According to the Swedish calendar November 14 is the day when Emil and Emilia are the names of the day meaning that all boys named Emil and all girls named Emilia can celebrate a little extra.
Since 2004, November 14 is also the Swedish Cheesecake Day or ‘Ostkakans dag’. Cheese means ‘ost’ in Swedish and cake means ‘kaka’, cheesecake, but not as in ‘American cheesecake’.
The Swedish cheesecake is traditionally produced by adding rennet to milk and letting the casein coagulate. Then cream, sugar, eggs, flour and almonds are added to create a batter, so I suppose a more correct translation would be ‘curd cake’.
Since the process of curding milk is somewhat complicated I’ve instead simplified the recipe by using cottage cheese as a base to simulate the curd texture of the dessert.
So here is to all you Emils and Emilias out there, a real Swedish ‘Ostkaka’ to celebrate your name day!
Swedish Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 500 grams cottage cheese
- 50 grams chopped or ground hazelnuts or almonds
- 2 bitter almonds
- 100 ml sugar
- 1 heaped teaspoon vanilla
- 300 ml creme fraiche
- 4 eggs, divided into yolks and whites
- 6 tbsp flour
Method
- Preheat oven to 175 degrees
- Mix the cottage cheese quickly with hand blender and add the creme fraiche.
- Add egg yolks, flour, sugar and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
- Add the ground hazelnuts and bitter almonds.
- Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks (do the upside down-test) and fold gently into the batter.
- Pour batter into a greased tin and bake for 50 to 60 minutes. Cover with waxed paper if the surface tends to burn,
- Serve luke warm with jam and whipped cream.
Cookies & Beans 