Purity and Citrus Cheesecake

It pains me to say it, but a big part of why I did not blog for so long is the result of my inability to get through Jonathan Franzen's purity.  I am a big Franzen fan and was really excited when his new book came out this summer, since he takes his sweet ol time writing each masterpiece.  But Purity, in my opinion, despite the great reviews,  was just painful for me to get through.  Usually, when I am having trouble getting through a book I just put it aside and give up.  So many books in the world, why waste time on one that just isn't doing it for me?  But with a Franzen book I felt like I had to stick it out, I had to see if it turned around.  While it got a little better, enough that I could finish it, it took me several months to finish the book - this is NOT normal for me, I am through a book typically in a couple of weeks for a long one.  This one drained the joy of reading out me, that sounds deciceddramatic, but it just honestly turned me off reading for a bit.  That said, it did inspire this bright, pretty little cheesecake pictured above, so it wasn't all bad, right?

Purity, by Jonathan Franzen

While Jonathan Franzen's Purity was not quite as well reviewed as his previous novels (The Corrections, Freedom) it was still very well reviewed.  This, I do not understand.  For me, the book was a challenge to get through because I just did not care about any of the characters, and their stories were not compelling.  Purity is the name of the lead character, who in the world goes by the name "Pip."  When we meet Pip she is directionless, in her twenties, working at a call center job she doesn't care about and is not good at, and living in a rather grim sounding group house in the San Francisco area.  She is saddled with debt from school loans and has a challenging relationship with her mother, who is a needy recluse.   Pip is an unhappy person, with few personal connections.  One of causes of Pip's unhappiness is the fact that she has no idea who her father is.  Her mother has always refused to tell her and in her unhappiness Pip has decided  that finding out who her father is will somehow solve a lot of her problems.  So she focuses on this, and as a result, becomes easy prey to be recruited into a bit of a cult called "The Sunshine Project."  This is a group led by Julian Assange type character, Andres Wolf, that exposes on the web the secrets our government wants to keep from us.  One day in Pip's group house a strange woman tries to interview her and convince her to join this project.  Pip sarcastically makes fun of it, but underneath she is intrigued and gets the idea that this Andres Wolf will be able to help her find her father.  Long story short, she heads to Bolivia to be part of the Sunshine Project, makes fun of it, feels left out, develops an unholy relationship with Wolf, does not find out who her father is, ends up living in Denver, working for an independent newspaper, and gets herself into a strange love triangle with her mentor and the newspaper's editor.  Then Franzen shifts the perspective to get Wolf's backstory in East Germany, and then the newspaper editor Tom's perspective of his college days and relationship with a horrible independently wealthy artist, Annabelle.  Then Franzen ties all these stories together.    But is was painful for me to get to that resolution point.  Tom's story in particular was hard to get through because Annabelle was a character that just made you angry, all the time.  None of the character's stories made me feel anything other than a mild dislike for all of them and a mild disinterest in what was going on in their lives.  I was surprised by my negative reaction to this book, but in the end, all I can say is "meh."

Citrus Cheesecake, adapted from Williams Sonoma
(printable recipe)

So the book was no good, but the story of "The Sunshine Project" inspired this citrus filled cheesecake, which was a wonderful burst of brightness in the middle of winter!  Not that I can complain about this winter, which has been incredibly mild here in Beantown, but still, it is nice to dive into something that looks and tastes like sunshine.  This has a triple wallop of citrus - orange in the crust, lime in the cheesecake and a Meyer lemon curd on top.  The cheesecake recipe calls for key limes, which I could not find, so I used regular ones.  The Meyer lemons are worth the effort to find for the curd topping, which is a little more sweet than tart when you use Meyers.   NOTE, you will need to make this a day before you want to serve it to give it time to chill.  It is a bit of a project, with three different elements to make, but it will make you smile, I swear!
Ingredients
Crust
11 ounce of shortbread cookie crumbs
1 tablespoon sugar
zest of two oranges
4 tablespoons melted butter
Cake
3 8 ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 and 1/4 cup of sour cream
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1/3 cup key lime or regular lime juice
Curd
1/2 cup sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup + 2 tbs Meyer lemon juice
3 whole eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
3 tbs heavy cream
2 tbs unsalted butter, cut up into little pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 inch spring form pan.
2. Start with crust: mix together the shortbread crumbs, sugar and zest in a medium bowl.  Add the melted butter and stir until the crumbs are moistened by the butter.
3. Pour the crumbs into the springform pan and pat the crust into the pan using the bottom of a cup to press the crust into place and up the sides.
4. Refrigerate the crust.
5. To make the cake, beat the cream cheese on medium speed in a stand mixture until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
6. Add the sour cream and beat until combined, about 2 minutes.
7. Slowly add the sugar and beat until fully combined, another two minutes.
8. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until eggs are combined.
9. Add the lime juice and beat for another 2 - 3 minutes.
10. Take the crust out of the fridge and pour in the cheesecake filling.
11. Place the cake pan on a cookie sheet and bake until the edges are set and the middle jiggles, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.
12. Let cool on a rack for 2 hours, and the chill in refrigerator.
13. To make the curd (start while the cake is baking): whisk together the sugar and cornstarch in a sauce pan.  Then slowly whisk in the juice.  Whisk together the eggs, egg yolks and cream.
14. Put the pan over medium low heat and stir constantly which a rubber spatula until the mixture thickens, right before the mixture boils. [This will happen in an instant, one minute the mixture is thin and then bang! it thickens right up.]
15. Push the mixture through a fine mesh sieve.
16. Cover the curd with plastic wrap so that the plastic actually touches the curd and chill for a couple of hours.
17. One the cake has chilled for 2 hours on the rack, spread the chilled curd on top, then chill the whole finished product overnight before serving.