It’s graduation weekend at Cornell. Lots of my friends are graduating this year including my roommate Mike, who has also been my unofficial taste tester for the past two years. Mike just finished a PhD in the plant sciences and one of his projects was on a grain called Kernza which is being touted as the newest super sustainable perennial grain. One of the perks of working in a plant science department is that fruits and vegetables that people grow for research are often given away in large quantities. This week Mike ground up the last of his Kernza in a mill and so now I have a pound of Kernza flour. His family is having a barbecue Sunday, so I thought it would be fun to make a dessert using the Kernza. Then I went a bit wild at the Ithaca farmers market this Saturday and ended up with the ingredients for a start of summer honey tart. There was some really beautiful rhubarb from Stick and Stone Farm this week and I had to get a bunch. And then the sun was shining through the jars at Waid’s honey, so I got a little jar of Wildflower. I picked out a chocolate mint plant that I’ve always wanted from Humble Hill farm, chanced on the first strawberries of the season from Oxbow Farm and then headed home to bake a honey cheesecake tart with a almond kernza sweetcrust, topped with candied rhubarb ribbons and strawberries.
Honey Cheesecake Tart
Ingredients
Sweet Crust
- ¼ tsp Baking Powder
- ¾ Cup All Purpose Flour
- ¼ Cup Almond Meal
- ½ Cup Kernza Flour you could add whaterver flour you like or more APF instead
- ½ Cup Powdered Sugar
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 9 tbsp Unsalted Butter (Frozen in small cubes)
- 1 egg
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- 1 tsp almond extract
Cheesecake Filling
- 150 ml Heavy Cream
- 12 oz Cream Cheese (1.5 blocks) full fat
- 45 grams Honey
- 1 tbsp Powdered Sugar
- 30 grams Sour Cream
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste (or extract)
Instructions
Crust
- In a food processor mix all dry ingredients, then pulse in the frozen butter until it looks like pebbles
- Add the egg, vanilla, almond extract and pulse until it forms a lump of dough. Wrap in plastic and chill in the freezer for 20 minutes
- Roll out the chilled dough between to pieces of parchment paper
- Lay the dough over a 9 inch tart pan and press in
- Freeze for at least 20 minutes
- Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until it turns a light brown. You may have to tamp down the crust several times during the bake or alternatively use pie weights.
- Let cool completely
- Optional (If you want you can melt some white chocolate or butterscotch chips and coat the inside of the tart crust to ensure it doesnt absorb any liquid from the cheesecake filling.
Cheesecake Filling
- Whip the cream at high speed until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
- Whip the cream cheese (at room temperature) with the honey for 5 minutes on high. Add in remaining ingredients and whip until the mixture is smooth.
- Fold cream cheese mix into whipped cream
- Add the filling to your cooled tart crust. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.