Baked Blueberry Cheesecake

I trawled the internet for a baked cheesecake, my friend Aishling makes an awesome one but I wanted to see what else was out there.  The recipes that I came across were for a much too large cake for my needs (and besides I only had one pack of cream cheese).  Blueberries were on special in Aldi for 69c so I bought about 4 punnets freezing them on trays and then bagging them.  I have been quite extravagant with the blueberries and really you don’t need so many.  You can also use any summer berry for this.  I also used their own brand cream cheese which was significantly cheaper that Philadelphia.  The recipe for blueberry Sauce can be used on pancakes, waffles, Ice-cream.  I used a 20cm round tin and there was enough in this for 3 people who all had little seconds. 

Base:

6 Digestive Biscuits Crushed

50g Butter

1 tbsp Demerara Sugar

1 Punnet Blueberries

Cheesecake Mix

1 Egg + 1 yolk

200g Cream Cheese

1 Tub of Crème Fraiche (I used most of a tub left over in the fridge)

25g (1 heaped tbsp) Plain Flour

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Blueberry Sauce

2tbsp Maple Syrup

1 Punnet Blueberries

Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 190c
2.  Melt butter in a pot over a gentle heat, add sugar and biscuit crumbs.  Empty into a loose bottomed tin or a springform tin and press into the base.  Sprinkle Blueberries on top.
3. Mix together Cheesecake mix and beat until smooth.  Pour onto biscuit base.
4. Blueberry Sauce: Heat blue berries and maple syrup together in a pot as the maple syrup heats it will cause the the berries to release their juices. 
1. Method 1 Pour in drops in four or five locations and use a cocktail stick to create a marble effect through the cheesecake
2. Method 2: When the cheesecake is baked top with warm blueberry sauce.
5. Bake in the centre of the oven until the cheesecake is slightly wobbly in the middle (30-40mins).
6. Allow to cool then chill in the fridge before serving.  I served it with a side of chopped strawberries macerated in Galliano and a little cream.

Mincemeat Gingerbread

Somethings you just know are going to work together but when I went to find a recipe I wasn't having much joy with this.  This is a Frankenstein of a recipe being that it has a little bit of this and a little bit of that but I've had to add a little cop on to it. This is a very wet batter but don't worry it cooks up just fine. It's traditional to use Molasses in Gingerbread but I'm not really a fan so I've used Golden Syrup instead and a little Muscavado Sugar as a nod to the missing Molasses.  When it was still warm I glazed with a little maple syrup.  I think though that I may increase the spices to double next time that I make it because that flavour didn't really come through.  When I do I will update this post.

50g Soft Brown Sugar
50g Muscavado Sugar
1 Egg
250ml Golden Syrup
250ml Hot water
200g Butter
375g Flour

1 1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 Jar of Mincemeat

Method

1. Preheat Oven to 175C
2. Cream Butter and Sugars.  Mix in a beaten egg
3. In a bowl mix together Golden Syrup and Warm water and allow to cool.
4. Sieve Flour, spices and baking soda together in another bowl.
5. Add a third of the flour mix to the butter, sugar and egg bowl and mix thoroughly.  Add half of the golden syrup mix and combine thoroughly and repeat until all ingredients except mincemeat are incorporated.
6. Fold in a jar of Mincemeat. 
7. Pour into a greased brownie tin and bake for 1 hour but be sure to cover with foil when it reaches a nice golden brown colour.  Use a cocktail stick or skewer to make sure it's cooked properly.  
8. Leave in the tin overnight to cool or serve warm with custard.

Cookies 'n' Cream (Oreos) Cheesecake

This is one of those unbaked cheesecakes.  I'd been thinking about how you would make it for a while and when I was happy with how to go about it I set about making it one evening when friends were calling over.  


Typically with cheesecakes I use cream cheese and all is good with the world, except this time no cream cheese.  What was worse is that the local shop had none and I felt guilty sending my other half out by bicycle on a November's evening to hunt and gather (did I mention he has a broken shoulder).  I would have gone myself but I was mid marathon cookie baking session and couldn't leave the oven.  So, back over the road I go to the Spar and eyed the 0% fat cottage cheese (it reminds of misery in a tub, food that people eat when they're dieting that they wouldn't normally touch if that's all that was left in the fridge to eat till payday) .  It came home with me and after blending it with double cream, vanilla extract, icing sugar and that fluffy white stuff that you get in Oreos and a few mushed up Oreos it looked and tasted really nice.  


Interesting point to note is that despite using a stand mixer the cottage cheese didn't breakdown completely but that was hidden by the texture of crushed cookies.  The recipe below doesn't use the cottage cheese method but by all means swap the cottage cheese for the cream cheese and give it a go.


2 packets of Oreos (regular sized)
1 packet of cream cheese
250ml Double Cream
50g Butter
25g Icing Sugar
Minature oreos to decorate

Method

1. Split the Oreos in half as if you were going to lick them
2. Put the oreo cookies in a plastic bag and beat with a rolling pin.  Melt butter and add two thirds of the crushed Oreo crumbs to the butter.  If the mix is not moist enough to stick together don't be shy about adding more melted butter.  This will be the crust of the cake so it needs to hold together.  Press the Oreo crumbs into a spring form or loose bottomed tin.  Allow to cool and then put the base in the fridge to set completely.
3. Scrape out the white stuffing and put it in a large bowl with the cream cheese and icing sugar and mix well. Add the double cream a little at a time until its all combined then whisk to thicken and add air.  Finally fold in the remainder of the Oreo cookies.  At this point taste it.  It may need a little extra sweetening or some vanilla to balance the taste of the sweet and the sour of the cheese.
4. Spread the Oreo cream mixture over the base and decorate with miniature or crushed Oreos
5. Put back in the fridge to set. Remove from Spring form tin and eat in large quantities.

Chocolate and Mandarin Cheesecake

This recipe was inspired by a favourite dessert of my in a coffee shop many years ago called Escape in Bray (Co Wicklow, Ireland). I've taken the chocolate and madarin and applied it to a cheese cake, it's a little different from other cheesecakes in that it has a layer of madarins between the base and the creamy layer. There isn't much chocolate in it save for the chocolate digestive base. I've also used light cream cheese because I'm using double cream, if you don't understand why, you've never supersized and ordered a diet coke simultaneously and I'm afraid it can't be explained to you



1 pkt of Chocolate Digestives
100g Butter
4 heaped tblsp Icing Sugar
1 tin mandarins in natural juice
1 tin mandarins in syrup
1 pkt light philadelphia cream cheese
1 carton double cream

1. Put chocolate digestive biscuits in a bag and smash them to crumbs with a rolling pins. Melt the butter in microwave and mix biscuits and butter.

2. Press the biscuit mix in to the base of a loose bottomed or springformed tin.

3. Drain the mandarins in syrup and mush them up and layer them on top of the biscuit base and then pop in the fridge to set.

4. Into a bowl place the remainder of the ingredients with the exception of the mandarins and whisk. Drain mandarins retaining a little of the mandarin juice. Add the mandarin and a little of the juice and whisk thouroughly so that the segments are fully and evenly dispersed throughout the mixture.

5. Pour the mixture on top of the base. I've sliced some fresh mandarins on top for decoration and put a little dot of chocolate in the middle of each mandarin to hint at the chocolate base beneath.

6. Refridgerate until its set at least an hour but overnight would be best. Remove from tin and serve with on its own or with cream.

How to release a cake from a springform or loose bottom tin

This is one of those things that I didn't think too much about but it meant that when I learned what to do it saved me from cheesecake arms or worse, burns.

1. Run a knife around the inside edge of the cake tin.
2. Take a either a soup bowl or dessert bowl that is deeper than the tin and place it under the tin.
3. Release the clasp (if present)
4. Gently slide the sides of the cake tin down the side of the cake until it circles the bowl.
5. You are now left with the base.

Rocky Road

So you can mix all manner of sweets, nuts and dried fruits or glace fruits you like. You can use mini marshmallows or quarter them using a knife powdered with icing sugar

300g Chocolate
300g Butter
2 Tbsp Golden Syrup
Marshmallows
Pecan Nuts
Sultanas
1 large pkt loosely broken Digestives
Maltesers gently crushed
White chocolate buttons
Additional white and chocolate

1. Melt Butter Golden Syrup, and Chocolate over a pot of simmering water
2. Mix in digesitives pecans, sultanas and maltesers.
3. Allow to cool and sprinkle white chocolate buttons, marshmallows
4. Melt and drizzle milk chocolate and then white chocolate
5. Chill and indulge

Baileys and Malteser Cheesecake

This is a recipe that I got from an old co-worker of mine. Her Aunt had made it for a family gathering and she brought a sample in for us the following day.   It remains the best Baileys cheesecake that I've ever tasted.

300g Cream Cheese
200g Icing Sugar
100g Maltesers
5 Glugs** of Baileys (not too runny, gauge as you pour)
A capful of whiskey
250ml-300ml Double Cream
Small pkt of Digestive Biscuits
100g Butter

1. Melt butter gently in a pot. Crumble biscuits in a bag with a rolling pin then add to melted butter and mix through. Press into a springform or loose bottomed tin and chill in the fridge.

2. Whisk cream cheese, sugar, Baileys and whiskey together.

3. Put maltesers in a bag and break them up a bit with a rolling pin (not too fine you want a mixture of textures)

4. Whisk Double cream until stiff and add the cream cheese mix and the broken maltesers. Mix thoroughly. Pour the mixture onto the biscuit base and refrigerate overnight.

Glug: A glug is not a measurement that you'll find anywhere else but I take it as this; when you pour the Baileys or Irish Cream Liqueur into the cheesecake mix the bottle will make a 'glug' sound, let it continue to flow until you count five of them.

Banoffee Pie

This is incredibly easy to make and it tastes so good - the perfect desert.

200ml Cream
half a flake bar
1 can Condensed Milk*
1 small pkt Digestive Biscuits
50g Butter
1 Banana

1. Melt butter over a gentle heat. Crush biscuits in a bag with a rolling pin until it forms crumbs then add to melted butter. Press into a spring form or loose bottomed tin.

2. Pour condensed milk caramel onto biscuit base and top with sliced banana.

3. Smooth whipped cream over the bananas and sprinkle crumbled flake on top. Refrigerate.

*Prepare several tins of condensed milk at a time and you can keep them in the cupboard to use as you need them. Place unopened in a pot and cover it with water and simmer for 4 hours top up the water as necessary. Be warned let the tin cool before you open it (or it could explode in your face)