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