Cheesecake with Meringue on Top

This is a typical Central European cheesecake. It has a “short” cookie-dough crust on the bottom, and a meringue of beaten eggwhites on top. The cheese filling has a touch of lemony aroma from grated lemon zest. The cake is firmer than the typical creamy American style “NY Cheesecake”, and different also from the many varieties of Israeli style cheesecake.

The first time I tasted this type of cheesecake was a few decades ago, here on our street in Jerusalem. We had read in the newspaper, that someone on our street had grown a huge cucumber, a meter or so long. We decided to go check it out, and started walking through the garden of the building mentioned in the newspaper. Suddenly a door opened, and an elderly couple asked us if they can help us; this turned out to be Walter Frankl and his wife. Walter Frankl was the man who grew that huge cucumber, and he proudly took us to show us the cucumber, and he gave us a full explanation of how he grew it. He then asked us who we are, and where we live; when we mentioned that we live a few houses down the street, he looked at me and said: “AHA, I invite you to come here on Monday afternoon, 4 PM; I have a gardening group of neighbors from this building, and we meet every Monday afternoon, and you are invited to join, even though you don’t live in the building.” He managed to convince me, although I never had any connection to gardening, nor much of an interest……

Well, Monday afternoon at 4 PM I was there; I joined a group of very elderly Yekkes – all former immigrants from Austria, and other central European countries. I was in my late 30’s or early 40’s at the time… (the average age of the members of this group ranged from 75-90+)…….we met in the tiny shelter of their building; they were all very serious about their gardening – I had no idea what on earth was going on, but I found the experience to be fascinating; just looking at all these 80 and 90 year old men and women’ writing down every detail, every name of every plant in Latin, Hebrew, German….and later seriously doing their planting – it was an experience……

Walter Frankl and his family lived in a building called “Beit Kadima”. Here is a description of the history of this very special building, as quoted from Wikipedia:

Beit Kadima (lit. Kadima House) is a residential building complex in Jerusalem, Israel located on the west side of Kiryat Shmuel.[1] The British Mandatory authorities built it in 1945 to house the families of British officers. In the end, it was used by UNSCOP Commission, whose members lived there while drafting the UN Partition Plan prior to the establishment of the state. [2]

The building was designed by architect Otto Hoffman and constructed by an Egyptian housing company. Hoffman’s design included 21 apartments along with parking garages and storage space. It was built in the International Style along with traditional Jerusalem motifs such as half arcs over the entrances and outside staircases. The building stood empty for several years until the British authorities chose the secluded compound to house the members of the UNSCOP Commission, who were sent by the UN to determine the future status of the land of Israel. For several weeks the Commission members lived in Beit Kadima and drafted the recommendation which led to the decision on partition of Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel.

Shortly after the UN decision on November 29, 1947, violence erupted in region and the compound became a refuge for Jewish families living in the predominantly Arab neighborhood of Katamon. The building served as a Haganah military post during Israel’s War of Independence.
Today some of the original families still live in the compound, which retains its elegant character

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beit_Kadima

I remember Walter Frankl’s wife coming out to the garden and offering us her wonderful cheesecake with meringue on top.  She was so kind and shared the recipe with me. But through the years, the recipe seems to have gotten lost among the jumble of recipe cards, papers, newspaper clippings, etc. that clutter my kitchen..

Luckily, not so long ago, I found a recipe for such a cake in the “La Isha” magazine and it is just like the one that we had so many years ago, complements of Walter Frankl’s wife. 

Sadly, Walter Frankl and his wife and the other elderly residents of Beit Kadima, are long gone. I remember them often, and am thankful that I was privileged to have had the opportunity to make the acquaintance of these very special people, and, for a few years,  be a part of their gardening circle.

Ingredients:

The Dough:

• 50 grams (approx 1 1/2 oz) butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

Cheese Filling:

• 750 grams (1.7 lb) white cheese (9% fat)
• 1 cup (200 grams) white sugar
• 1 whole egg
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 Tablespoons regular flour
• grated lemon peel

Meringue:

• 3 egg whites
• 3 Tablespoons sugar

Preparation:

1. Make dough: Combine all the dough ingredients in the food processor and process till dough “comes together”. This can also be done by hand, but it easier and quicker to do in a food processor.
2. Pat the dough evenly on the bottom and partially up the sides of a 26 cm (10 inch) cake pan with removable sides.
3. Place in refrigerator until ready to use.
4. Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F).
5. Cheese Filling:  Put the cheese and 1 cup sugar into mixer. Start mixing.
6. Add, one by one, the whole egg, and the 3 egg yolks, while mixing.
7. Add the vanilla extract, 2 Tablespoons flour and the lemon peel. Mix till mixture is smooth.
8. Carefully pour the cheese mixture into the dough-lined cake pan that was resting in the refrigerator.
9. Put in preheated oven, and bake for approximately 40 minutes at this time the sides of the dough should be a nice golden brown, and the cheese filling slightly firm.
10. The Meringue: In clean mixer bowl beat the egg whites till they are frothy and white. Slowly, while beating, add the 3 Tablespoons sugar.  Beat till the eggwhites are very firm.
11. Take the cake out of the oven, and carefully spoon by spoon place the meringue on the top of the warm cake, spreading very carefully and quickly, on the warm, baked, cheese mixture. Make sure that the meringue touches the top of the baked dough in all the “edges” – otherwise the meringue will shrink away from edges while baking.
12. Return to oven, and bake for another 15-17 minutes till the meringue is a nice golden color.
13. Remove from oven, and allow to cool.
14. When cool, cover and put in refrigerator. Allow to cool, covered, in refrigerator, for several hours.
15. When serving, remove the sides of the cake pan, for more elegant presentation.

Note: the cheese used in this recipe is the typical Israeli white cheese; for those of you living in the U.S., if you have an Israeli supermarket or grocery store nearby, you can buy this type of cheese there; or, if you have no possibility of locating this type of cheese, I assume that other types of white cheese will work well too. Surely the Philadelphia brand cream cheese should be fine, although it has a much higher fat content.