Orange Cinnamon Cheesecake - Thoumieux Paris

A creamy Orange Cinnamon Baked Cheesecake, inspired by the cake decor found in Parisian pâtisseries, Mad About Macarons style!

French Patisserie Toppings

I have been gazing at the cover of the latest Fou de Patisserie gourmet magazine – totally inspired by the French touch of dressing up a cheesecake with fruits, flowers and petals.  Don’t you love how the cakes are so beautifully decorated in Parisian patisserie windows?

So I couldn’t resist trying one of the recipes from the magazine and topping it also with macarons.  Et voilà: here you have an Orange Cinnamon Cheesecake, dressed with seasonal cape gooseberries and pomegranate seeds.  It’s light, baked and now I want to make it again.

In my RECIPES TO DO pile, has been the most sumptuous-looking cheesecake on the 7th cover edition of Fou de Pâtisserie magazine: by Chef Jean-François Piège.  He owns Thoumieux: a restaurant, a hotel and brasserie, plus one of my favourite pâtisseries in Paris, Gâteau Thoumieux – at 58 rue Saint Dominique (UPDATE: sadly, since writing this, it no longer exists, closing its doors in 2017).

Chef Piège’s ingredients’ list is precise with 401g of cream cheese, but I should have taken note in step 2 that you only need 300g total for the base. I used all of it in the recipe which was too much for a 16cm diameter cheesecake mould.  I’d suggest reducing the base by a 1/3 and add a little more butter, just to hold it better together.

However, the extra base was excellent as a crumble topping – try it on top of this apple tarte tatin!  The cream cheese was divine – I added half the zest of an unwaxed orange, just to give it that extra tang.  He doesn’t mention this, but I recommend that your cream cheese filling ingredients are all at room temperature in order to mix well.

Orange Cinnamon Cheesecake

Author: Jill Colonna

Prep Time45 mins

Cook Time1 hr 15 mins

Total Time2 hrs

Course : Dessert, teatime

Cuisine : French, American

Servings : 6

Print Recipe

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Description

A light, baked French-style version to the American classic with orange and cinnamon and topped with macarons, cape gooseberries and pomegranate seeds for a winter treat.

Ingredients

Biscuit base:

• 260 g / 9.5oz plain flour type 55
• 110 g / 4oz butter 1 unsalted
• 55 g / 2oz icing/powdered sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 g salt
• 1 g orange and lemon zest
• I added 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 65 g / 2.25oz butter 2
• 35 g / 1.25oz soft brown sugar

Cream Cheese:

• 400 g / 14oz Philadelphia cream cheese room temperature
• 50 g /1.75oz sugar
• 55 g / 2oz single cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 eggs
• I added the zest of half an unwaxed orange

Decoration:

• Rose petals coriander and parsley flowers, quenelles de mascarpone, almond streusel (According to the winter season, I instead used physallis, pomegranate jewels and my leftover macarons - over to your imagination!)

Instructions

• Make a shortcrust pastry with all the ingredients except the Butter 2 and soft brown sugar.  Bake the pastry then, using a paddle beater of a mixer, break up into pieces when cool. (I mixed all the ingredients to a crumb consistency like shortbread and baked in the oven at 160°C fan /180°C for about 15 minutes). Add the Butter 2 and brown sugar.  Mould 300g of the cheesecake biscuit round by 16cm diameter.  Set aside.
• To make the cream, mix the Philadelphia cheese with the sugar then gradually add the yolk, eggs and cream together.
• To finish, pour the cream mix over the base and bake at 90°C for about 1 hour 15 minutes.  Leave to cool in the fridge.  Just before serving, decorate with the above suggestions.