A friend who came over for dinner announced he would bring a late harvest Sauvignon Blanc, a Sancerre to be more precise. This is the dessert that I came up with to accompany it: cheesecake made from goat cheese. Goat cheese goes very well with regular dry Sancerre, so I figured a cheesecake made from goat cheese would work well with the sweet variety of the same wine. And so it did. I adapted the recipe from this one. It is a nice simple cheesecake without a crust and quite light for a cheesecake.

Ingredients

For 6 servings (20 cm/8 inch cheesecake)

225 grams (8 oz) soft goat cheese, at room temperature

4 eggs, separated

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

100 grams (1/2 cup) caster sugar

butter for greasing the pan

2 Tbsp flour

To serve

red berries

icing sugar

mint leaves

Preparation

Beat the egg whites with a clean balloon whisk in a clean bowl until they resemble snow.

Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF (fan forced).

Butter a 20 cm (8 inch) cake pan and coat it with sugar (take the sugar from the sugar to be used for the cake).

Combine the goat cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix (with the balloon whisk or the paddle) until creamy.

Add the egg yolks.

Continue to mix, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add the flour.

Continue to mix until the flour has been incorporated.

Carefully fold in the beaten egg white in three additions with a rubber spatula, working from below. Try to keep the mixture as airy as possible.

Keep folding until the egg whites have been incorporated completely.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.

Bake at 175ºC/350ºF until the cake has set but still slightly jiggles in the center, about 20 minutes. (I did mine a couple minutes too long.)

Allow to cool on a wire rack.

The sides of mine looked a bit weird, but it tasted just fine.

Serve with red berries, a mint leaf, and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Wine pairing

This works well with a late harvest Sauvignon Blanc, or Moscato d’Asti.

Flashback

Like so many things, homemade fish fingers are so much better than store-bought! They are quite easy to make and you get to control what goes in them. So only the freshest fish, homemade breadcrumbs and an organic egg. Since you will use fresh fish rather than frozen, the fish will be that much more flavorful and succulent.