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Greek Yogurt Tart With Gluten Free Crust

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Greek Yogurt Tart With Gluten Free Crust

Greek Yogurt, Labneh, Labni or strained yogurt tart, you can name it whatever you want. But above all, this is the one light velvety textured baked yogurt tart, which is not cloying too. A perfect dessert or a tea time snack for the present weather. It can be topped with whatever in-season fruits you get, or can just be enjoyed plain, no one would complain.

Greek Yogurt Tart With Gluten Free Crust

It somehow resembles to the the quark cheesecake I baked last year with balsamic roasted strawberries, the texture, the flavor and even the color. It could be because quark is nothing but the strained natural yogurt. I have been wanting to bake a yogurt tart but preferably the egg-free version. But most of the egg-free version called for a loads of sweetened condensed milk, which kinda put me off, thinking the over sweetness from the condensed milk could ruin the delicate flavors of yogurt.

Greek Yogurt Tart With Gluten Free Crust

Talking about the crust, I am not a gluten intolerant person, neither is anyone in my family and friends. But I thought it would be good, if I try some alternate flours for the crust. It might be challenging, the crust would not keep crisp or it might come out excessively crumbly. But after a lot of research on the internet, I decided onto replacing half of the flour with almond meal and rest half with oatmeal and cornmeal.

Greek Yogurt Tart With Gluten Free Crust

Oatmeal helps to make the crust crumbly, while cornmeal balances out with the body it gives and almond meal keeps the moistness of the crumb intact. A perfect winner for a tart crust, though I am not sure if this could be used for a traditional double crust pie. I am yet to figure that out.

Greek Yogurt Tart With Gluten Free Crust

I topped this tart with ruby red pomegranate seeds and some toasted slivered almonds, which made the tart all the more appealing, resting with high head in the middle of our dinner table!

Greek Yogurt Tart With Gluten Free Crust

Recipe adapted from SAVEUR

Ingredients

For the crust

1 cup almond meal
1/4 cup oatmeal, powdered in a food processor
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
80 gm unsalted butter, melted
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling

400 gm strained yogurt
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
3 eggs

 

Directions

  1. To make the crust, preheat the oven to 180 degree C. Whisk almond meal, sugar, oatmeal, salt, cornmeal in a bowl. Stir in vanilla extract and butter, until the dough forms. Press into the bottoms and sides of a 9″ springform tart pan. Using a fork, prick dough all over. Line dough with parchment paper and fill with dried beans and bake until pale golden 13-15 minutes. Remove paper weights and bake for another 10-12 minutes. Let cool.
  2. To make filling, lower the oven temperature to 150 degree C. Whisk all the ingredients in a bowl, until smooth. Fill in the pre-baked tart shell and bake until just set in the center, for about 20-25 minutes. Let cool. Top with fresh fruits and some nuts before serving.

 

Vanilla Bean Quark Cheesecake With Balsamic Roasted Strawberries

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Vanilla Quark Cheesecake with Balsamic Roasted Strawberries 1

Making a baked cheesecake can become really daunting here in India, especially when we don’t produce a good quality cream cheese locally. It doesn’t mean that we don’t get a good quality cream cheese at all here. There are definitely imported brands like Philadelphia, which are available at select supermarkets at exorbitantly high prices.

Vanilla Quark Cheesecake with Balsamic Roasted Strawberries 5

So when choices are little and the craving for a perfect baked cheesecake grows stronger and stronger, quest for the alternate solutions begins! Ain’t it way too melodramatic…haha. But on a serious note, this is how I started making my own mascarpone at home. Delish and luscious.

Vanilla Quark Cheesecake with Balsamic Roasted Strawberries 2

Now we talk about the inspiration. So there’s a very sweet lady out there, who started making her own soft cream/curd cheeses at home years ago. Deeba of PassionateAboutBaking.com has a wonderful blog full of so many inspirational recipes and beautiful pictures. Her love for the locally home grown produce inspired me a lot to start making my own cheese. She has this very informative post on curd cheeses.

Vanilla Quark Cheesecake with Balsamic Roasted Strawberries 4

For those who are new to quark, it’s a soft white unaged curd cheese, which is made by cultured buttermilk and full fat milk. And it does have a very lemony fresh flavor and doesn’t have any salt added to it. This is very popularly used in German baked cheesecakes.

Vanilla Quark Cheesecake with Balsamic Roasted Strawberries 6

Knowing nothing about the cheese, for starters I tried one of a recipes from PAB, which came out really really nice. I couldn’t believe that I made that luscious baked cheesecake at home. You’ve got to try this to believe this. With trying my luck on this simple yet wonderful cheese, I am all set to be experimenting more with it.

Recipe adapted from: Passionate About Baking

Ingredients

Crust
100 gm digetive biscuits
25 gm whole almonds
40 gm butter, melted {i used salted}
Filling
300 gm quark cheese {recipe follows}
2 eggs, separated
25 gm cornflour
70 gm {20gm & 50gm} castor sugar, divided
1/2 vanilla bean, scrapped
100 ml low fat cream
Roasted Balsamic Strawberries
150 gm strawberries, frozen
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Instructions

  1. For the crust, whiz the almonds and digestive biscuits in the food processor to make a fine powder.
  2. With food processor, running on low speed, add the butter in slow stream and process until a moist crumb forms.
  3. Place a 6 inch dessert ring or a spring form cake pan on a baking sheet and press the crust mixture on the bottom of the pan and level to make a smooth surface. Bake the crust on a 200 degree Celsius oven for 5 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes.
  4. For the filling, in the bowl of food processor, add quark, cream, corn flour, egg yolks, 50 gm sugar, vanilla bean and process to make a smooth batter.
  5. In a bowl, beat the egg whites using an electric beater until they become frothy. Add the remaining 20 gm sugar and beat to form stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the cheese mixture.
  6. Pour the cheese mixture over cooled crust and bake for 30 minutes, until golden on top. Bake at 200 degree Celsius for first 10 minutes and then at 180 degree Celsius for 20 minutes.
  7. Let cheesecake cool completely inside the oven with oven door slightly open. Once cooled, let cheesecake rest in fridge for at least 2 hours.
  8. For strawberries, toss all the ingredients in a glass/ceramic dish and roast at 180 degree Celsius for about 20 minutes. Let cool completely.
  9. Top the cake with roasted strawberries, while serving.

Quark Cheese

Ingredients

1 liter full fat milk
200 ml low fat cream
250 ml cultured buttermilk

Instructions

  1. Heat the milk in pot with lid, so that it is lukewarm in temperature.
  2. Stir in the buttermilk and cream into milk. Cover the pot with lid and let rest in warm place for 10-24 hours {10 hours for summer and 24 hours for winters}. This will enable the culture process to begin.
  3. Initially the milk will look grainy but eventually the curds will float over the whey.
  4. At this stage, let the covered pot rest in fridge for 5-6 hours.
  5. Drain the curds into a muslin/cheesecloth and tie the knot to let the whey drain through a sieve,. Keep the apparatus in fridge for 24 hours, so that all the whey gets drained out.
  6. The drained quark cheese will have a consistency like sour cream and slightly tangier than sour cream.

Mascarpone, better than the best……yes of course homemade

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Homemade Mascarpone

Whenever I watch those bright and sunny travel programs which take you through the prairies of far European countries where shepherds herding those cows and sheep, dairy men curdling cheese, aging and ripening them in curing rooms, I just wish why I wasn’t born there. Relishing those marvelous cheeses, with a glass of red wine, doing nothing but basking in the glory of those heavenly moments…perhaps I would be living this dream someday.

Homemade Mascarpone

Till that day at least I can dare to make some fresh curd cheese here at home, still dreaming about those grasslands. And what else could be easier than making Mascarpone at home. Mascarpone, fresh curd cheese made out of cream, was first originated in Italy during 16th century. It has a sweet flavor and a creamy and buttery texture, which makes it ideal for so many desserts. And if not using in a desert, a dollop of it can be directly enjoyed over fresh berry salad.

 

Homemade Mascarpone

Recipe adapted from Baking Obsession

Ingredients

500 ml cream low fat 25 %
1 tbsp lime juice

Instructions

  1. Heat the cream over a double boiler until it reaches 82 degree Celsius.
  2. Stir in the lemon juice and keep at this temperature for a few moments longer until it starts to thicken.
  3. Remove from heat, cover, and let sit at room temperature until it is cooled down a bit.
  4. Refrigerate over night. The next day it will have thickened further.
  5. Pour it in a strainer lined with multiple layers of cheesecloth.
  6. Refrigerate for about 24 hours to let the whey drain.