Isaura – Polish cheesecake chocolate cake

I always wonder what should I talk with you about. The weather? The cats? Life philosophy?
The cats are sleeping, the weather is awful and I wish I could follow this philosophy. Well I can, but I just don’t know the answer to the question yet or maybe I’m just a little bit too scare to answer it.
Anyway let’s talk about Polish cakes.
After I shared this cake with my coworkers I heard from one of them “I’ve never eaten something like that, it’s chocolate cake and it’s cheesecake”. Yes, indeed it is a chocolate cake and cheesecake in one, but don’t tell me you never thought about it before.
The origin of the name probably is based on the Brazilian tv series “Isaura the Slave Girl”. It was broadcasted in Poland in 1986 on Sundays. I was only 4, but I remember that everybody watched it. My parents say it was so popular that all streets in cities went empty as literally everybody was watching it.

Isaura was one of my favourite cakes during high school. I used to bake it in something called prodiż (electric baking tin), you probably won’t believe it, but most of the cakes baked there perfectly. It was also great for potato cake, or casseroles. This time I went for other recipe than usually as it had less butter and sugar, but it is as good as I remember.

izaura-6832

Isaura – Polish cheesecake chocolate cake

Recipe from Moje Wypieki

For a 22×34 cm baking tin

Notes: This is really big cake, if you don’t plan to share it with bunch of people, make half of batch.  

Chocolate cake:

  • 1 cup milk
  • 125 g butter
  • 2 Tbsp cacao
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 50 g dark chocolate
  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 3 eggs (egg yolks and whites separately)

Cheesecake layer

  • 750 g full-fat or half-fat curd cheese, ground at least twice
  • 4 eggs (egg yolks and whites separately)
  • 2/3 cup caster sugar
  • 1 Tbsp plain flour
  • 1 Tbsp potato starch or corn starch
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 50 g butter, room temperature

For chocolate cake layer:
Heat milk, butter, cacao, sugar and chocolate in a medium pot stirring until combine. Take from the heat an let it cool.
Sieve flour and baking soda. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture along with egg yolks and mixed until well combined.

For cheesecake layer:

Put curd cheese, egg yolks, sugar, plain flour, potato starch, vanilla extract and butter in a bowl and mix until all ingredients combine.  Don’t overmix it.

n a separate bowl whip all egg whites until stiff. Carefully stir in half of it to the chocolate mixture and other half to the cheesecake mixture.

Line in a baking tin with baking paper.

Place half of the chocolate mixture in a tin and smooth it down.

Then place all cheesecake mixture and cover it with the remaining chocolate mixture.

Bake at 175ºC/155ºC fan for about 60 minutes.

Cool down with a slightly ajar oven and place in a fridge for a night.
Enjoy!


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12 responses to “Isaura – Polish cheesecake chocolate cake”

  1. The cheesecake looks killerly delicious!

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    1. Thank you Angie 🙂

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  2. huhuuh..totally indulge last night make some cheesecake also but just simple one.

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    1. There is nothing better than a simple cheesecake Sidratul 🙂

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  3. This looks and sounds divine Magda. I also remember that Brazilian soap opera, it used to on on Portuguese TV when I was a child and as you say everyone watched it.

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    1. Thank you Paula. I think it was very popular in quite a few countries 🙂

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  4. This cake looks amazing! I was at my Polish friends house for dinner recently and tried the famous Polish cheesecake with the curd cheese, it was delicious much nicer than a ‘normal’ cheesecake. Hope you enjoyed Fat Thursday, I walked by a Polish store that had a sign up to warn everyone to order their Fat Thursday doughnuts and I thought of you!

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    1. I’m so glad that you finally tried Polish cheesecake. And of course it was “normal” cheesecake, at least for 40 million people in Poland ;)It is nice that you think about me. This year I didn’t eat any doughnuts on Fat Thursday, as I got some on Sunday.

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  5. Hi, I am not sure what type of this cheese this is or if I can get it. Can I use cream cheese?

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    1. No, it should curd cheese, twarog, if you have Polish shops look there. I think you can try replacing it with ricotta, but be careful it may be moister.

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  6. […] Looking for more Polish desserts? Try Traditional Polish Cheesecake, rich and creamy with farm cheese. For a unique take on Polish desserts, try Isaura, a decadent cheesecake chocolate cake combination. […]

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