Maja Blanca Cheesecake with Mascarpone in Polenta

Fusion.  One of the things I find intriguing is fusion cuisine...especially with Filipino Cuisine.  So I have taken one of my favorite Filipino desserts, Maja Blanca, and fused it into one of my favorite things to make...cheesecake!  For those who aren't familiar with Maja Blanca, it is a pudding-jelly based dessert, flavored with coconut milk and corn.  I know, it sounds a little strange and unappealing, but it is really good!  And being not the biggest fan of anything coconut flavored, trust me--it is really good!

Besides fusing these two desserts together, I threw in a smidge of Italian in there just to make it more interesting by using Mascarpone and a polenta crust.  So, without further ado....



Crust Ingredients:

1/2 cup of polenta (dry)
1 1/2 cup of flour
1/3 teaspoon of salt
1/3 cup of sugar
14 tbps of chilled, unsweetened butter
1/3 cup ice water



Filling Ingredients:

6 oz softened cream cheese
4 oz mascarpone cheese
(You can use either of both cheese alone.  I chose to mix both since the cream cheese's acidity compensates for the silkiness and lightness in taste of the mascarpone.)
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup of creamed corn
1 cup of sugar
5 eggs
1 1/2 tbps of vanilla extract
3 tbsp of flour



Crust Prep:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1.) Cut the cold butter into flour, salt, sugar and polenta.  This should produce a dry, clumpy and crumbly mixute
2.) Add iced water to the crumbly mixture and continue to cut until fully incorporated.  The mixture should be more moist and pasty.
3.) Spread mixture onto a 9 inch springform pan.  Spread polenta dough evenly.  Put pan and dough in the preheated oven, and slightly bake for 10 minutes.
4.) Remove pan from oven and let cool for 5 minutes.  The crust should be a little drier but workable to mold further along the springform pan.  Return the pan into the oven, and bake for another 15 minutes.  Remove the baked polenta dough crust, let cool and set aside.



Filling Prep:

1.) In a mixer, in low-speed, mix cream cheese, mascarpone, vanilla extract and sugar.  Continue to mix until smooth.
2.) Add eggs, coconut milk, and creamed corn.
3.) Mix until smooth.

• Take cooled polenta crust and fill with cheese/coconut/corn mixture.  Before baking, line bottom and sides of the springform pan with aluminum foil to prevent water from seeping in during baking.  
• As rule of thumb when making cheesecake, the springform pan must sit in a bath while baking to prevent cracks on the cheesecake surface.  The water bath will help keep the surface moist during baking.  Water bath baking requires a shallow pan with water, on which the cheesecake must sit.
• Bake cheesecake for 15-20 minutes, or until the sides of filling is firm, while the middle stays wet and jiggly.  
• Remove from oven and remove from water bath.  Let stand in room temperature for 10-15 minutes, and place in refrigerator for 1 hour until chilled and firm.