Patti Delmonica-Bauler, pastry chef at One Market restaurant in San Francisco, makes a Meyer Lemon cheesecake roulade filled with lemon curd and serves this mid-winter dessert with a huckleberry compote. Other tart berries, such as blackberries, can stand in for the hard-to-find huckleberries. It's a little tricky to roll the cooled cheesecake around the lemon curd, but definitely not beyond the scope of a reasonably competent home baker, especially since the lemon curd and the sugar cookie crumbs that coat the finished roulade can be purchased.

INGREDIENTS:

18 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 large vanilla bean, scraped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice (or any type of lemon)
Zest of 2 Meyer lemons (or any type of lemon)
Zest of 1 lime
3 large eggs
6 tablespoons cream
4 ounces lemon curd (store-bought OK)
2 cups crushed sugar cookies (store-bought cookies OK)

Berry Compote
4 cups huckleberries or blackberries
1/2 cup tangerine juice (or orange juice)
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 vanilla bean

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line a 9-inch square cake pan with 2 pieces of overlapping foil, large enough so there is a 3-inch overhang on 2 opposing sides of pan. Crimp excess foil under lip of pan; it will serve as handles to facilitate removing the finished cake.

Cream the cream cheese on lowest speed of a stand mixer for 3 minutes. Add sugar and increase speed to medium-low and mix until sugar is dissolved. Add scraped seed of vanilla bean, the vanilla extract, lemon juice and zest, and lime zest. Mix to blend, then add eggs, one at a time. When well incorporated, add cream and beat at low speed until well combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan and place in a large, shallow roasting pan. Put in oven and add hot water to roasting pan to a depth of 1 inch.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the center of the cake is set. Remove to a rack and cool, then cover and refrigerate. When the cake is thoroughly chilled, remove, using the foil overhang as handles.

Spread lemon curd on cake, leaving a narrow border uncovered. Roll cake into a log, wrap in plastic wrap and place in freezer until fairly firm, about 2 hours. Do not freeze until hard.

Roll roulade in the crumbs. Slice 3/4-inch thick, using a knife dipped in hot water.

To prepare the compote: While the cake is chilling, combine 3 cups of the berries, the tangerine juice, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer.

Cook until the berries have released their juice and are slightly thickened. Cool slightly, then process in a food processor and strain through a fine mesh sieve.

Add more sugar if desired, and add the remaining berries -- stemmed huckleberries or coarsely chopped blackberries.

Serve slices of cake over a pool of compote.

Serves 8 to 10

PER SERVING: 505 calories, 8 g protein, 61 g carbohydrate, 26 g fat (15 g saturated), 144 mg cholesterol, 331 mg sodium, 4 g fiber.