No-Crust Cheesecake Skillet
A Romanian Easter cheese bake rebuilt from milk powder and semolina, cooked in a covered pot over coals.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 116
- protein
- 14 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 55 min
- water
- 300 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Breakfast
- Campfire coals
- Dutch oven
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Whole milk powder | 1 1/2 cups | stands in for the fresh farmer cheese |
|---|---|---|
| Semolina | 1/3 cup | the setting agent, do not skip |
| Flour | 1/3 cup | |
| Sugar | 3/4 cup | |
| Powdered whole eggs | 5 tbsp | equals about 5 eggs |
| Butter powder or ghee | 1/2 cup powder, or 4 tbsp ghee | |
| Sour cream powder | 1/2 cup | buttermilk powder also works |
| Raisins and candied peel | 1/2 cup | |
| Vanilla sugar | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Oil | 1 tsp | for greasing the pot |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down. You want coals, not flame, or the bottom scorches before the middle sets.
- Grease the pot. If you have foil, line it first, which turns cleanup into throwing the foil away.
- Tip the dry mix into the pot and add 300 ml of hot water a little at a time, stirring until it is a thick batter with no dry pockets. If you are using ghee instead of butter powder, melt it in and add 50 ml less water.
- Stir in the raisins and peel. Level the top.
- Lid on. Set the pot on a thin bed of coals and shovel more coals onto the lid, roughly twice as many on top as below.
- Bake 40 to 50 minutes. It is done when the center stops wobbling and a twig comes out clean.
- Pull it off the heat and let it sit 15 minutes. Hot, it is pudding. Warm, it slices.
The original is a crustless Easter cheesecake: fresh farmer cheese, eggs, sour cream, butter, held together by a little flour and semolina. None of those first four survive a trip without a cooler, so all four come out of a bag here. Whole milk powder and sour cream powder rebuild the dairy body, powdered egg does the binding, and butter powder or ghee carries the fat.
The semolina is the part that matters most. It swells as it heats and takes up the loose water, which is what turns a wet batter into something that holds a slice instead of running off the spoon. Coals on the lid do the rest — heat from above browns the top the way an oven would, and without it you get a pale, gummy surface.
Packing
Combine everything dry except the fruit in one bag at home. Fruit rides in its own bag so it does not glue the powder together. Ghee travels in a screw-top jar.
Variations
- Swap the raisins for chopped dried apricot and a spoon of lemon powder.
- Cook it on a stove in a nonstick pot on the lowest flame, lid on, if you have no coals. Expect a darker bottom.
- Cut the sugar in half and it works as a breakfast rather than a dessert.
https://www.bucatarmaniac.ro/2021/04/pasca-fara-aluat-la-multicooker-5in1-digital-5-6l-crock-pot.html