Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup whole milk, small or large curd cottage cheese*
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup 2% milk
3 eggs
1/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease or spray with cooking spray a 9-10 inch spring form pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cottage cheese until the curds break down, about 5 minutes. Add the heavy cream and milk and beat for 2 minutes. Add in the remaining ingredients and beat until well combined. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake 50-60 minutes until lightly browned, slightly puffy and a thin knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack. Cool slightly. Run a thin knife around the end of the pan then unmold. Serve warm with fruit compote or better yet, lingonberries.

*If your cottage cheese is wet, drain 20-30 minutes prior to beginning the recipe.

My thoughts:

Ostkaka is so popular in Sweden it has its own national day, today, Novemeber 14th. I love Swedish desserts so I though it was a perfect excuse to make this cheesecake. Ostkaka literally means “cheese cake” and while that certianly is what it is, it is not like American cheesecake, it is denser and much less sweet. In Sweden, it is tradtional to make the cheesecake by starting with fresh milk and curdling it with rennet (which you can do, rennet tablets are available in most grocery stores) but that is a lot of work for a simple dessert. Even in Sweden, most people start with cottage cheese-like farmers cheese. To make it easier to make here in the United States, I started with good quality cottage cheese which is readily available and yield a texture that is very similar. Some recipes call for almond extract, some for slivered almonds, some for grinding your own almonds; all if which are great but I think that almond meal (almond flour) yields the best, natural almond flavor and the most even, consistant results.