This weekend in Kigali we made cheesecake. It took 48 hours from start to finish. Walk to the dairy, buy milk, filter and pasteurize, cool, skim the cream from the top, add yogurt starter, incubate for 24 hours, filter the yogurt to thicken, make the crust, make filling, panic when the power cuts for 2 hours while the cake is in the oven, make a japanese plum syrup for the topping, cut, and serve. It was worth it. (we also made ice cream, which turned out great except for the little chunks in the cream. We aren’t sure how long ago the cream we used had been skimmed off milk. Oops. Fresh stuff only next time.)

This weekend in Kigali we made cheesecake.

It took 48 hours from start to finish.

Walk to the dairy, buy milk, filter and pasteurize, cool, skim the cream from the top, add yogurt starter, incubate for 24 hours, filter the yogurt to thicken, make the crust, make filling, panic when the power cuts for 2 hours while the cake is in the oven, make a japanese plum syrup for the topping, cut, and serve.

It was worth it.

(we also made ice cream, which turned out great except for the little chunks in the cream. We aren’t sure how long ago the cream we used had been skimmed off milk. Oops. Fresh stuff only next time.)