Home cooking, the best of Parisian pastries – Jacques Génin’s French cheesecake

by Aude Camus
 
Seems like you guys like this sweet column! Last week little madeleines with hazelnut spread from le Bristol’s Paris were a huge hit (find the recipe here if you haven’t tried it yet, it’s super easy and highly addictive) so here I am, sharing another sweet recipe with you. No chocolate this week, we are going for cream cheese instead which can seem funny knowing this is a recipe from Jacques Génin, also known as one of the best chocolatier in France and awarded as such by the “Club des Croqueurs de Chocolat” in 2010 but believe me, this cheesecake is highly addictive!

 
Ingredients:
 
900g of cream cheese
105g of cream
80g of soft butter (careful soft but not melted)
205g of flour
165g of sugar
80g of icing sugar
72g of almond powder
6 egg yolks and 5 egg’s whites
4 vanilla pods (vanilla extract is also fine)
A few pinches of salt
A few drops of lemon juice
 
 
For the base:
Preheat oven to 160° C
Mix together 120g of flour with the almond powder, the icing sugar and a pinch of salt
Add the soft butter and mixed together with your hands until it becomes a shortcrust pastry
Use a circular mould (ideal diameter is 24cm) and place your shortcrust pastry at the bottom of it, using your hand to flatten it
Bake for 20 minutes in the oven
 
For the cream cheese filling:
Mix together the cream cheese, the cream, the egg yolks and 65g of sugar
Add the vanilla et the remaining 85g of flour
Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt and a few drops of lemon juice until stiff
Continue beating for a few minutes while adding the remaining 100g of sugar
Delicately mix your egg whites with the cream cheese mixture
Top your baked shortcrust pastry with this mixture
 
Now bake the cake in three times:
170° C for 20 min
160° C for 20 min
155° C for 15 min
 
Take it out of the oven and once it has cooled down, place it in the fridge for 12h