Cheese Without the Cake

On Friday night, for a variety of celebratory reasons - and, I  might add, against my better judgement - I ate a piece of vegan, gluten-free strawberry 'cheesecake'.

I will spare readers the gory details. Suffice it to say, the 'cheese' filling was a leaden, sticky lump; the white 'chocolate chips' on top tasted like wax (ditto the 'chocolate-dipped' unripe strawberry garnish); the 'graham-cracker style crust' consisted of twenty-seven ingredients, none of which can be found in nature; and the sickly-sweet decorative piping around the edges was nothing more (if I'm not mistaken) than vegetable shortening whipped up with a lot of sugar. A lot of sugar.

I think in future I will stay away from desserts that require so many inverted commas in their descriptions. They cause nothing but dashed expectations and woe.

My convivial duty done, however, I got to thinking. Since the star of a cheesecake is the cheese, and I am definitely not a dairy-shunner (despite my lactose-free condition, I still use cream and full-fat cheese in moderation), I found myself wondering whether a crust was all that necessary. Why not do a cheese-cake without it?

Inspiration struck. Panna cotta! Rich, creamy, dreamy and delicious - and one of the easiest and most impressive gluten-free sweet options imaginable. Needing a festive dessert for Sunday's dinner (my weekend was nothing if not a gay social whirl) I quickly found the perfect antidote to my Calamitous Cheesecake Contretemps, a sweet (but not too sweet!), tangy (but not acidic!), ethereal counteragent made with fresh goats' cheese.

One of these days, I will make this dessert with chevre produced in my own kitchen - for this batch, I used store-bought and very delicious it was, too.  I considered sprinkling the unmolded creams with some caramelized hazelnuts for added crunch but was voted down by the boys, who felt nothing should interfere with the cheese's silky smoothness. I adorned the panna cotta instead with home-made cherry/blueberry preserves and it was damn fine. 

The recipe is adapted from one in my second-favorite cheese-making book, 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes by Debra Amrein-Boyes.

Goats' Cheese Panna Cotta

• one envelope (0.25 oz) of powdered gelatin, sprinkled on one-quarter cup of water and allowed to soften for five minutes
• one cup milk
• one-half cup sugar
• one teaspoon vanilla extract
• three cups whipping cream
• eight oz fresh chevre

Heat the milk and sugar to simmering. I left it plain, but will be experimenting with infusions in due course. Lemon zest is an obvious choice, but fresh herbage (I'm thinking lavender, rosemary, or basil - possibly lemon thyme if I remember to plant some this year) or a couple of grinds of black pepper would also be nice. This is one of those recipes where the sky really is the limit, I'm happy to say.

When the milk is hot (but not boiling!) remove the pan from the burner and stir in the softened gelatin.

Meanwhile, beat the chevre with an electric mixer until it is very soft and light. Drizzle in the cream slowly and continue beating like one possessed until the contents of your bowl is utterly smooth and perfect. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Beat the milk mixture into the chevre mixture and you are done.

Pour into ramekins (I got four large and three small ones out of my eight ounces of cheese) and chill overnight until set. Serve the desserts straight from their vessels or dip them in hot water and unmold onto pretty plates for extra fanciness. Adorn as your heart desires.

The result is even better than cheesecake.