Old English Potato & Lemon Cheesecakes

As featured on BBC Breakfast (19th June 2008) These are amazingly delicate lemon flavoured tarts with a silk texture from the potato. They are delicious and nobody guesses they contain potato!

Cheesecakes have been part of the English cookery tradition since at least the seventeenth century. They were normally made with fresh curd cheeses. However, fresh cheese was not always available, so these potato-based cheesecakes were probably invented for such times. Ivan Day has also rediscovered this British wartime potato recipe for Woolton Pie

“Potatoes have played a crucial role in the diet of Britons and over many centuries has been one of the most flexible foods in the English kitchen.”
Celebrated food historian, Ivan Day

Ingredients

• pâte sucre or shortcrust pastry
• 6oz potatoes
• 4oz lemon peel
• 4oz sugar
• 4oz butter

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160oC, Gas Mark 3.
2. Boil the lemon-peel till tender.
3. Rinse and scrub the potatoes, then boil until tender. Drain and shake them in the pan, with the lid on, to bruise them.
4. Beat the lemon-peel with the sugar, then add the potatoes and beat them all together very well. Let the mixture lie until cold.
5. Use a good pâte sucre, or shortcrust pastry to line some small tart pans (pattipans). Fill them with the potato mixture a little more than half; sprinkle with caster sugar.
6. Bake for 17 minutes. Let them cool and eat while warm.

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