The cake, which ranked second in TasteAtlas’ top 100 cakes, was brought to Poland
by King John III Sobieski after his victory over the Turks at the Battle of Vienna.
Today there are many variations of it, with sultanas, chocolate or fruit.
The first written down (and preserved) recipe for cheesecake dates back to 230 A.D.
and it is the work of Athenaios of Naukratis.
This Greek writer is the author of the “Deipnosophistae,” a work consisting of fifteen books largely about gastronomy, in which he included a recipe for this cake and mentioned
an earlier work by Aegimus.
In ancient Rome, Cato the Elder wrote about Sernik – references to it can be found
in his work “De Re Rustica.” It was a dough with crumbled cheese, flour, eggs and honey.
The cake formed from these ingredients, called libium, was baked in a clay pot
and served during religious ceremonies.
As the Roman Empire spread, Sernik found its way to more and more regions.
Later, other nations modified the recipe, adding local ingredients.
King Henry VIII also had his own favourite version of cheesecake.
His cook would cut the cheese into small pieces and soaked them in milk for three hours.
After straining, he added eggs, sugar and butter to the cheese.
Pastry
1) Ingredients:
- 300 g flour (10.58 oz or 0.66 lbs)
- 150 g margarine (5.29 oz or 0.33 lbs)
- 150 g sugar (5.29 oz or 0.33 lbs)
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 flat spoons of baking powder
- If necessary, cream for kneading
2) Recipe:
Knead all ingredients together, and possibly,
if it is too dry add a little cream to knead
When the mixture is smooth and uniform, set it aside in the refrigerator.
You can put half of this dough on the bottom, and make strips on top for decoration.
Cheesecake
1) Ingredients:
- 2 cups of sugar
- 10 eggs
- 70 g margarine
- half a cup of oil
- cream pudding
- 2 spoonfuls of cream
- 1 kg 300 g turned cheese (twarog or quark) (45.86 oz or 2.87 lbs)
- 2 tbsp flour
2) Recipe:
Beat 2 cups of sugar with 10 egg yolks,
when it becomes a homogeneous cream, add twarog.
Then add margarine, oil, pudding, cream and flour.
Finally, whip the foam of 10 egg whites and mix everything together.
Finally, bake at 180°C (356°F) degrees for about 1 hour and 20 minutes.