The humble Israeli white cheese, light and creamy, is an everyday staple in Israel and is the essential secret ingredient in the Israeli cheesecake. No other cheese can yield a cake so fluffy yet rich, without being too heavy (yes, when I say heavy I’m referring to the New York style cheesecake).
Israelis learned the production of the white cheese, which is really a German quark cheese, from the Templars, German-Protestant settlers who immigrated to Israel in the second half of the 19th century.
But while the classic Israeli cheesecake takes center stage, there’s another simpler, almost childish version that at least in my house is considered the best cake in the world. Layers of creamy filling made of white cheese that was mixed with instant vanilla pudding nestled between simple petit beurre tea biscuits, dipped in coffee. The cake is then topped with chocolate ganache.
Sounds familiar? Using available cheap ingredients, Israelis recreated tiramisu. It has vanilla pudding and 5% fat simple cheese instead of the whipped egg yolks and the 49% fat mascarpone. But trust me, you’ll never look back.
9
servings25
minutesOne of Israel’s favorite cakes is this simple tea biscuits cookies, vanilla pudding and cheese cake, that seems like it fits in a children cookbook. Once you try it, though, you’ll understand why it is so popular.
Israeli white cheese, or quark cheese, is available at many kosher markets. European quark cheese is available at some Whole Foods stores and specialty supermarket.
But since it’s not always easy to get quark, I was searching for a substitute for a long time, until a few years ago Icelandic yogurt became popular everywhere. Turns out that Icelandic yogurt (such as Skyr.) is very thick and very similar to quark in texture and taste. And it’s available at most chain supermarkets. Greek yogurt does not work for this cake, unfortunately.
(As a side note, for Israeli baked cheesecake, the yogurt will not work on its own, but needs to be combined with cream cheese and labneh.)
Tea biscuits from Israel (petit beurre style) are available in the kosher section of most supermarkets. European petit beurre biscuits are available at some supermarkets.
Use a 9″ x 9″ pan
INGREDIENTS
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
3.4 oz. INSTANT vanilla pudding mix
16 oz. Israeli white cheese, quark, or whole milk Icelandic yogurt (Skyr, see note above)
1 cup black coffee, at room temperature (or more milk)
8 oz. petit beurre or Israeli biscuits
- For the chocolate ganache
4 oz. 54% semisweet chocolate
¼ cup heavy cream
DIRECTIONS
- In a bowl of a mixer fitted with the wire whisk mix together the milk, heavy cream, sugar and vanilla pudding powder (you can also use a hand held balloon whisk.) You do not want to whisk for too long and whip the cream, but you want to make sure the mixture is smooth and that there are no patches of pudding powder in it.
- Remove from the mixer and gently fold quark or Icelandic yogurt and let set for 5 minutes.
- Have a 9″ x 9″ pan ready. Put coffee in a small bowl. Dip the tea biscuits for a couple of seconds only, one or two at a time, and arrange in one layer at the bottom of the pan. Spread half the cheese mixture on top and arrange a second layer of coffee-dipped biscuits on top. Spread the rest of the cheese mixture and end with a third layer of the biscuits. Cover and transfer for the fridge for 1 hour.
- Melt chocolate and ¼ cup heavy cream in the microwave, For about 20-30 seconds, wait for 30 seconds and mix until smooth. Gently pour over the cake and spread evenly using an icing spatula. Cover and return to the fridge for 8 hours or overnight.
- The cake keeps covered in the fridge up to 5 days.