You may remember my
mentioning that I am back in the kitchen (not mine, I mean professionally!)
making the desserts for a rather foodie pub.
The aim is to have a choice of six or so desserts every day including,
naturally, something (or even two somethings) chocolatey. Fruit crumbles are a
given at this time of year, crème brulée of course is a no brainer and
cheesecakes are always popular.
I have started using
the same basic (or genius) recipe every time I make a cheesecake and it’s so
easy maybe you’d like to start using it too!
No-Bake
Cheesecake Recipe
In the pub many of the
desserts, cheesecake included, are served in a glass (assembled in advance) to
make service much quicker. This quantity
makes enough for 6-8 glasses depending on their size or one 23cm
cheesecake.
NOTE: Although I say “150g icing sugar” and “120ml
something else” these are advisory. Both depend, to an extent, on what the
“something else” is; if it’s sharp you might need more sugar, if sweet the
opposite. Also when adding the something else please feel free to use your judgement, adding a little more or a little less to create a cheesecake exactly
the texture you like it.
Base ...
250g crushed digestive biscuits
100g melted butter
Filling …
600g cream cheese at room temperature
approx. 150g icing sugar – sifted
approx.. 120ml something else – see below!
~ Mix together the digestive biscuits and
melted butter then sprinkle over the base of a 23cm loose bottomed cake tin,
press out into an even layer (or divide between your chosen glasses). Chill for
half an hour or so to set.
~ Beat the cream cheese till smooth and
creamy.
~ Add half the icing sugar spoonfully
whisking in between additions.
~ The mixture will be rather thick so
add the something else till a lovely creamy consistency.
~ Taste and add more sugar till
delicious.
~ Spread evenly over the base or, if
using glasses ***, spoon or pipe into the glass.
*** By this I don’t mean
you've been to Specsavers!
Something Else
The something else
should be liquid in form such as a fruit coulis, syrup, coffee, fruit juice,
possibly a spirit or liqueur or simply double cream. The addition will soften
the mix to the right consistency.
Here are some of the
cheesecakes I have already made using this recipe …
Cappuccino Cheesecake
Beat in 30ml
of cool espresso or double strength coffee (maybe a little Kahlua or Tia Maria)
plus 90ml of double cream. Dust with cocoa to serve.
Orange, Lemon or Lime Cheesecake
Add the finely grated zest and the juice of one orange, two lemons or three
limes. Depending on the size and
juiciness of the fruit you may need to add a little cream till the cheesecake
is the right consistency.
Mango & Lime Cheesecake
Add 100ml of mango
purée and the juice and zest of one lime. (A pleasant addition to this is a
little chilli syrup, the recipe is here , you’ll have to scroll down a bit.
Banana & Baileys Cheesecake
Peel and
slice 3 ripe bananas and cook them in 30g butter together with 30g soft light
brown sugar. Cool and then beat into the
cheesecake mix together with 25ml (or more if you like that sort of thing) of
Baileys. Soften the mixture to your chosen consistency with double cream.
Maple Pecan Cheesecake
For this I
use Clark’s Original Maple Syrup which is blended with carob fruit syrup; it is utterly delicious and cheaper than pure maple syrup. Add the syrup to taste and layer the
cheesecake with toasted pecans or, even better, sugared pecans – see here for how to make sugared walnuts and do the same with pecans. A pleasant alternative cheesecake would be honey and sugared walnuts.
Strawberry or Raspberry Cheesecake
Add
120ml appropriate fruit coulis (recipe below). A bit of vanilla extract or paste
would be a good addition to either of these or maybe some orange zest in the
strawberry version. Top with some fresh fruit or more coulis.
Fruit Coulis - another slight
recipe!
soft berries such as strawberries or raspberries
sugar (approximately
half the weight of the fruit)
~ Put the prepared fruit in a small saucepan.
~ Add the sugar to the fruit.
~ Simmer the fruit, helpfully giving it
a squash now and then – you could add a dribble of water to encourage the sugar
to melt if the fruit isn’t very juicy.
~ Strain through a fine nylon sieve
pushing on the fruit debris to extract as much coulis as poss.
~ Cool, cover and chill till needed.
Peach Melba Cheesecake
Make raspberry cheesecake as
above but add a layer of diced fresh peach in the middle of the
cheesecake. (Best to toss the peach in a
little lemon juice and caster sugar first to make it sweeter, juicer and less
prone to browning.)
Your Turn – let me know what you come
up with, I might copy!
Baked Cheesecake, incidentally
Whilst on the subject of
cheesecakes, baked cheesecakes are deeply wonderful, are they not? I used to work for an American lady during
one of my stints as Chef of the Tamarind Club who, although she was not much involved in the
kitchen side of the business made a wicked New York Cheesecake with a
deliciously different crust.
The strange thing is
that although I fancy myself as a good cook and even if she stood over me
during the entire process of making her cheesecake the result whilst perfectly delicious
and saleable was never quite
as good as hers! If you fancy a try –
here is the recipe. Let me know how you
get on.
Mary’s New York Cheesecake
“Leave all the ingredients out one hour and No
More and No Less before making.”
Mary Granfeldt
Base …
60g butter
120g plain flour
50g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Filling …
900g cream cheese
5 whole eggs plus 3 yolks
250g caster sugar
15g plain flour
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
3 heaping tablespoons sour cream
~ Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/180ºC fan/gas 6.
~ Lightly grease a 23cm springform cake
pan.
~ Manually mix together the ingredients
for the base and sprinkle, every evenly, over the bottom of the pan.
~ Bake for 15 minutes.
~ Cool a little while making the
filling …
~ Reduce the oven temperature to 120ºC/250°F/100ºC fan/gas ½.
~ Beat the cream cheese on medium till
smooth and then one at a time add the eggs and the yolks and beat till smooth
(again!).
~ Add the next three ingredients and
beat in.
~ Add the sour cream and, still on
medium, beat till fluffy which takes about a minute.
~ Pour onto the base and bake for 1¼
hours.
~ Run a knife around the edge of the
cheesecake and cool.
