Image by RitaE from Pixabay
Durga Puja is round the corner but this year the exuberant pandals, pujas, and other large gatherings will be noticeably absent. Now, sweets form an important aspect of Indian festivals and Bengalis especially are known for their sweetmeats such as rosgollas, mishti doi, and sandesh among other mouth watering varieties. As most of us are restricted at home, the question on everyone's mind circles around what can be done to make this Durga Puja special for our family members.
And that is why I attempted to do something different and try my hand at baking a mishti doi inspired cheesecake for this festive season.
A few days back, when I was researching on sweets to make for the family, I came across a recipe of baked mishti doi. The texture of the curd was so amazing that it got me thinking. Why not turn it into a cheesecake! Since I had never tried baking a mishti doi cheesecake before, I wanted to bake a small batch before the actual festival. And to my delight it turned out marvelously delicious.
So, here’s my take on a mishti doi cheesecake that you too can try at home.
How to make a Mishti Doi cheesecake
Ingredients:
What you need for the base:
- 100 gms Digestive biscuits (I used McVities)
- 50 gms Melted butter
- 50 gms Powdered jaggery
What you need to make the cheesecake's filling:
- 400 gms Cream cheese
- 200 gms Mishti doi (I used Mother dairy's Mishti Doi)
- 50 gms Palm or date jaggery
- 5 gms Gondhoraj lemon zest
- 100 ml Amul fresh cream
- 10 ml Lemon juice
- 2 Eggs
What you need for garnishing:
- 50 grams White chocolate
- 10-15 Slivered pistachios
- A handful of organic rose petals
Preparing the cheesecake
Making a biscuit base for the cheesecake:
- Crush the digestive biscuits finely.
- Melt jaggery and add in the butter.
- Mix the melted butter and jaggery with the crushed biscuits.
- Line a springform cake tin (preferably a rounded one) with the crushed biscuit and jaggery mix.
- Bake this biscuit base at 180° C for about 8-10 minutes.
- Let it cool.
Making the mishti doi cheesecake filling:
- Mix in the cream cheese, melted jaggery, lemon juice, and mishti doi with a hand blender till it is smooth.
- Add in the eggs, lemon zest, and fresh cream, and fold it in with the cream cheese mixture.
- Transfer the mixture over the cooled baked biscuit base and bake at 160° C for about 40-45 minutes.
- Let it cool and set nicely. One way to know if it has turned out alright is if the edges are slightly browned and the center is wobbly.
- After it cools down, refrigerate for at least 5-6 hours.
- Garnish it with chocolate shavings, slivered pistachios, and rose petals.
Check out our blog page to find out how to make a festival special baked gujjiya.
This blog post was contributed by Sindhu Menon.
