Making Chevre Cheesecake

This is one of those yummy desserts that takes years to make. Well, maybe not years, but……. first I had to buy a goat…..and milk it….. and make the chevre cheese, which is a soft cheese…..and make the graham crackers. But this is really a simple recipe that can be made with any milk, butter and eggs. I am just happy to be able to make it from some of the things we produce here at home. The ingredients that were bought at the store include wheat, flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and vanilla. So, when I think about the things I need to stock up on to be prepared, these are the items I get. Basic staples that can be used in a wide variety of ways. This is definitely one of the more tasty ways to use them.

I have shown how I made Chevre cheese. I also made the graham crackers. I will show you how on another post. They are both fairly simple to make and don’t take a lot of attention and direct time. Once they are both made, it is very quick and easy to make a cheesecake.

I used my old Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook (copyright 1978) for the graham cracker crust recipe. It is very simple. Combine 1 1/4 cup fine graham cracker crumbs with 1/4 cup sugar and 6 tbsp. melted butter. Mix and press firmly into a 9 inch pie plate.

To crush the crackers, I put them in a Ziplock bag and beat them up with my rolling pin. 

This very effective and doesn’t take long. Just don’t do this when someone is trying to take a nap. It’s noisy. 

I find it easy enough to put the cracker crumbs directly into the pie pan.

This is some of our butter, made from the cream from our goat milk.  I melted it in the microwave.

I skipped the sugar for the crust. The graham crackers are sweet enough on their own, so I only added the butter. Pour the butter into the crumbs, mix well, then press the crumbs smoothly into the pie plate.
 

Next I used my 500 Treasured Country Recipes for the cheesecake recipe. This is definitely my kind of recipe. Cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla. That’s it! 

So… mix:
3 cups Chevre
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Fill the crust. My crust is very loose and crumbly and the cheese is very stiff. It doesn’t spread well so it’s kind of a pressing motion to fill the crust. 

But it’s very pretty isn’t it? The cheese that started out white is now a pale yellow due to the rich yolks of the eggs.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until the cheesecake is firm.

Those two finger prints are how you test to see if it is done. Of course, they weren’t supposed to show up in the picture!

Now for the hard part. Waiting until it is cool enough to eat. Frank just asked, “How long does that have to cool?” “I don’t know. I have never eaten hot cheesecake before.”

We have been wanting to try out our canned peaches to see how they turned out and I think this is the perfect opportunity. We used an ultra light syrup on the peaches so they aren’t very sweet. But knowing that we canned them made them a good compliment to the cheesecake.

I have said this before. I cannot begin to describe the satisfaction that comes from producing, processing, preserving and serving our own food. We are truly blessed.

Until next time – Fern
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