Desserts or bars?
Choose how to serve this versatile Ricotta cake covered with fresh fruit express jam.
But first a step back.
If you follow the blog, you know I love to make jars and bottles. I mainly prepare jams and marmalades but I also love chutneys and everything good that can be closed in a glass jar. Including homemade fruit syrups and sauces. If you didn’t know this before, now you know who you are dealing with.
When I find some fruit a little ripe in the fridge, I prepare an express jam. A jam that does not need long boiling and especially vacuum. Cooked fruit can be kept in the refrigerator -without problems- for a week or more. If you are interested in this issue I will talk about it in the post dedicated to jams and marmalades as good as those of the past where I collected the tricks I learned at home from my grandmother. Including the one to make express jams.
A ricotta cake to use this jam.
I wanted to cook a versatile dessert.
That could work as a dessert, merenda, for a tea with friends.
So I used my peach and mango jam to make… a ricotta cake that seems a cheesecake.
I really love cheesecake and I make it often. Traditional, but also no-bake. New York or Italian style. Light or not light, depending on the occasion.
The jar of jam with the color of the sun was certainly part of the inspiration: a simple ricotta cake covered with a scented fruit cream.
And if crumbled cookies are typical of cheesecake, fresh ricotta and homemade peach and mango jam make the difference. It is a cream of fruit that is not very sweet and delicious. If you don’t have time to prepare it, you can replace it with your fav jam or with fresh chopped fruit.
To separate the fruit from the cheese, fresh ricotta which I stirred to make it soft but which I have not sweetened, there is a very thin and crunchy layer of dark chocolate.
To create a thin and perfect layer, just put the dessert in the freezer for a few minutes (in the direction you’ll find how to make it).
Among the indications of the procedure, you will also find those to transform a simple but delicious dessert into bars for merenda. Ricotta cake?
Buona cucina, Monica
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No-Bake Ricotta Cake Recipe
serves 6 or for about ten bars
Ingredients
Base
150 g cinnamon cookies
50 g dry cookies
110 g melted butter
Filling
200 g Ricotta cheese
50 g dark chocolate
6 g of milk
1 peach
1 mango
50 g of sugar
juice 1/2 lime
to decorate: some chopped pistachios
Directions
Instead of fresh fruit cream, which you can change according to the season, you can also use your fav jam. The procedure does not change.
But if you prepare a cream jam at the moment, after peeling the fruit, remove the stones, cut into pieces, add sugar and cook in a small pan on a medium-low heat. Bring to the boil, low the heat and cook for about 15 minutes. Then reduce to cream with the immersion blender to make it perfectly smooth.
Spread a thin layer of fruit if you plan to serve the dessert as merenda, higher if you want to serve like a dessert.
Now let’s start making the cake.
Finely chop the cookies in the mixer.
Cover the pan with wet and squeezed baking paper.
Pour the crumbled cookies on the bottom, cover with melted butter, mix with a spoon and spread to form a base that must cover the surface of the mold evenly.
Put in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Ina bowl, stir ricotta until it becomes soft. I did not add sugar but, in case, you can put 50 g of icing sugar.
Spread the cheese evenly on the base of cookies and put it in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes.
In the meantime, chop chocolate, put it in a saucepan with milk and melt in a bain-marie stirring.
Pour the chocolate over the cream cheese and with the help of a spatula, spread the chocolate quickly.
Put it again in the freezer for about ten minutes.
Spread a layer of mango and peach jam on the chocolate.
Let it rest in the refrigerator until it is time to serve or cut the bars.
