Mom-Tart’s Cheesecake – A Mother’s Day Special

A few weeks ago, Beard and I were going through our recipe cards and combining them into one recipe box to make things easier for us.  As we skimmed through the box I inherited from my grandmother, skimming over recipes clipped from ancient newspapers, discarding multiple versions of potato candy and grapenut pudding, we found one labeled “Robin’s Cheesecake”.  Copied down on a sheet of notepaper in Nanny’s handwriting, it made sense that the Robin in question is the one and only Mom-Tart.

However, noticed something peculiar when I read it and tried to imagine the finished cake.  Cherry pie topping?  That’s nothing special…. but ladyfingers?  I only know of one family recipe for cheesecake that uses ladyfingers.  This was no Mom-Tart cake, this recipe belongs to my godmother.  Sorry, Nanny, but your recipe was built on lies.  LIES.

I remember eating this cake for special occasions.  I don’t think I can remember Mom-Tart making it, and I definitely don’t remember Nanny making it, only my aunt, and only a few times.  It always seemed like the most amazing cake to me, with its sweet and oozing topping and ladyfinger crust.  Even the word “ladyfinger” made it seem like it was a very “grown-up” dessert.  We, as the kids, would get your typical cake, round or rectangular, with some frosting and maybe some sprinkles.  There were a few years where the Mom-Tart made me heart-shaped cakes for birthdays, and one disastrous attempt at cupcakes cooked in waffle cones.  The Beard isn’t much of a fan of overly sweet cakes, but he once got a Black Forest cake from his mom, and ate the entire thing over a weekend and made himself sick.

Because it’s mother’s day here in the US, I wanted to write up a fun little post and share the Mom-Tart cheesecake that didn’t belong to Mom-Tart, but the universe foiled my efforts.  You see, Beard went out shopping yesterday for ingredients, and couldn’t find ladyfingers.  And I, in my post-work haze, didn’t think to tell him they’d be in the bakery section of the store until late last night as I was trying to fall asleep.  Instead, I quickly decided to change things up and do my own thing.  Sort of.  So I present to you the Momofuku Crack Cheesecake with cherry topping.  But I’m sticking with Mom-Tart Cheesecake for short.

Breaking Down the Mom-Tart Cheesecake

Forced to improvise, I mentally looked through my list of hypothetical recipes that I planned on cooking and writing about.  The only really dessert-type thing was using the crust from the Momofuku Milk Bar Crack Pie to hold…. well, anything, really.  I wanted to use it for its original purpose of holding a pie, but I didn’t want to subject myself to quite that much butter.  As it currently stands, this recipe uses three sticks of the yellow stuff.  The Crack Pie’s crust is, at its basic level, nothing but an enormous oatmeal cookie that’s been baked, crumbled, and baked again.

In contrast to the double-baked nature of the crust, the Mom-Tart’s cheesecake uses a no-bake type of filling.  Unlike all the flashy gifs and videos on Facebook and Pinterest, this cheesecake doesn’t use instant pudding with the cream cheese.  Not only would be too easy, but it would also be too healthy, if you can believe it.  The Mom-Tart’s cheesecake goes completely beyond the edge of reason and straight into the realm of decadent insanity and uses heavy cream.  I like to imagine that when this recipe was created sometime in the 70-80’s, we were all thinking “cream is dairy, and dairy is healthy!  MILK DOES A BODY GOOD!”

I won’t even attempt to calculate nutrition information for this bad boy.  If you do, you’re a braver soul than I.

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Mom-Tart's Cheesecake

One part Christina Tosi's Crack Pie, one part secret family recipe, and one part generic topping, combined to form one calorie-filled bomb of a cheesecake.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Western

Keyword cheesecake, oats

Prep Time 40 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Chill Time 4 hours

Total Time 55 minutes

Servings 10 slices

Ingredients

Oat Cookie

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 6 tbsps sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt omit or reduce if using salted butter

Oat Cookie Crust

• 1 Oat Cookie
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 3 tbsp light brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt omit/reduce if using salted butter

Cheesecake Filling

• 3 packs Neufchâtel cream cheese
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 can fruit pie filling 20oz can

Instructions

For the Oat Cookie

1. Heat the oven to 350F.

2. With electric mixer, cream butter and sugars on medium high for 2 to 3 minutes until fluffy and pale yellow in color. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a spatula.
   

3. On a lower speed, add egg yolks to incorporate. Increase the speed back up to a medium high for 1 to 2 minutes until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is a pale white color.
   

4. Lower mixer speed once more, then add the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until your dough comes together and the dry ingredients have incorporated. The dough will be a stiff, buttery, almost greasy dough, not like a typical cookie dough.

5. Pam spray a foil-lined sheet pan. Plop the oat cookie dough in the center of the pan and spread it out until it is 1/4" thick.  Don't bother trying to use a spatula, just mash it down with your hand.  If it starts sticking to your palm too much, moisten your hand a little with some water. The dough won't end up covering the entire pan, this is okay. Bake the oat cookie at 350F for 15 minutes and cool completely before moving to next steps.
   

Oat Cookie Crust

1. Heat oven to 350F.  Break the oat cookie into smaller chunks.  Put the oat cookie, brown sugar and salt in the food processor and pulse it on and off until the cookie is broken down into a wet sand. (If you don't have a food processor, you can fake it till you make it and crumble the oat cookie diligently with your hands or bash it in a plastic bag with a rolling pin).

2. Transfer the cookie crumbs to a bowl and, with your hands, knead the butter and ground cookie mixture until the contents of the bowl are moist enough to knead into a ball. If it is not moist enough to do so, gently melt and additional 15-25g of butter and knead it into the oat crust mixture.   Pour crust mix into a spring-form pan.
   

3. Using your fingers, gently level out the oat crust.  Once you have things starting to look even, use a round, flat-bottomed jar to firmly press the crust into the bottom and sides of the pan.  Bake for 12-15 minutes and let cool completely before adding the filling.

Cheesecake Filling

1. Chill a medium mixing bowl and electric beaters in the freezer for 15 minutes.  Remove from freezer and whip cream until it's stiff.

2. In separate bowl, beat cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar until it is soft and fluffy.

3. Add whipped cream to cream cheese mixture and combine until completely mixed and smooth.  Pour into oat cookie crust and chill for at least 4 hours before adding the topping and slicing.

The Tart

The Tart likes to eat, cook, and bake things.  She eats to work out, and she works out to be able to eat.