Say brie cheese, in fact. Or chevre, even. Cream cheese is a classic. What makes these cheeses kitchen all-stars is their versatility. They can play in the appetizer, entree, or dessert round.
Brie en croute is a French appetizer that sprinkles a wheel of brie in brown sugar and encloses it in puff pastry. It’s baked until the brown sugar and top of the brie meld into a caramel. Sweet meets salty and creamy and it is delicious.
There is an ice cream shop in Minneapolis called Milkjam Creamery and they make wonderfully unique ice creams like chili mango, lychee pineapple, or black dark chocolate. But their namesake ice cream, The Milkjam, is a combination of caramelized goat’s and cow’s condensed milks.
My maid of honor, Lauren, and her family celebrate Thanksgiving each year with a special dish called Cranberries in the Snow. It is a jam of whole cranberries and pineapples under a “frost” of cream cheese and whipped cream.
Finally, the Vermont Brownie Company is known for beating Bobby Flay with their dark chocolate, chevre-swirled brownies.
Excluding my father-in-law from this declaration, cheese can belong in any dish because it encompasses so many wedges on the flavor wheel.
To use the flavor wheel, first identify the friendly flavors: fat, sweet, and salty. The friendly flavors are spaced between the more adverse flavors: bitter, acidic, and spicy.
Friendly flavors will go with any flavor on the wheel. Adverse flavors will (usually) need to pair with friendly flavors. When you think about the flavors you enjoy together, it makes a lot of sense. Here are some examples:
Sweet and acid work together in a lemon tart or a sweet and sour chicken.
Fat and bitter work together in a dark chocolate souffle, a cheese and wine pairing, or even adding cream to coffee.
Salty and spicy work together in buffalo wings, which also have acidity and means you have two adverse flavors! But the saltiness in the breading creates harmony, as does the creamy (aka fatty) bleu cheese dip you serve them with.
When looking at cheese in terms of the flavor wheel, cheese usually falls into the salty and fatty flavors which makes it extremely versatile. Remember, salty and fatty flavors are friendly, and thus they go with any flavor on the wheel. Cream cheese, bleu cheese, and goat cheese have the added element of acidity.
The goal is not to hit every corner of flavor (alas, it is a wheel…), but to make a relevant combination of flavors.
Desserts, meet Cheese
Cheeses in dessert is not a novel idea. People have paired cheese with sweets for as long as cheese has existed. <<< I made that up. But it could be true!
I wanted to take a deep dive into the complexity that cheese can bring to dessert and build my own bridge between the two. I have already shared the cranberry orange tart last year and the chevre brownies I make are identical to the cream cheese brownies, except that you substitute half of the cream cheese with chevre, you add a small amount of almond extract, and you fold in 1/4 cup of diced fancy cocktail cherries (with their syrup) like Luxardo Cherries.
Brie and caramel work in brie en croute and apples and caramel work as a delicious snack. I picture Caramel as the friend introducing Apple to Brie and the shortbread as the charming setting. If you’re lost, feel free to make the face my brother-in-law, Joe, makes at me often and say, “Oh, my gosh. What are you talking about?” Needless to say, brie, apples, and caramel work together because they combine the most friendly flavors with a little bit of tang.
Apple, caramel, and brie on a shortbread tart
For the shortbread: Combine 1 stick of softened butter with 1 cup of flour, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1/4 tsp of salt. Press into the bottom of a 9″ tart or cheesecake pan. If you choose a tart pan, press dough into the sides of the pan to get a fluted edge. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes.
For the filling: In a stand mixer combine 4 oz brie, rind removed, 4 oz of sour cream (it’s about a half cup), a pinch of salt, and one egg. Mix it on high until creamy and smooth, and then spread evenly over the slightly cooled shortbread crust. Sprinkle brown sugar over the brie mixture, about 1/3 of a cup. Arrange thinly sliced red and green apples (you will need about half a red apple and half a green apple) on top of the brown sugar. Sprinkle with a little more brown sugar, about a tablespoon, and place in the oven on a baking sheet at 350 for an additional 20 minutes. Sprinkle flakey sea salt over it when it comes bubbling out of the oven. Let it cool at least 20 minutes before cutting into small wedges or squares. Can be refrigerated and reheated.
Chocolate Truffle Ice Cream
I think this is the thing I am most proud of. This is the ice cream to rule all ice creams. (Except premium Mickey ice cream bars. Those are king.) There are classic flavors: bittersweet chocolate truffle and literally milk and honey. But there is also a subtle, slightly acidic twist: chevre cheese. It takes a few hours to make, but almost all of it is inactive, just letting the refrigerator or freezer do the work. Jim, wary of most unconventional things, liked this ice cream, so I give it a picky eater stamp of approval.
Ingredients
4 oz softened cream cheese
3 oz softened goat cheese
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tbsp heavy cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract
Juice from half a lemon
Lemon zest, about 1/2 tsp
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 scant cup Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting discs
1 tbsp cold heavy cream
Process
In a stand mixer beat cream cheese, goat cheese, and sour cream until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, heavy cream, and almond extract, beating until well incorporated. Last, add the lemon juice and zest. You can do this a day in advance to save time.
In a medium, heavy bottomed pot combine the cheese mixture with 1 cup heavy cream, 1 cup milk, 3 egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/4 cup honey. Whisk until completely homogenous and turn on heat to a medium flame. Whisk continuously until the mixture reaches 135-150F, about 10-15 minutes. Do not boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Transfer to a sealable container and refrigerate at least 4 hours. 20 minutes prior to using the ice cream machine, place your custard in the freezer.
To make the dark chocolate truffle, melt 1 cup of Ghirardelli melting discs in the microwave or a double boiler. It takes about 30 seconds in the microwave. Then add 1 tablespoon of cold heavy whipping cream to the chocolate. It will immediately begin to turn solid. Incorporate the cream until all of the chocolate is a bit stiff. Transfer the chocolate to a sheet of wax or parchment paper and spread evenly. Cover it with another sheet of wax paper, pressing flat and even. Carefully place in the freezer for at least 10 minutes. Once hardened, cut the truffle into 1/4″ squares and store in a sealable container in the freezer.
Once the custard is ready, use your ice cream maker per its instructions (this usually involves freezing the churning bowl overnight!). I pour the custard into the churning bowl and let it churn for about ten minutes. Then I add in the chocolate truffle and let it churn for another 5-10 minutes. The ice cream should be stiff, a bit more than soft serve, and then you can transfer it to an ice cream container. Freeze it for at least 4 hours before serving.