italian cheesecake

By momofsixplus1

don't be surprised if your cheesecake cracks a little on top-even professional pastry chefs have it happen all the time.

Ingredients

• 32 oz whole-milk ricotta cheese
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tbs grated lemon zest
• 1 tbs grated orange zest
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 4 eggs, beaten
• confectioners sugar for garnish
• italian pastry dough
• ------------------------------------------------
• italian pastry dough;
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tbs sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup cold unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 2 tbs marsala or other sweet wine

Preparation

Step 1

italian pastry dough;
in a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt

cut in the butter until the flour mixture resembles coarse meal

beat the eggs with the marsala and add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, tossing with a fork. add 1 tbs of cold water and toss until the dough forms a ball.
---------------------------------------------------
shape 1/3 of the dough into a disc. shape the remaining dough into another disc. wrap both discs in plastic and chill for 1 hour.

meanwhile, using the back of a spoon, push the cheese through a large strainer into large bowl. add the sugar, flour. lemon zest, orange zest and almond extract. with an electric mixture set at medium speed, beat the ricotta mixture until smooth, about 3 minutes.

stir in heavy cream and raisins until well combined. stir in eggs and set aside.

heat oven to 350. on a lightly floured surface, using a floured rolling pin, roll the larger disc of dough into a 13 inch round. fold the circle into quarters and lift it gently into an ungreased 9-inch springform pan. unfold dough and press it gently onto the bottom of pan and three-fourths of the way up the sides.

roll the remaining dough into a 9-inch round and cut into 1/2 inch strips. pour the ricotta mixture into the dough-lined pan. arrange the pastry strips on top in a lattice pattern..trim off any excess dough and tuck the ends of the strips down inside the pan.

bake about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

turn off heat, leave oven door slightly ajar and let cake sit in oven for 1hour. remove from oven and cool completely, then cover and chill when ready to serve, remove cake from the pan and sprinkle with confectioners sugar.