Fromage Blanc Tart (French-style Cheesecake)…
Tarte au fromage blanc is a specialty of Alsace-Lorraine, a French region bordering Germany and Belgium, prepared with a special fresh cheese, fromage blanc in fact, which is rich in calcium and protein.
The tarte has a puff pastry base and a soft filling made with fromage blanc, eggs, sugar, vanilla and grated lemon zest, which gives the preparation fragrance and freshness.
Ingredients:
- 1 (275g / 9.7 oz) roll/sheet of ready-made/frozen puff pastry
- 4 medium/large eggs
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 180g (3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) caster/granulated sugar
- 40g (1/3 cup) cornflour/cornstarch
- 100ml (1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon) single/heavy cream
- 1 vanilla pod/bean
- 5g (1 teaspoon) fine salt
- 600g (2 2/3 cups) fromage blanc or quark
How to prepare the tarte au fromage blanc:
- To prepare the tarte au fromage blanc, take a ceramic (or nonstick) cake pan with a diameter of 24 cm and line it with baking paper that you will cut into circles with a diameter of 30 cm, wet and wring out well.
- Dry the paper by dabbing it with a clean, dry cloth then lay it inside the cake pan so that it adheres well. Lay the puff pastry 1 in the cake pan and line the cake pan, making the puff pastry alder at the sides. Prick the bottom with the tines of a fork and place in the refrigerator.
- Move on to the filling: in a large bowl place the fromage blanc, egg yolks, and the grated zest of an untreated lemon.
- Cut the vanilla bean in half and scrape out the seeds with the tip of a knife, then add them to the other ingredients. Finally add the cornstarch, salt and cream to the bowl.
- Mix everything with the whisks of an electric beater or planetary mixer until smooth and creamy. Separately, beat the egg whites with the sugar:
- the egg whites should be shiny, that is, not stiff but still soft and creamy. Gently incorporate them into the mixture with the fromage blanc, mixing from the bottom up.
- Pour everything into the puff pastry base, filling the mold 3/4 of the way up, and bake the tarte au fromage blanc in a static oven for about 1 hour at 180°C (350°F), until the surface of the cake is nicely golden. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack-your tarte au fromage blanc can be served warm or cold!
Bon Appétit!
