Cheesecake, Friends and is the moon really made of cheese?

Cheesecake and “Friends”

My first introduction to a Cheesecake, which I believe to be one of the most delicious creation of mankind, was from an episode of the epic T.V series “Friends”.

“The one with all the cheesecakes”

This episode aired in the seventh season of Friends and left a lasting impression on my young mind. Chandler recieved the delivery of a neighbours cheesecake by mistake and being unable to resits starts to eat it. To ease his guilt he shares it with Rachel and they end up finishing the sinfully delicious cheesecake. There is a second cheesecake, which is as luck would have it is again finds its way to their plates. This time they decide to leave it at their neighbours doorstep. But ultimately they end up eating that cheesecake also, and that too from the floor of the hallway.

When Joey discovers them eating from the floor, he asks nothing and silently joins them on the floor with his own spoon 😋.
This is without doubt one of my favourite Friends episode as cheesecakes came into the spectrum of my knowledge from this point on!

Those were pre-internet days. So just getting to know what all goes into a cheesecake was a challenging task. But I assumed obviously it must be having cheese in it since duh! It was many years later when I tasted my first slice of a cheesecake and I immediately realised what Rachel and Chandler had meant then!

Cheese and their eyes

Now coming to cheese. There are so many types of cheese. Obviously all are not the same. Swiss Cheese also known as Emmentel which looks like this 👉🧀 is the most widely referred cheese in comics and cartoon. Jerry and Ratatoiule’s favourite cheese is swiss cheese. This cheese has many holes produced due to Carbon dioxide release by a specific type of bacteria added in the cheese making process. The swiss cheesemakers call these holes “eyes”. So quintessential are eyes to Swiss cheese, that the swiss believe a cheese without eyes is blind!

Is the moon cheesy?

Is the moon really made of cheese or other high fat dairy products? I was just browsing and came across this interesting tidbit that the origin of the concept of the moon being made of cheese is a Servian yarn about a wolf and a fox. The greatest similarity(and only) between the cheese and the moon is the holes.

Moon Craters

The moons surface has numerous large and small craters which give it the holey (?) cheeselike appearance. Asteroids crashing onto the moons surface form these craters . Earth also has its fair share of craters produced in the same way. Why then does the moon look like a pockmarked disk of cheese whereas our earth looks farthest from it?

The moon is much smaller in size than the earth. So how is it that the moon has thousands of craters whereas earth has only around 190 confirmed craters? Actually throughout their 4.5 billion year long history both the moon and earth have gone through their fair share of being battered by the space rocks.

Only the earth, due to some factors like atmospheric agents causing erosion, tectonics and volcanism moves on easily and the imprints of the craters are much more difficult to decipher. Whereas the moon,in the absence of these factors maintains the record and history of each and every craters on its body like undeletable tattoos. So now we know why the moon is said to be made of cheese or at the very least looks like cheese.

Coming to todays recipe, this is a super easy one with only 8 ingredients. Like most of my recent recipes I tried out an eggless version of the classic baked cheesecake. I made it with a crust because I had like a gazillion pieces of biscuits which nobody was eating! You can use any biscuits in this recipe. To cut down on the calories 😆 I have used almond milk instead of fresh cream but please feel free to use cream if you wish to. Cheesecake usually require soft, eye less cheeses like cream cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta, feta, mascarpone. Here I have used a mix of cream/ cottage cheese and feta.

Ingredients

1. Assorted Biscuits 12 to 15
2. Butter 2 tbsp
3. Cream Cheese 100 gm
4. Feta Cheese 100 gm
5. Almond Milk ¾ Cup
6. Condensed Milk ½ cup to ¾ cup
7. Cornflour 2 heaped tbsp
8. Vanilla Extract 1 tsp

Method

• Start by breaking the biscuits into small pieces and pulverize in a grinder jar to form a mildly coarse powder. Add in the butter and mix. The final product will be like clumpy wet sand.
• Line a springform pan with butter paper and spread the biscuit base powder into the pan. You can go up the edges a bit too. Even out the layer. Bake for 10 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 degree Celsius. Let it cool.
• In another deep bowl, take the cream cheese and feta cheese and mix together with a handheld mixer or a baloon whisk.
• Add in the condensed milk and whip.
• Dissolve the cornflour in the almond milk and beat into the cheese mix.
• Whip at moderate speed for around 5 minutes.
• Pour in the cheese mix into the pre baked base. Bake at 180 in a preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes. The centre may seem to be a bit jiggly but I promise you it will set when cooled.
• Cool it and refrigerate before serving.
• It can be served with raspberry/ strawberry preserve or chocolate ganache. But honestly speaking this cheesecake was just so perfect by itself that no garnish was required at all.

P.S Cheesecake can be stored in the fridge by wrapping it in cling film and tastes best when cold.

Here is one more Cake recipe for you to try.