Lemon Ricotta Slice

Another use for the glut of lemons in Melbourne at the moment - a nice, old-fashioned lemon slice. This slice is a bit more unusual than your standard, though, with a smooth, creamy lemon topping made by adding ricotta cheese to the usual lemon, cream and egg mixture, on top of a buttery shortbread base. I guess it's a light, lemony cheesecake in bar form, really.
I actually used cottage cheese in my version, as that's what I had at the time, and I imagined it might make a lighter, more health-conscious topping. The fact of the truckloads of butter in the base seemed to escape me....but I think you could use an olive oil spread or light butter in the base without any significant change in flavour or texture. The cottage cheese instead of ricotta in the topping gave a slightly more grainy texture, which wasn't entirely unpleasant, but I do think ricotta is a better option if you're not as concerned about health, or going to the supermarket late at night, as I was.
I never really grew up with slices; my family didn't make them and I never really went for them in the school tuckshop, so it's a bit of a novelty to play around with a few now. This one is really easy to make and has a good lemony taste. Nothing worse than a lemon slice that isn't lemony enough - I mean, what's the point? This one's a good one.
Read on for the recipe:

Lemon Ricotta Slice

200g (1 3/4 cups) plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

150g butter, melted

210g (1 cup) caster sugar

4 eggs

350g (1 1/3 cups) ricotta cheese

200ml (3/4 cup) cream

2 tablespoons lemon zest

185ml (3/4 cup) lemon juice

icing sugar to dust

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F/Gas 4). Lightly grease a 20x30cm baking tin and line with baking paper, hanging over the two long sides.

Put the flour, baking powder, butter and half the caster sugar in a food processor and process in short bursts until the mixture comes together in a ball. Add 1 egg and process until combined.

Press the mixture into the tin. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Reduce the oven to 150C (300F/Gas 2).

Place the ricotta, cream, lemon zest and juice, the remaining sugar and remaining eggs in the cleaned food processor and combine the ingredients for 1-2 seconds. Pour onto the pastry base and bake for 25-30 minutes - the slice will have a slight wobble at this stage.

Cool slightly, then refrigerate for 2 hours to firm. Cut into pieces. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Makes 15 pieces.