Cheese Cake (aka Smearcase), Carolyn Yingling

Imagine if Cheesecake Factory were founded in Baltimore, out of one of our classic bakeries. Diners around the country would order the titular specialty only to be baffled by a slab, no thicker than two inches, with a plain crust and a modest sprinkling of cinnamon on top. No dense rich wedge smothered in cherries.

Perhaps once they got over their disappointment, many would grow to love, as we have, the flat plain slice of creamy sweetness.

As it stands, the sources for this regional delicacy are getting fewer and fewer as the years go by. Those of us who enjoy stopping by Fenwick or Woodlea for the occasional tile of cheesecake - a.k.a. Smearcase - try to enjoy our treat without worrying that its days are numbered.

To ease the anxiety, I have turned to recipes. I know that others have as well. They often come to my blog and find the old BGE recipe, which I described as "frankly bland." The texture of that recipe is off too, coming out a little more dense than the velvety custard achieved by the bakeries.

I had to try again.

I turned to my database. I searched "cheese cake" and "cheese pie." I scanned the names of recipe contributors and I saw what I was looking for: Carolyn Yingling.

My thinking was that our bakery traditions in Baltimore are German. Perhaps a person with a German last name would have a good smearcase recipe just hiding in plain sight under an Americanized name.

The process was a little alarming. As I mixed the dairy together, I had a consistency thinner than cream. It has to be a mistake, I thought, but I poured the mixture onto the crust and carefully placed it in the oven without spilling any.

What came out of the oven had the closest resemblance to bakery smearcase cheesecake as any recipe I'd tried yet (more on that in a future post.)

Carolyn contributed her recipe to "1980 Treasury of Recipes," a cookbook from the St. Thomas Aquinas Church on 37th Street in Hampden. I found at least two Carolyn Yinglings in Baltimore. One could be linked to the church through the funeral of her father… Vincent Rosso. Not a German name at all! Italian. What's more, this Carolyn Yingling's mother's maiden name was Wojtysiak, which is extremely Polish-sounding.

Further evidence that this is my Carolyn Yingling comes from a 1988 marriage announcement. Carolyn and her husband Joseph Yingling's son Joseph Edward married Joanna Makris at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation. The announcement says the Yinglings lived in the Medfield neighborhood, which is near Hampden.

So my satisfyingly-authentic "German" heritage cheesecake recipe came from a Polish-Italian woman who married a man of German heritage. I can't think of anything more fitting for a Baltimore recipe like smearcase.