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One of the things I love about classic Italian food is how simple it is and how it really highlights ingredients. Therefore I decided to honor the high quality milk from Fox Hill by making little ricotta cheese cakes. These are lighter that cheese cake made from sour cream and cream cheese but are just as tasty. This is very simple to make and it has nice clean flavors that you are sure to enjoy.
Ingredients:
1/2 pound fresh ricotta cheese (recipe)
2.5 Tbsp White Sugar
2 T Flour
2 Eggs
1/4 Tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Orange zest
1 tsp Vanilla
1/8 tsp sea salt
20 dark chocolate disks
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
Prepare 4 ramekins by greasing the insides with butter then flour. Tap out the excess flour. Ensure the entire surface is covered with butter and flour or the cakes will stick.
In a mixing bowl add sugar to ricotta, and stir with a whisk until somewhat smooth, then whisk in flour and eggs (one at a time). When you have a smooth batter add in cinnamon, orange zest, vanilla and salt and beat again.
Fill each ramekin about half way, then put 5 chocolate disks in each one then top each with the remaining batter. ramekins should be about 3/4 full. Do not fill to the top.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes to an hour. They will get golden on the top. They are going to puff up but will fall when cooling, that is expected dont be alarmed.
When the are done remove to a wire cooling rack and refrigerate. Top them with a cool strawberry sauce and a little powdered sugar.
As always thanks to my local suppliers:
Milk for Ricotta : Fox Hill Cheese House
Eggs: Shani’s Farm
These suppliers are located at the Halifax Seaport Farmers Market
A note about the Cinnamon I used:While at the international day which is held every Friday at the Halifax Market I ran into a vendor who was selling spices and teas from Ceylon. As with most of the vendors at the market he was passionate about his product. His company imports spices directly from Ceylon from a fair trade cooperative of farmers. He stressed the freshness of the product as well as the quality. He was proud that the farmers could make a good living providing a high quality product, this is what we want for all of our farmers . I ground up 2 cinnamon sticks to test and it was amazing. The scent had an amazing citrus note to it and the cinnamon taste was great. I will be doing a blog of them soon after I have sampled a few more products but had to give them props for the cinnamon. They can be found at the market on international day and their website.
Tim's Kitchen Table 