Lemony curd cake

Here is another faithful cake recipe of mine. It's a baked lemon cheesecake, but using the slightly crumbly milk curd as opposed to the much more commonly used cream cheese. As a result, it's a lot lighter in terms of calories, and has a nice creamy-grainy texture (yep, both at once:)

It's best made day before serving. And please feel free to increase the amount of lemons if you prefer. This version is definitely, though still subtly, lemony.

Lemony curd cake
(Sidruni-kohupiimakook)
Serves 6-8



The pastry case:
100 grams cold butter
2 Tbsp sugar
250 ml plain flour, sifted
2 Tbsp cold water

Milk curd filling:
3 eggs
150 ml sugar
250 grams plain curd cheese (or ricotta)
150 ml soured cream (or creme fraiche)
2 Tbsp plain flour
2 lemons - finely grated zest (only the yellow part!) and pressed juice

Make the pastry:
Mix the flour, sugar and butter in a bowl with a knife until crumbly. Add the cold water, and using your hands, bring the pastry quickly together. Put into the fridge for 10 minutes.
Dust the working surface slightly with flour, and roll the pastry into a circle to fit a 22 cm pie dish. Pierce the base with a fork couple of times and put into the freezer for 20 minutes.*
Bake in a pre-heated 200˚C for 15-20 minutes, until lightly golden brown.

Prepare the filling:
Whisk the eggs with sugar until pale and frothy, then fold in other ingredients.
Pour the filling into the pre-baked pastry case.
Bake at 200˚C for about 30 minutes, until the cake is golden brown at the edges and the filling is set. Make sure not to overbake, as the cake will become dry instead of creamy then.
Let it cool properly. Dust with icing sugar and/or cinnamon before serving, if you wish.

* If you prefer, you can simply bake the pastry crust 'blind'. I find this a bit of an hassle, and by putting the pastry-lined pie dish into the freezer for a while you eliminate the need for this step. I just pre-bake the pastry for 15-20 minutes straight from the freezer, and it hardly ever shrinks.