This truly delicious cheese cake I discovered on Petras blog called “Chilli und Ciabata”. She has a nice selection of cakes there and this is the first of two I have tried. This cheese cake is not very sweet, though creamy and fresh due to the lemon curd that is mixed in. I often find cheese cakes a bit boring, but this one is really different. To give it a Mediterranean touch I had to add a little Greek yoghurt to the cake.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 50-60 minutes
Easy recipe

Ingredients :

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees centigrade.

For the lemon curd:
Mix the lemon juice, the zest, the sugar and the eggs in a medium pot on low heat. Keep stirring with a whisk. Slowly add butter and keep stirring until the mixture turns creamy. Once the whisk leaves traces on the bottom of the pan, remove the pan from the stove and put aside.

For the crust:
Grind the short bread with your kitchen aid or mortar. All ingredients and mix well. Fill the mixture in a spring form pan and flatten it out. Press onto the bottom of the pan and 2 cm (eq. 1 inch) up the sides of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Take out to cool.
Reduce the heat of the oven to 150 degrees centigrade.

Make the filling and bake:
Beat together the cream cheese and the sugar in a bowl. When mixed well add the eggs one by one. Keep mixing until you have a smooth cream. Finally blend the vanilla extract into the mixture.
Pour half of the filling onto the crust and spread out evenly. Now add a layer of lemon curd (half of the lemon curd you made) on top. Swirl the curd into the filling with a small knife or a chopstick.
Repeat this step with the rest of the filling and lemon curd.

Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes. When taking the cake out of the oven the centre might still seem soft. It will continue to set when cooling down. After the cake has cooled off, fridge for 2-3 hours.

The German version “Käsekuchen mit Zitronencreme” you can find here.

zesty cheesecake

O ΤΕΜΠΕΛΗΣ (O Tebelis) is the lazy one.
This zesty cheesepie is easy to prepare and goes really fast. It is ideal for the lazy chefs that do not want too much work, but have guests coming. This is where the name derives from – “Tebelotiropita”.

The origins of this dish is Kalavrita on the Peloponnese.

Preperation time: 5-10 minutes
Baking time: 60 minutes
Simple recipe

Ingredients:

*Friganies are very typical in Greece. They are basically dried bread cut into thin slices. The Greeks love dried breads in their diet, just like paximadia (the bases of Cretan “dakos”).

Preparation:

Mix the grinded cheese with the soft butter, the yoghurt and the eggs. Then slowly add the flour and the water while steering continuously.

Cover the casserole with a thin layer of butter. Then dust the casserole with the grinded friganies.

Slowly pour the mixture into the casserole and even it out. Then dust the mixture with the remaining friganies.

Put the casserole into the pre-heated oven with 200 degrees centigrade. Reduce the heat after 30 minutes to 180 degrees centigrate and bake for another 20-30 minutes.

Let the dish cool down and cut in pieces. Enjoy!

read this recipe in German language “Käsekuchen für Faule”