Classic cheesecake with homemade strawberry sauce

Back to the Fure Dessert: McFly Cheesecake – Classic cheesecake with homemade strawberry sauce, reprinted with permission from GASTRONOGEEK © 2020 by Thibaud Villanova and Maxime Léonard, Running Press.

Presenting pop culture delicacies for both casual and devoted fans, this cookbook includes forty-two recipes to conjure up unbelievable three-course menus influenced by fifteen fandoms from science fiction, fantasy, manga, horror, and comics. Become a gourmet geek with this mouthwatering menu:

-A delicate “Impossible Soufflé” from Doctor Who
-“Sanji’s Special Pork Steaks” from One Piece
-The aptly named “Transylvanian Beef” from Dracula with roast beef, onions, and saffron potatoes
-A hearty “Vegetables of Yesteryear Pie” from The Lord of the Rings
-Specialty sweets and desserts: “Martha Kent’s Apricot and Almond Tart,” “McFly Cheesecake,” or the “Eye of Sauron Sabayon”, and more!

From comfort food to culinary classics, pop culture chef Thibaud Villanova’s imaginative recipes are sure to amaze and delight everyone gathered around the table.

Gastronogeek: 42 Recipes from Your Favorite Imaginary Worlds is available at Amazon.com and Indigo.ca.

Classic cheesecake with homemade strawberry sauce

BACK TO THE FUTURE DESSERT

MCFLY CHEESECAKE

Serves 6 – Preparation time: 10 min – Cooking time: 45 MIN

LEVEL ✦ ✦

Ingredients

5½ tablespoons (80 g) unsalted butter

9 ounces (250 g) graham crackers or speculaas cookies

3 large (165 g) eggs

1 cup minus 1 tablespoon (225 g) superfine sugar, divided

1⅛ pounds (500 g) cream cheese, at room temperature

Pinch of salt

1¾ cups (250 g) strawberries

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Melt the butter in a water bath. In a bowl, finely crush the crackers and combine them with the melted butter. Evenly press the crumb mixture into the bottom of an ungreased cake pan, and bake until pale golden, about 12 minutes; set aside.

Separate the egg yolks and egg whites. Beat the egg yolks with ½ cup plus 1 teaspoon (125 g) of the sugar until lightened, then add the cream cheese a little at a time and beat until fully incorporated.

Beat the egg whites with the salt to stiff peaks, then gently incorporate them into the batter. Scrape the batter into the pan, and bake for 30 minutes, or until just set. Remove the cheesecake from the oven. Let cool for 20 minutes at room temperature, then place it in the refrigerator until completely chilled.

Make the strawberry sauce. Cut the green tops off the strawberries then cut the strawberries in half. In a blender or food processor, process the strawberries with the remaining sugar and ⅔ cup (150 ml) of water for 1 minute. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer to obtain a smooth sauce.

ASSEMBLY: Serve the cheesecake in thick slices. Pour the sauce directly over each slice or serve it on the side in small ramekins.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis in 1985, Back to the Future rocked a whole generation with its catchy tunes, theories on time travel, cult replicas, and flying DeLorean. This trilogy is a pure delight of adventure and action whose characters captivated us as they crisscrossed the dimensions of time. We loved the first film so much, with its reconstruction of a typical city from the 1950s, that we wanted to pay tribute to it with this “very fifties” menu.