Honestly, there are sooooo many cheesecake recipes online that we reconsidered putting this one up, several times, before deciding that one more won’t hurt. It can be really difficult to navigate them as well. Do you want biscuit base or not? New York or Chicago style? Do you want bake or no bake? Do you want it slowly formed over twelve hours or done faster than The Flash in the sack? It’s a nightmare.
Our own cheesecake captures the spirit of the mountains we call home: The Carneddau. This be a humble desert, looking simple and a bit plain on the outside but hiding a fruity secret beneath, just like the mountains (maybe a bit dull on the outside, but spectacular within!) It’s reckoned that it was invented by the monks of Carnedd Du, a monastery deep in the bosom of Dafydd, but since it was obliterated (nobody is sure how) this fact is unverifiable. There were, however, wild strawberries in that valley until seventy years ago, before a flock of sheep ate the entire lot. You’ll often find local grandmothers championing this, saying there’s no better cheesecake than a Carneddau cheesecake, and during the Penrhyn Quarry strike of the early twentieth century, the quarrymen used it to stick two fingers up to their lord and masters, because the quarry was located on the neighbouring Glyderau and it was seen as subversive to eat something from the opposite side- Although they used a local cheese called Cachu Geifr and not Italian Ricotta. If any cheesecake is worth baking, it’s this one.
I’ve used frozen strawberries here because they’re a bit saucier than fresh and when you defrost them all the juices run out, meaning you don’t have to do as much work.
Marco
FOR THE ‘CHEESE’
250g Italian Ricotta
1 Egg, well beaten
50g White Sugar
2 tsps Self Raising Flour
50g Butter, melted (plus extra for greasing)
FOR THE STRAWBERRY SAUCE
1 ordinary sized bowl of Frozen Strawberries, defrosted
25g Caster Sugar
+Sour Cream (to top)
– In a bowl, beat the ricotta to a smooth, creamy consistency.
-To this, add the beaten egg, melted butter, sugar and flour (though it does still taste fine if you accidentally omit the sugar)
-fold together and combine until you have a creamy, slightly yellow (possibly) mixture- Until all the ingredients are incorporated together.
-Put to one side-
-To make the strawberry sauce, add the frozen strawberries + caster sugar to a saucepan. Mix together, being sure to crush the strawberries with the back of your spatula or spoon, and stir over a low heat for five minutes until just bubbling and beginning to thicken.
– Pour into a pre-prepared, buttered pie dish (small-medium sized) and quickly smooth the cheese mixture over the top, making sure the sauce is well covered. You’ve got to be tender with it and make sure you don’t mix the cheese with the sauce, which is sometimes easier said than done.
-Immediately place into a preheated oven: 180 degrees C/350 F/ Gas Mark 4 for 20-25 minutes.
-At this point it may look like a murder victim, so leave it to cool at room temperature for a couple of hours before smoothing a thick layer of soured cream over the top and then chilling in the fridge for anywhere from three to six hours.
Image: Welsh Landscape with Two Women Knitting by William Dyce (1860) courtesy of Artfund.org
James Morfa 
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