies!! :)







The crust was awesome. You can do this with any crust you want. I think it would be great to use a spice cake mix w/ a pumpkin cheesecake, or a strawberry crust w/ a vanilla cheesecake and top it w/ more strawberries. Or a lemon crust w/ a lemon cheesecake... Endless possibilities. And my fav new way to make crust. The red velvet was a bit of a pain b/c as you can see above, it sticks to the knife (even if you wipe it!) so it doesn't make for pretty slicing.







As I said before, you really want to get the corners of the dough as even w/ the rest of the crust as possible. This helps it bake more evenly. The crust is nice and crisp, but not super crisp like a crumb crust can be. Think homemade crackers. They are crisp, but not like saltines-crisp. So b/c the corners were so much thicker, the top of the crust in the corners wasn't as baked, which is why it stuck to the knife as much. It was definitely not raw... It just wasn't perfectly set.



But all in all, this cheesecake was awesome It tasted delicious, as usual. I really don't think you can mess this base recipe up at all. Even if you don't use a water bath, it'll probably still work well. You just might have a crack in top. But actually, I strongly recommend using a water bath. It helps the cheesecake bake evenly, which makes the WHOLE cheesecake smooth and creamy, as opposed to the outside edges hard and the middle smooth and creamy.



So that's not the last Christmas dessert we made, but since it was the most Christmas themed, I knew I should post it before everything else!!!

Enjoy!



Btw, I just bought this cheesecake pan (after Christmas, haven't used it yet) I am way excited to use it asap, b/c then maybe I won't have to use three layers of heavy duty foil to keep water form the water bath leaking in!!!