PASTEL DE REQUESÓN
Calling it ‘Mexican Cottage Cheese Pie’ really undersells its charms
By John Fladd
John Fladd / Heavy Table
When you told your friends and family that you were making them a special Mexican dessert, they almost certainly gave you suspicious – possibly fearful – looks. When you serve it, they will glare at it, then relax and smile.
“Oh, it’s cheesecake!”, they’ll say, sighing with relief.
“Yes,” you’ll reassure them. “Cheesecake. Mexican cheesecake.” At this point, it is vitally important that you not utter the term, “cottage cheese”.
Then they’ll take a bite, then sit, stunned for a moment, with a smile slowly spreading across their face. “It’s so LIGHT!” they might say.
Or, “It’s ORANGE-flavored!” You could correct them at this point, but clementines, shlementines; just nodding will probably serve you best.
Or, “You are such a brilliant baker! My mother was completely WRONG about you!”, in which case, you should just smile in silent agreement.
Indeed, this dessert looks like a cheesecake but is much more like an Italian ricotta pie, but much lighter and flirty. It’s nowhere as sweet or rich-tasting as an actual cheesecake. The Fluffy Part is soft and delightful. The cake base is dense and a bit chewy. It’s lightly citrussy and ideally complements a pot of tea.
PASTEL DE REQUESÓN
Cake Base
10 Tbsp (140 gr.) butter
½ cup (100 gr.) sugar
1 16-oz container of cottage cheese
2 egg yolks
1½ cups (180 gr.) AP flour
Zest of one clementine
Fluffy Part
Scant ½ cup (100 gr.) cream cheese, cubed
½ cup (99 gr.) sugar
1 16-oz container of cottage cheese
3 Tbsp cream
1 tsp vanilla or Fiori di Sicilia, which is an extract that tastes like a Creamsicle’s fancy cousin
1/8 tsp salt
Zest of 2 clementines
3 eggs, separated
Preheat your oven to 350°
Butter and line a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper
Make the cake base:
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Mix in egg yolks, then cottage cheese, then clementine zest, and finally the flour. Mix until just combined.
Transfer the base batter to the springform pan, and spread it out to the edges. Chill in your refrigerator until the Fluffy Part is ready.
Make the Fluffy Part:
Mix all the remaining ingredients except the egg whites, then set aside. In a scrupulously clean bowl, beat the egg whites to medium peaks. Stir 1/3 of the egg whites into the Fluffy Part batter to lighten it up, then fold the rest in gently, in two halves. You should end up with a surprisingly large amount of Fluffy Batter.
Bake your pastel:
Remove your springform pan from the refrigerator and scoop the Fluffy Batter on top of the cake base. Put the pan on a baking sheet, and bake for 1 hour. Turn off the oven, but leave the pastel inside for another 10 to 15 minutes. In theory, letting the pastel finish cooking in a slowly cooling oven should keep it from cracking. (If it cracks anyway, hide the evidence by dusting the surface with powdered sugar.)
Cool on a rack for several hours, or overnight, then unbuckle the springform pan and serve – possibly with a dollop of whipped cream.