I made this cheesecake for Easter dinner--using fresh ricotta from Di Palo's. Reviews were rave. The flavor is not too sweet or rich, but simply delicious. I only have a 6" spring form pan, so I halved my recipe.
Ingredients
Makes 1 9" cake
- Butter for greasing the pan
- 2 cups sugar, divided use
- 1/2 cup crushed zwieback cookies or graham crackers, plus extra for garnish*
- 3 pounds good quality, fresh, whole cow's milk ricotta
- 6 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 teaspoons orange blossom water (don't use too much)
- 3/4 cup of heavy cream
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9-inch springform pan.
- In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup of the sugar with the cookies, and then evenly coat the bottom and sides of the buttered pan with the mixture.
- In a large bowl, beat the remaining sugar and the ricotta, eggs, vanilla, orange blossom water, and cream together until very smooth.
- Pour mixture into springform pan. To prevent cheesecake from cracking, place into a larger pan or ovenproof dish and fill it halfway up the side with water.
- Bake for about one hour or util a toothpick comes clean when inserted in the middle of the cake. Remove from the water bath and let the cheesecake cool on a baking rack before removing sides of spring form pan and serving.
*Zwieback cookies may be tough to find. I used Le Dorate a biscottate made by Mulino Bianco (Barilla).
