Olive Cheese Cake

I have been looking through recipes that i have not made in a long while. I first made this cake 4 years ago after taking a class at the CIA here in NYC and it got me thinking that not all cakes need to be sweet. So i experiment with various ingredients and came upon this and a few others. But i like this one the best since it is great to serve with wine.

Olive Cheese Cake

Ingredients

4 cups of all purpose flour, unbleached of course
1 cup of pancetta - diced
1 cup of reblochon cheese or a brie works well too - cubed
1 cup of pitted black olives (please not the one in a can, gets some really great olives for this)
1 cup of milk
3/4 cup creme fraiche
3/4 cup of fresh grated parmesan cheese
3 1/2 table spoons of unsalted butter - melted
1 large egg
1 table spoon fresh thyme
1 table spoon fresh dill
1 table spoon fresh rosemary
1 table spoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Fresh ground black pepper

Directions
Grease 3 mini loaf pans or one 5 x 9 pan
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a large skillet render the pacetta until golden brown. Remove from pan and place in a bowl with the olives and set aside.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, fresh herbs, salt and pepper. Next add the cubed reblochon, pancetta/olive mixture and half of the parmesan cheese.
In other bowl whisk together the milk, egg, butter and creme fraiche.
Now with a non stick spoon mix the wet into the flour bowl. Once it is all combine well it is ready to spoon into the pan, but first sprinkle 2/3rds of the remaining parmesan cheese evenly in the pan, then spoon in the batter and top off with the remaining cheese.
Bake for about 40 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. If you hit cheese try again with another tooth pick.
Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

You and also makes these into muffins, you will just need to reduce the baking time to about 20 to 25 minutes.

I have also made this with mushrooms, a ham and cheese one - play with the options you will be surprised what you come up with.

Enjoy Cooking