As Thanksgiving approaches (crap, it's today) we make a detailed grocery list with EVERYTHING we may need for the holiday and weekend. Our time frame may include four meals on Thursday, one on Friday, and finally a lunch on Saturday with friendsgiving feasts in between. But we are excited and look forward to setting up that Christmas tree. Already have yours up? Well HO HO HO to you guys! The last time we bought a tree my step daughters thought I was weird - it was a tree out of a magazine with teal and silver glass ornaments. Looking back, what a wasted (and expensive) piece of biomass! My gracious husband humored me and I am thankful for that because that is what I was used to growing up. I am also thankful for the seven seasons of cedar trees we have had since then.
So you know when you go on Pinterest for that perfect recipe and it sends you to the blog or page and you scroll and scroll and scroll til the actual recipe is shown like you've finally found the treasure at the end of the rainbow - so annoying! Enough about me, more about this goat cheesecake! More about how I rewrote the recipe to follow.
Razzbourne's Goat Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust
CRUST
2 cups Ground Old-fashioned Ginger Snaps
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
5-6 Tbsp Mountain View Farm Products Unsalted Butter, melted
CHEESECAKE
2 8 oz Mountain View Farm Products Cream Cheese
10 oz Razzbourne Farms Chèvre
2 oz Razzbourne Farms LUXX (skyr)
4 Hart Burn Farm fresh eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Lemon Zest
1 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
Preheat oven to 400°
Ground snaps to powder, mix with butter
Press into 9" deep dish or spring pan
Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown
Reduce oven to 325°
Beat cheeses, lemon, and extract
Slowly add sugar then eggs, Do Not over mix
Bake 60 minutes, rotating 1/2 way through
Turn off oven for the last 10 minutes
Cool completely then refrigerate 6 hours
Final Razzbourne's Goat Cheesecake.
Now all you professional cheesecake people out there, I know I over mixed the batter before pouring into the crust. Thus the cracks. But damn it smells so good. A little bit more about the recipe. I compared MANY recipes to come up with this one and any topping you like would be good with it. A lot like our plain Chèvre, we'll keep it simple for the sake of your additive desires. The major thing I would change would be the ginger snap crust. I'd like to find a true Ginger Snap with a little more spice than just the plain ol grocery store ones I found this year (there was only one option). The Dayton Farm Market in Dayton, Virginia comes to mind as probably the best source - also be sure to try their barbecue! Not to mention The Cheese Place within the market.
One thing that struck me was some recipes called for sour cream and lemon and some did not. Honestly, I was out of sour cream but knew I had frozen LUXX in our winter stash. Razzbourne Farms LUXX is a Skyr cheese similar in texture to sour cream and Greek yogurt with low fat and all the protein. I knew it would be a great replacement for the sour cream. Now when it comes to cow cheese and butter, our friends at Mountain View Farm Products in Fairfield, Virginia is your one shop stop. I'd like to replace the cream cheese with Christie's fromage blanc next time! A cheesecake made completely from Rockbridge products sounds good to me (who makes ginger snaps!?). Contact Rockbridge Artisan Producers if you do!
Noting my cheesecake cracks once more, over mixing the cheeses, sugar, and eggs create air bubbles which rise to the top during baking (I looked it up). Who needs a perfect, symmetrical cheesecake anyway? And when I read 'lemon zest' I announced out loud "how the hell do you zest a lemon?" - pretty sure grandma rolled her eyes at that announcement. Well I bought the lemon and I pulled out the thingy and zested that lemon. Now I want to zest lemon all over my house and in every meal - flaveto! Cooking and baking has a huge effect on the blues and winter depression. I look back to baking cakes every time we visited grandma. Her breads and treats were always available. She literally turned her past time into smiles on other people's faces.
I found the recipe box given to me for exactly this point in my life. Full of blank recipe cards waiting for written traditions and ultimately - smiles. If this recipe ends up in your recipe box and makes you smile it was well worth it! Happy Thanksgiving!
Ingredients. Not pictured: Mountain View Farm Products Unsalted Butter, Hart Burn Farm Fresh Eggs, cream cheese, lemon zestttttttttt.
Razzbourne Farm's LUXX frozen four months ago, thawed beautifully.
Zesting that lemon and having a rewarding experience. Winter time blues be gone! Zestttttt!
When the cracks arrive near the end of baking. As the cheesecake cooled, it settled as seen in the first image.