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Strawberry Cheesecakes
Take a quarter of a pint of ripe, finely-flavoured strawberries, measured after the stalks have been picked from them. Bruise them thoroughly with a wooden spoon in a basin, and mix with them a heaped table-spoonful of powdered sugar and two well-beaten eggs. Line some patty-pans with good pastry, three-parts fill them with the mixture, and bake in a well-heated oven. If fresh fruit cannot be had, strawberry jelly may be used instead, and then no sugar will be required. Time to bake, ten minutes.
A very simple baked egg-and-fruit tartlet, despite the name. The whole thing hinges on the filling setting before the pastry burns, so the tins need to be small and shallow.
- A quarter of a pint of berriesIn imperial measure about 5 fl oz, so roughly two-thirds of a cup, measured hulled; perhaps 4-5 oz by weight. Two well-beaten eggs to that quantity of fruit gives a soft, custard-like set rather than a jammy one.
- Patty-pansSmall shallow tartlet tins, a couple of inches or so across, not a muffin tray. Depth is the enemy here: a deep well of egg mixture will still be liquid at the centre when the pastry edge has coloured.
- "A well-heated oven"Probably something like 400-425F in modern terms, though the book gives no temperature. The pastry has to set fast because the filling is wet, and a ten-minute bake implies a brisk heat.
- Ten minutes, then lookJudge by the filling, not the clock. It should be just set and barely domed, with no liquid wobble at the centre; longer and the egg weeps and the mixture goes granular.
- Powdered sugarIn this period that means finely ground white sugar — caster sugar today. Modern confectioners' sugar contains cornstarch and will dull the fruit; use caster.
- "Strawberry jelly"Most likely a preserve rather than a gelatin dessert. Use enough strawberry jam or jelly to stand in for the fruit; the book specifies no added sugar but gives no quantity.
- Pastry"Good pastry" here is shortcrust or a rich puff trimming. Line the tins and chill them while the oven comes up; no blind baking is intended, and the short bake means the base relies on a hot oven for crispness.
- YieldEight to ten small tartlets. They are best the day they are made — the filling weeps into the pastry overnight.
"Cheesecake" in nineteenth-century British cookery books often means no cheese at all. The word had drifted from the old curd tarts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, made with fresh cheese curds, eggs and sugar in a pastry case, to cover almost any small sweet tart with a rich egg filling — lemon cheesecakes, almond cheesecakes and fruit cheesecakes all appear with no dairy curd at all, and the Richmond maids of honour are the best-known survivor of the older curd form, though curd cheesecakes proper do still appear in the period. The recipe carries a note on substituting strawberry jelly for the fruit, with the instruction to drop the sugar when doing so.