I know that it is not for everyone, but I, personally, absolutely love poppy seed filling. I have used it for several things, including kolachi, pound cake, and, yes, cheesecake.
Today's recipe is, of course, the cheesecake. The base is made with neufchatel cheese (basically a reduced-fat cream cheese), sour cream, and ricotta cheese, and it is lightened with a fluffy meringue. The crust is a graham cracker crust.
There are three components to this cheesecake.
Component One: Crust
16 honey graham crackers, crushed (this makes about 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups crumbs)
1/8 teaspoon salt (to balance the sweetness of the crackers)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Toss together the crumbs and the salt, and then work in the vanilla and the melted butter until all crumbs are coated. Press into the bottom of a 12-inch springform pan, and set aside.
Component Two: Base
16 oz. Neufchatel or cream cheese, softened.
2 cups ricotta cheese (no salt)*
2 cups sour cream*
1/2 cup margarine or butter
4 egg yolks
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 (12.5 oz) cans Solo poppy seed filling (I would peg this at around 1 1/2 cups of filling, but, you know, you can always round up a little bit)
(*I used light versions of these ingredients)
Beat together the cream cheese and margarine, and then add the ricotta cheese and beat well. Beat in the sour cream and egg yolks, and beat quickly for a few minutes. Gradually add in the flour, and then beat in the poppy seed filling.
Component Three: Meringue
4 egg whites
1/2 cup white, granulated sugar
1 (6-inch) vanilla bean, split and scraped, or 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Beat the egg whites until fluffy, and then add in the sugar and vanilla and beat until satiny, shiny, and it forms little ribbons that hold their shape.
Assembly
Carefully fold a lump of the base into the meringue until somewhat combined (shoot for about fifteen seconds of folding). Pour the meringue mixture over the rest of the base (be sure to scrape the meringue bowl), and carefully fold together with a rubber spatula until combined.
Pour the mixture over the crust -- there will be a few cups left over, and you can do as you please with them. I simply baked it in a separate dish.
I also realized that I didn't really properly bake the cheesecake as I was supposed to (didn't turn the temperature down, didn't cool slowly with the oven door propped open), but it still turned out pretty good the way that I did it -- not perfect and a bit of a crust on top, but still tasty:
Bake at 300 degrees for about 90 to 105 minutes (an hour and a half to an hour and forty-five minutes), until it jiggles like Jell-O when you shake the dish, or until a metal spatula inserted in the middle comes out with some batter stuck to it.
Remove from the oven and let cool on a countertop or baking rack. Do not remove the side of the springform pan until the cake is completely cooled.
To serve the cake, remove the side from the pan, and cut the cake with a piece of dental floss. Pull the floss taut between your hands, hold it centered across the cake, and pull it down all the way to the bottom. Pull the floss back up to repeat the process, or pull the floss out to the side from between the two layers for a cleaner removal.
To serve the leftover batter, if you simply baked it in a dish, just scoop out the desired portions with a spoon.
(Written and baked on 3-5-2021 by Sapphire Sebright).
I believe that most cheesecake recipes direct the baker to bake the cake at a higher temperature for a short amount of time before turning the temperature down to bake it slowly (or vice-versa, I can't remember) the rest of the way. Propping open the oven door after baking slows down the cooling process and makes the cake less likely to crack on top. Cracking doesn't affect the flavor, of course -- it just makes it look less "professional."