Nature and Nurture Do A Baker Make

I was introduced to baking before the age of two. Our family of four was living in a tiny apartment above the country club my father had been brought in to manage in Kansas City not long after the Second World War. My parents would bring my sister and me downstairs and into the kitchen dressed in our Dr. Duttons. We were the boss’s kids so everyone was nice, of course. But the baker was generous!

My father had brought with him his longtime pastry chef John Nagy, and John always had treats. He would tell us to hold out our hands and he would drop two or three raisins or a pinch of chocolate nonpareils into them. It was never enough to spoil our appetites but easily enough to spoil two small children.

We lived there until I was five and we ate there weekly afterwards to dine together as a family, saving my father one day’s drive home and back. John-the-Baker’s sweets were simply a part of my life. I remember the chocolate buttercream swirling atop and between the layers of his rich, moist chocolate cake. And I cannot forget his schnecken - the cinnamon rolls with raisins and pecans within and in the gooey bottoms that became the tops when turned out of the muffin tins.

But there was nature to go along with the nurture. One of my mother’s grandfathers was a baker. And my father’s uncle was a renowned pastry chef in Los Angeles. The creations of Viktor Benes made him the city’s go-to baker before and long after WW2. He always said he learned everything by watching his mother. So if there are baking genes, I may have inherited some.

When we moved to the family’s first home, my father opened his restaurant in The Twin Oaks - twin high-rise apartments just south of the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City. My mother became baker of the restaurant’s cheesecake - a lemon cottage cheese cake.

Every week, she would make two on Mondays, two on Wednesdays, and three for the weekends on Fridays. I would often be in the kitchen with her, watching her, and that let to learning.

Maggie’s Cottage Cheesecake has a lighter texture and more subtle lemony taste than those made with cream cheese. Hidden within the subtlety and lighter texture, it is very rich. It’s also more work which I watched her do on many occasions and watching led to my saving her recipe from being lost due to a crucial step omitted in the recipe she had passed down.

My sister told me she had attempted to make the cheesecake but it had refused to set, remaining liquidy even after an extra hour in the oven. Debbie had followed the recipe exactly as written. I listened as she described what she had done step by step which includes adding cream and eggs and lemon zest and juice into the cottage cheese. And nurture struck.

There was a picture in my mind of the cottage cheese in a sieve above a pot sitting in the sink.

“You drained the cottage cheese, didn’t you?” I asked my sister.

“The recipe doesn’t say to do that,” she answered.

“Mom drained the cottage cheese,” I told her.

Draining the cottage cheese is not an ingredient. To mother, it was a natural part of making the cheesecake. She apparently didn’t think about doing it any other way and omitted that step when she wrote the recipe down. But seeing the cottage cheese sitting in the sieve in the sink was imprinted on my mind at a young age.

Debbie and I have both made it successfully since then. Nurture saved the recipe.

I know that nurture saved Maggie’s Cottage Cheesecake but have no idea how much nature made the missing step stick in my young mind. I can, however pass along the saved recipe to my readers and give my baker’s blessing to those who decide to go to the work of making it.

Maggie’s Cottage Cheesecake

The Crust

2 C Zwiebach crushed fine*

1½ tea cinnamon

½ C sugar

¼ C melted butter.

Mix dry ingredients. Add butter.

Reserve for the top:

¾ C crust mix

¼ C chopped walnuts or pecans.

Press remaining mix into a 3” tall, buttered 9” springform pan, up sides and across bottom. Put into the fridge while making the filling. Set aside the reserved crust.

The Filling

4 eggs, large

1 C sugar

3 C Old fashioned, small curd cottage cheese, drained

1 C cream

¼ C flour

1½ Tb lemon juice

1/8 tea salt

2 tea freshly grated lemon zest.

Drain cottage cheese in sieve. Preheat conventional oven to 350.

Beat eggs briefly in mixer then add all ingredients in succession except zest. Put the mixture through a food mill with the fine blade inserted. Add zest and stir through. Spoon gently into prepared springform pan. Sprinkle reserved crust mix over the top.

Put into the oven and bake for about 1 hour. (It will still be slightly loose in the center.) Turn off the oven, crack open the door and allow to cool slowly for 1 hour. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temp.

Serves 10.

* Zwiebach was a teething biscuit - a yeasted dough biscotti essentially - once made by Nabisco. Lightly sweet. The best substitute is said to be Brandt Zwiebach, though it is recommended you add more cinnamon and nutmeg. It’s available at some groceries and on line.

This cheesecake can be frozen. Chill in the fridge uncovered then freeze uncovered before wrapping and storing. Thaw uncovered in the refrigerator for a day before serving.

I’ve never frozen one so I can’t tell you how long it will keep. This cheesecake always get devoured! However, it should last at least a month frozen as there is little to evaporate. Make sure you wrap it air-tight to avoid the freezer affecting the flavor.

And when you devour it, enjoy the beautiful, rich subtlety of my mother’s cheesecake - the gift of nature and nurture.

Bob