Rákóczi túrós

A Hungarian "cheesecake" with a shortbread crust and meringue topping.




Rákóczi túrós

Dough (Rick's Shortbread from Flour Bakery cookbook)
1 cup (2 sticks/228 grams) unsalted butter, room temp
75 g granulated sugar
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (140 g) all-purpose flour
1 cup (120 g) cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Cream butter and sugars on medium speed for 5 min, or until light and fluffy, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Add egg yolk and vanilla and beat at medium for 2-3 min until thoroughly combined. In a medium bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, salt. On low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture and mix for about 15 seconds, or until the flour mixture is totally incorporated and dough is evenly mixed. Scrape dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap, wrap the dough in plastic wrap to form a disk. You may also divide this into two disks if you plan to make two 9X9 tarts later. Refrigerate 30 min (keeps for up to 5 days, take out 20 min at room temp before using).

Filling
100 g granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
225 g farmers' cheese (I used queso fresco)
225 g quark (Vermont creamery)
80 ml sour cream
40 ml mascarpone cheese
2/3 cup raisins
zest of 1/2 lemon, grated

Meringue
2 egg whites
30 g icing sugar
apricot jam

Preheat oven to 350F. Roll chilled dough into a squarish piece about 1 cm thick. Fit it into the bottom of a 9x9 glass Pyrex baking dish. Dock the surface several times with a fork. Bake on center rack 20 min or until top is lightly golden. Spread with a layer of apricot jam.

In a large bowl cream the yolks with the sugar until well incorporated. Mix in the the cheeses, lemon zest, sour cream, mascarpone, and raisins. It will be a little crumbly.

Spread the cheese mixture over the base and bake until set at 350F (about 50 minutes). Reduce the oven temp to 320F. Whisk the egg whites until stiff (add sugar when whites are foamy). Gently fill a piping bag with meringue (be careful to not deflate) and pipe meringue into a grid on the surface using a rose tip. Using a small spoon, drop apricot jam in the grid squares. Bake for 20 minutes until just lightly dried. Let completely cool and cut into squares.

Notes for next time:
-make turo from scratch (texture of queso fresco was too dry, quark was too moist), use 500 g turo, 100 ml sour cream
-for topping, use 50 g granulated sugar with 2 egg whites for a stiffer meringue

Blueberry Mascarpone Pistachio Macarons

I had a tub of mascarpone and no idea what to do with it...until a certain genius, the same person who introduced me to macarons, chef 陈彦强，suggested that I make these. Evidently he overestimated me because they look nothing like the inspiration. ;) But...

...I learned several indispensable life lessons from these little guys (which, I should mention, are rather dangerous - I dare you to hover over them for more than 9 seconds without salivating/devouring one).

1. Don't trust Martha Stewart. I thought I trusted this woman...but alas. Her macaron recipe said to start the oven at 375, pop the suckers in, and turn it down to 325 and bake for 10 minutes. I think this is what caused those pesky cracks! Oh Martha, I thought you were the one...

2. Too much food coloring makes a wet batter. Gel colorings are better! I used 5 drops of blue and 8 drops of red...this might be why they took over 1 hour to dry, and falling victim to my impatience, my poor babies didn't develop their pieds.

3. Blueberry coulis, mascarpone, and butter = shut up.

4. It's what's on the inside that counts. These are ugly but yummy. Just like people - a warm, loving heart wins over dashing looks any day. But it doesn't hurt to be gorgeous.

I'm very good at keeping the kitchen clean. This is the tub of mascarpone that was responsible for this madness. Seriously, I think I will blame Costco for selling such big tubs of mascarpone. If it weren't for them, none of this would've happened.

The near empty tub of mascarpone pictured above was left in the wake of the Deadly Duo: the Rubber Spatula and Cream Craver.

The mascarpone filling is deadly. Think nutty, buttery mascarpone, kicked up with a combo of organic salted and unsalted butter, and mixed with a very intensely concentrated blueberry coulis spiked with the tang of a lemon and sweetened with a touch sugar. Ah, this description does not do it justice.

Blueberry Mascarpone Pistachio Macrons

1 batch of macarons, colored purple, sprinkled with pistachios (Huh? You don't have it memorized?)

more ground pistachios

2 cups frozen organic blueberries

1/3 cup sugar

juice of a lemon

Mascarpone, whatever is left in the tub (Based on the fullness of my stomach...exactly 4.235 oz)

7 Tbsp softened butter (3 Tbsp unsalted, 4 Tbsp salted)

1. Put blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a sauce pan over high heat. Bring to a boil, lower heat to medium, and simmer for 15 minutes until very thick and syrupy, stirring occasionally.

2. With a rubber spatula, force the berry mixture through a fine sieve and set aside until it is room temp. Taste it if you dare. It should be tart and sweet and intoxicatingly perfect.

3. Mix the mascarpone with the butter until smooth and lump-free. Add the blueberry mixture and mix well with a whisk until very smooth. Refrigerate until slightly cool and firm.

4. Pipe a dollop onto 1/2 of the shells, top with the other shells, and sprinkle with pistachios. If they fall off, that's your problem.