Tangerine-Topped Cheesecake | Everyday Dorie

There is a lot to like about a citrus-flavored cheesecake — sweet and tangy and velvety. Dorie’s tangerine-topped cheesecake is streamlined, meaning “it has convenience on its side.”

A dusting of graham cracker crumbs line the base of the cake, that’s just one ingredient. From the start, it’s time efficient not having to make an elaborate crust. Meanwhile, the filling is a blend of ricotta and cream cheese (at 3:2 ratio by weight) that’s beaten for 10 minutes in an electric mixer. Then it’s baked to a beautiful smoothness in texture that we look for in a cheesecake. The icing on the cake, so to speak, flows from the grated tangerine zest in the batter together with slices of honey-glazed tangerine for individual servings. Next time, I’ll play up the flavor another notch with some orange extract.

This is a big cake that makes 16 servings. There are 3 eggs in the recipe, so I reduce it to 2 eggs, or 2/3 of the recipe amount. (Multiply the weight of each ingredient by a factor of 2/3.) I end up using two 5-inch springform pans instead of one 10-inch pan.

To prepare the batter, start with rubbing tangerine zest over the sugar ( 1 cup/ 200g). Add cream cheese (1 1/2 lb/ 681g) and salt to the mixing bowl and beat everything together at medium speed for 4 minutes. Spoon in the ricotta (2 lb/ 908g) and beat for another 4 minutes. Next, add the cornstarch (1/4 cup/ 32g). Then put in the eggs (3), one by one, until the batter is well combined. Finally, beat in the vanilla and the orange extract, if you’re using it.

Here comes the tricky part: Bake the cake for 90 minutes at 325°F, without opening the door. (For the 2/3 recipe in two 5-inch pans, it took 50-55 minutes. The color got a tad too brown.) Turn the oven off and keep the door ajar. Let the cake rest in the oven for an hour. Next, transfer to a rack and let it cool at room temperature. Then refrigerate the cake for at least 8 hours, or overnight.

I tried to slide one of the cakes out of pan after a few hours in the fridge. Alas, it didn’t end well. Maybe I should have lined the side of the pan too. What do you think? In the end, patience in allowing the whole cake to set firmly overnight is rewarded with a clean and silky slice of deliciousness.