Easter Dessert -- Finally

It is May, so I suppose it is time to write up my Easter dessert!

I must admit I don't really know where April went. I took several trips: one to the Tarn area where I first lived in France, and another to Tours, where we moved after the Tarn. So somehow Easter dessert didn't get blogged about the past few weekends...

It is definitely time to move on, but a promise is a promise...so you're getting this post whether you like it or not!

As I already explained, my Easter meal consisted in following as closely as possible the Easter menu suggestion from Elle à table. And in keeping with the rage for American-style desserts in France, the sweet finish to the meal was "Cheesecake aux framboises." As you can see, the word "cheesecake" seems to have entered the French language, along with "cookies," "brownies," and "muffins," and "crumble."

So making a cheesecake in France is all well and good, but what sort of cheese do you use?

Philadelphia-style cream cheese may be available in big cities, but most cheesecake recipes I see suggest either "Kiri," "St.Moret" or "Carré Frais de Gervais." All of these brand-name cheeses do resemble American cream cheese. I think "Kiri" may be the most "Philadelphia-style" of the three, but my recipe called for "Carré Gervais." This would be my choice anyway because it is available in larger squares, which means less waste and less expense.

My Easter cheesecake was of the baked variety, and came out of the oven looking like this:

And while the final result (posted at the top) was not quite as sumptuous-looking as the photo in the magazine -- is anything ever? -- my cheesecake was a fresh and original dessert de Pâques.

By the way, it was the first time I had ever made a cheesecake of any sort! Now that "les crumbles" and "les brownies" have become standard fare in France, I will have to add "le cheesecake" to my repertoire.