Biezpiens Siera Kūka (cottage cheese cheesecake)

This cake I'm claiming for Strenči, a small town in the north of Latvia where it was made. In essence, its a cheesecake, but with a delicious balance of Latvian ingredients - a one bake wonder. There is a video on youtube that shows the madness of the process, but for now, here is the recipe.

NOTES BEFORE BAKING:

Cake tin size: 28cm x 20cm x 10cm (XYZ Dimensions)

Different dimension cake tins may affect baking time!

• Taller and narrower will likely increase bake time, so take that into account.

• Wider base area tins will result in a thinner cake and a shorter baking time.

• If the base area of the tin is smaller, also consider that the biscuit base will likely be too thick. Consider spreading the base up the sides of the tin, or reducing the amount of base mixture used.

• Likewise if the tin area is larger, consider buying an extra packet of biscuits to cover the whole area properly.

Ingredients:

800g Biezpiens (cottage cheese will sub in fine)

200g Sugar

24g Vanillin Sugar (or a couple tsp vanilla essence)

90g Salted Butter

180g 25% Fat Sour Cream

200ml 35% Fat Cream

4 Eggs

100g Flour (cake flour if possible)

50g Potato Starch

For the Base

360g Caramel Selga Cepums (for people outside of Latvia, just choose a semi boring biscuit. In the UK, this might be a tea biscuit. In the US, this is probably a Graham Cracker, though, I've never had one of those)

180g Salted Butter ( I used 82% Fat Butter which is standard here)

For the Topping

330ml Smiltsērkšķu sula (Sea Buckthorn Juice) If you can't get this, try it with something equally a sour, perhaps unsweetened pure cranberry juice or something in that vein

100g Sugar

200ml Cream

50g Sour Cream

Blend the sugars and biezpiens until super smooth. Then, blend in the butter. Whip in the sour cream and whipping cream until well combined. Then, beat in the eggs. In the video, I just dump them all in, but don't do that, the mixture could split. Really give it a good whip with a whisk and incorporate air. Sieve the cake flour and potato starch together then add it to the mixture. Fold it in gently until mostly smooth - don't overwork it at this stage, so don't stress about a couple of lumps.

Crush the hell out of your chosen biscuit in a bowl with the butter until it makes a coarse paste.

In a nonstick tin or baking paper lined tin, press the biscuit base evenly across the bottom. Bake at about 160°C for about 25 minutes.

Take out of the oven and let it cool. Once cool, pour the mixture over top, then put in the oven at 160°C for around 1 hour. You'll know its done with the top is still kinda wet, but there is no serious jiggle. When done, turn off the heat and let it cool down in the oven.

For the topping, simply melt the sugar into the Smiltsērkšķu sula (sea buckthorn juice) and then add cream, and sour cream. Reduce, and once it can coat the back of a spoon, take it off the heat.

When the cake has cooled sufficiently (I left it in there until the surface temp was 40°C), pour over the Smiltsērkšķu sula reduction, and allow the topping to set to room temperature and serve.