Cheese"cake" For Breakfast!

A few months ago, in June, when my husband and I were privileged to stay at the Elk Cove Inn in Elk, CA for our anniversary, I was blessed with a take-home gift of the inn's most requested recipes. Every morning we had an amazing breakfast buffet, mostly made from scratch, and one of the dishes we were able to sample was a Morning Pie, made from cottage cheese. It was delicious.

When I made their recipe, my version turned out differently. The spices were heavier (I do use Penzey's, so that's probably why), the cottage cheese curds were larger and gave it a tweedier texture (surely they don't have access to the Umpqua brand that I used), and I had a hard time adding as much sugar as they did, so I reduced it. It tasted OK, but I knew with a little bit of tinkering I could make this breakfast dish healthier and with better texture too.

My version uses homemade ricotta, agave syrup, less spices, and more citrus flavor. It's like a morning cheesecake, and served with a pile of fresh or canned fruit (spirited canned cherries were divine), it's a wonderful start to the day! Because citrus is out of season and I have a hard time buying oranges from Australia, I used my dry zest from Penzey's. Feel free to use fresh, if you like (double the amount in the recipe for fresh zest), and be sure to drain the ricotta very well.

Morning Cheese Pie

1 recipe homemade Whole Milk Ricotta cheese (unsalted)

3 large eggs

1/2 cup agave syrup, or honey

2 tbsp all purpose flour

1 tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate

1 tsp dried orange zest

1 tsp dried lemon zest

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

few drops lemon oil (1/8 tsp), optional

fruit for topping (orange segments, berries, pitted cherries, canned varieties in light syrup, etc.)

Place the freshly made ricotta in a strainer and let drain 12 hours (or overnight), covered in the fridge. Discard the whey (or save it and add it to a smoothie, acid-loving plants, or chicken feed). You should have about 2 1/2 cups drained ricotta.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10" ceramic or glass pie plate.

Beat the ricotta with an electric mixer just to break up any lumps. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat to thoroughly combine. Pour into pie plate. Bake about 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. It will be very puffy, but as it cools it will shrink back down! Cool on a wire rack.

If you can't wait to chill the pie, cool it completely, then slice and serve. It's better ice-cold, though; I make it the evening before, chill overnight, and serve the following morning topped with fruit.

This pie should yield 10 servings. Without the fruit topping, I estimate the following nutrition facts, per serving: 177 calories, 9 grams fat, 8.5 grams protein. That translates to it being much healthier than cheesecake desserts and a good start to the day as part of a balanced breakfast. It could be lower in fat, of course, if you use the original lowfat cottage cheese or a lowfat ricotta, but keep in mind the creaminess and texture will be affected, and if you purchase store-bought products you'll have preservatives and other additives to contend with. This is my favorite version by far!