Cheesecake experiments (PM)

Oh, cheesecake, that is one special cake. And yet, like K, when do I ever eat it? Never that's when. And let me tell you why: my Polish grandmother made the king of cheesecakes. A little sweet, a wonderful sour note, perfect density, a base strong enough to hold it together but not intruding into the overwhelming cheesecakeyness of it. Never has a cheesecake come anywhere near the deliciousness that was Babcia's cheesecake. She kept baking for a long time but as she got into her nineties the baking, unsurprisingly, got rarer. And after she died, the sweet treats really dried up!

Babcia was a great cook and baker, do not get me started on her apple pie (this is another thing to which nothing has ever come close). Periodically I say to my mum, "Do you have Babcia's recipe for this or that" and my mum will tell me it is somewhere or only in Polish or something like that and I'll say, "I really must get it from you" and then I don't, because then I'd probably end up with too much cheesecake or apple pie in the house. But it is time for the excuses to end!!!

I will find that recipe, and sure I will compare it to other good-looking recipes, but there is no question what is going to happen in my kitchen, Babcia's cheesecake will rise like a phoenix from the ashes that are forbidden by Jewish law.