Yes!! This is a ricotta cheesecake in a pastry. It is the yummiest cheesecake I know and a knock off of the one from Pasticceria Papa in Haberfield. I first had this cheesecake (the original from Pasticceria Papa) at my sisters baby shower around 11 years ago. It was the best thing I had ever tasted. I used to beg my sister to get one for me every time I was visiting her. To my disappointment she always refused because it was “too far to travel”. There was nothing else for me to do except make my own. Luckily making my own still gives me a gourmet product at about 1/4 of the cost of buying one.
I’ve made this recipe on quite a few occasions and it never fails to impress. Give it a try, it’s not as hard as it looks. If you’re celebrating a special occasion, you could also make an easy but beautiful looking Pavlova as well.
To make the pastry, place the butter and flour into a food processor and blitz it until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs (or you could do this using your fingertips). Add the sour cream and mix until a dough is formed.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and combine the dough into a ball. Flatten the dough into a disc, cover it in cling wrap and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. (optional I often skip this but it depends on how hot it is at your place and how manageable the pastry is.)
Using around 2/3 of the pastry, roll it out to about 3 mm thickness and wide enough to cover the base and sides of a 22cm springform pan.
Grease the springform pan before placing the pastry over the pan and gently pressing it down to make sure the entire surface is covered. Let the excess overhang the sides for now.
Start preparing the filling by placing the eggs, cream cheese, ricotta, cream, sugar and vanilla into the bowl of your food processor. Blitz until well combined and you can’t feel any sugar granules. My mixture is always very liquid at this stage and that’s ok. Pour the mixture into springform pan, making sure there is a gap of about 2 cm from the cheesecake mixture to the top of the pan.
Roll out the remaining pastry and drape it over the top of the pan, gently crimp together the side and top pastry. If you have any holes, use the remaining pastry to patch them.
Bake for 60 minutes then leave the cheesecake to cool in the oven with the door ajar.
Once the cheesecake has cooled, allow the cheesecake to rest in the fridge overnight before serving. This improves the flavour.
Dust the icing sugar over the top, and then try and do a criss cross pattern with the nutmeg before serving.
