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Recipes with full-fat cream cheese

4 recipes that use full-fat cream cheese, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Quesitos, takes 50 minutes. It is most often cooked with egg, plain flour and apricot jam.

Run out of full-fat cream cheese? Mascarpone, same amount.

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Japanese cheesecake

Japanese soufflé cheesecake (スフレチーズケーキ) is soft, airy and barely sweet, somewhere between a cheesecake and a chiffon sponge, and it wobbles when it comes out of the oven. It became popular in Japanese bakeries in the 1960s and later spread from Osaka and Fukuoka shops around the world. Cream cheese is folded with stiffly whipped meringue and baked slowly in a water bath so it rises without cracking. It takes patience, but the result melts in the mouth. Chef's tip: whip the meringue only to soft-to-medium peaks and bake low and slow in the water bath. Over-whipped egg whites and a hot oven are the two reasons this cake cracks and then collapses.

100 minBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Basque burnt cheesecake

This crustless cheesecake was created in the early 1990s at La Viña, a pintxos bar in the old town of San Sebastián (Donostia) in the Basque Country, and is now famous around the world. It's baked very hot so the top caramelises almost black and the sides rise and crack, while the middle stays soft and creamy, almost runny. There's no base and no water bath, and the rough, rustic look is the point: it's lined with crumpled baking paper. La Viña uses a spoonful of wheat flour; cornflour does the same job and keeps it gluten free. Chef's tip: take it out of the oven while the centre still wobbles like a soft set custard; it firms up as it cools, and if it looks set in the oven, the middle will be dry instead of creamy.

70 minBakingGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Rugelach

Rugelach came from the Jewish bakeries of Eastern Europe, and today they are piled high on trays in Jerusalem's Machane Yehuda market and in every New York deli bakery, eaten with coffee on Friday or packed for a Hanukkah visit. The American-style dough made with cream cheese and butter bakes up tender and flaky, and each wedge is rolled up around a filling of brown sugar, cinnamon, chopped walnuts and raisins into a small crescent. Chef's tip: chop the walnuts and raisins finely; big pieces tear the thin dough as you roll it.

90 minBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Quesitos

Every panadería in Puerto Rico has a tray of quesitos by the till, and a warm one with a café con leche is a standard island breakfast, from Old San Juan to small-town bakeries in the mountains. Puff pastry is rolled around a log of sweet vanilla cream cheese and baked until it shatters, then brushed with sugar syrup so the top turns glossy and sticky. The filling stays soft and slightly tangy inside the crisp layers. Chef's tip: chill the filling before you roll, so it holds its shape and doesn't squeeze out of the ends in the oven.

50 minBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with full-fat cream cheese