Recipe: Lemon myrtle ricotta cake

Recipe created by Katrina Meynink for Australian Native Products

Lemon myrtle pairs perfectly with the richness of the ricotta and pastry in this traditional Italian-style cooked cheesecake. It provides a glorious cut through without overpowering the subtlety of the ricotta.

Ingredients

Cheesecake mixture

• 250g mascarpone
• 1.2kg fresh ricotta
• 150g caster sugar
• 75g white couverture chocolate, melted
• 3 eggs
• 1 drop lemon myrtle oil
• ½ tbsp vanilla bean paste

Sweet shortcrust pastry

• 350g plain flour
• 100g pure icing sugar
• 150g cold butter
• 1 lightly beaten egg

To top

• Icing sugar to dust
• Fresh honeycomb
• Edible flowers- varied
• 1mm cut dried lemon myrtle

Method

1. To make pastry, blitz flour, icing sugar and butter in a food processor until you get a course crumb. Add egg and blitz until it just comes together. Shape into a disc, wrap and place in fridge for 2 hours to rest.
2. Roll out your pastry until about 3mm thick and gently roll over a 22cm loose bottomed cake pan that has been greased and lined. Push down gently pushing it across the base and up the sides. Make sure it is sealed at the base. Trim any overhanging excess pastry around the rim of the pan. Pop back in the fridge for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 160°C. Using an electric mixer, beat mascarpone and ricotta until just smooth. Add sugar and beat to combine, ensuring the sugar is thoroughly incorporated. Add the melted white chocolate and beat again.
4. Add the eggs and lemon myrtle oil and beat until just combined. You don’t want to aerate the mixture too much with the eggs or it will cause your cake to crack across the top when it cooks. Stir through the vanilla and pour into the pastry-lined cakepan and bake for about 1 hour or until just set.