Sometimes using up the bounty of amazing ingredients that comes off your homestead can be a challenge. Certain months bring a deluge of gorgeous fresh ingredients. You've got to just go ahead, throw dietary caution to the wind, and enjoy what is so generously given by the animals, gardens and wild meadows . Gotta fry those elderberry blossoms once a year! Here is cake that takes advantage of having too much goat milk, lots of eggs, mounds of berries and rafts of rhubarb stalks. It's sweet, but not overly so, and really highlights the nuances of fresh goat cheese and sunny free-range eggs. If you don't have available such extravagances, I've put alternatives that you can get at the grocer. My mother learned to make a tart very much like this in Italy called "Frutti di Bosco" or Fruit of the Woods and it's a pie version of this cake with a shortcrust bottom, marigold cream middle and the fruits arranged on top with a currant glaze. I generally make that at this time of year, but I had so much cheese on my hands I created this instead by adapting a rhubarb bar recipe recommended by a CSA Member . The tart is certainly a recipe worth making, however, and you can find a nice version here.
FOR THE CRUST
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup almond meal/flour
3/4 cup butter, softened
FOR THE FRUIT LAYER
5 cups mixed berries and thinly chopped rhubarb (I like mulberries, currants, gooseberries and blackcaps since they all overlap for a riotous week or two in July while the rhubarb is still nice)
1/2 to 3/4 sugar depending on the sweetness of the berries (use more as the proportion of rhubarb goes up)
3 TBSP flour
FOR THE FILLING
1 lb goat chevre, ricotta, strained kefir or other thick goat cheese (two 8-oz packages of cream cheese will also work great, but you'll need to beat it with a mixer to get the lumps smooth)
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs (best quality you can get)
FOR THE GLAZE
2/3 cup marscapone, sour cream or creme fraiche (whatever you've made that is similar in texture to a commercial sour cream will work)
2 TBSP sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 375. Generously butter a 9 by 13 pan, getting up the sides well. Mix crust ingredients in bowl of food processor with blade. Press with fingers firmly into bottom of pan and bake for 10 minutes. Using thickest cutting disk, chop rhubarb into slices, add berries, sugar and flour. Set aside to soften slightly while crust bakes. Remove crust from oven and immediately spread berries over top, being careful not to pull the crust up from the pan. Roast berry mixture in oven for 10 minutes. Whisk filling ingredients together until fluffy. Pour over roasted fruit and return to oven for 25 minutes. Clean out bowl of food processor and whirl glaze ingredients together with blade. Pour over hot cheesecake when it comes out of the oven and the glaze will cook just slightly. Cool completely before eating. This is a great summer dish served chilled, if you can make yourself wait. Better yet, freeze it and take it out just an hour or so before serving. It is quite tart and cooling on a hot day.
FOR THE CRUST
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup almond meal/flour
3/4 cup butter, softened
FOR THE FRUIT LAYER
5 cups mixed berries and thinly chopped rhubarb (I like mulberries, currants, gooseberries and blackcaps since they all overlap for a riotous week or two in July while the rhubarb is still nice)
1/2 to 3/4 sugar depending on the sweetness of the berries (use more as the proportion of rhubarb goes up)
3 TBSP flour
FOR THE FILLING
1 lb goat chevre, ricotta, strained kefir or other thick goat cheese (two 8-oz packages of cream cheese will also work great, but you'll need to beat it with a mixer to get the lumps smooth)
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs (best quality you can get)
FOR THE GLAZE
2/3 cup marscapone, sour cream or creme fraiche (whatever you've made that is similar in texture to a commercial sour cream will work)
2 TBSP sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 375. Generously butter a 9 by 13 pan, getting up the sides well. Mix crust ingredients in bowl of food processor with blade. Press with fingers firmly into bottom of pan and bake for 10 minutes. Using thickest cutting disk, chop rhubarb into slices, add berries, sugar and flour. Set aside to soften slightly while crust bakes. Remove crust from oven and immediately spread berries over top, being careful not to pull the crust up from the pan. Roast berry mixture in oven for 10 minutes. Whisk filling ingredients together until fluffy. Pour over roasted fruit and return to oven for 25 minutes. Clean out bowl of food processor and whirl glaze ingredients together with blade. Pour over hot cheesecake when it comes out of the oven and the glaze will cook just slightly. Cool completely before eating. This is a great summer dish served chilled, if you can make yourself wait. Better yet, freeze it and take it out just an hour or so before serving. It is quite tart and cooling on a hot day.