Mixed Berry and White Chocolate Cheesecake Slice

My strawberries were at their best when I left for my holiday a few weeks ago and now they are struggling to produce any fruit.  Next year I'm definitely not going away during strawberry season and missing one of my favourite fruits.

The raspberries are being a bit temperamental this year and the berries aren't anything to get excited about.  However, my redcurrant bushes are producing amazing crops of fruit and I'm looking forward to filling bag after bag to pop into the freezer for a rainy day.

I'm not the biggest fan of a baked cheesecake but because the cooked layer is quite thin I was more than happy with my dessert. If you have a go at making this you'll find that there is a quantity of cheesecake batter left over but you can easily make a couple of individual cheesecakes with some extra biscuits.

You will need:  12.5cm x 35cm loose based tin.

Ingredients:
250g Hobnobs
80g butter, melted
120g white chocolate
1 vanilla bean or 1tsp vanilla extract
125g cream cheese, softened
55g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
125ml whipping cream

To decorate:
60g white chocolate
250g small strawberries
125g raspberries

1. Add the Hobnobs to a food processor and whizz until fine.  Add the melted butter and process until all combined.
2. Pour the biscuit mixture into the tin and press over the base and sides of the tin.  Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
4. Break the chocolate into pieces and add to a small bowl.  Place a pan of water on the hob to a gentle simmer and place the bowl with the chocolate over the pan to melt the chocolate.  Cool.  Or if you have an induction hob the chocolate can be placed in a small saucepan and the chocolate melted on the lowest setting.
5. If using, take the vanilla bean and split it lengthways, scrape out the seeds.
6. Place the cream cheese, sugar, eggs and vanilla seeds or vanilla extract into a mixing bowl.  Beat with an electric whisk until the mixture thickens and becomes smooth - if the mixture seems a little thin don't worry it will still be okay.  Now add the cooled chocolate and cream and whisk until the mixture thickens slightly.
7. Remove the tin from the fridge, place onto a large baking tray, and pour in the filling taking care not to overfill.
8. Bake for 30 minutes.  Leave the baked cheesecake in the oven for a couple of hours.  Remove from the oven, cool and place in the fridge for approx 2 hours to chill down.
9. Carefully remove the flan tin and place onto a suitable plate, decorate with the fruit, melt the chocolate and drizzle over the top of the berries.

Mini Lemon Cheesecakes - Recipe

The inspiration for these mini desserts - yellow diamonds!

The way to a man's heart..........in my case my hubby loves jelly! He went to a posher school than me, they had an amazing school cook who made wonderful nursery puddings. He would happily eat nursery puddings and jelly and ice cream every week if I let him.

This lemon cheesecake is my hubby's favourite, it's a little retro using jelly instead of gelatine as a setting agent, but in this recipe it works really well, although to make the cheesecake layer less sweet simply cut down on the amount of sugar. I mostly make this dessert in a 20cm loose base sandwich tin for a low faff dessert but mini desserts always look really pretty.

You will need:  silicone cupcake tray

Makes: 8

170g Hobnob biscuits crushed
100g butter
Half a 1 pint lemon jelly
225g full fat cream cheese (not low fat)
55g caster sugar
grated zest of a lemon
Topping:
juice of a lemon
1-½ to 2 tsp arrowroot
30g caster sugar
butter
yellow food colouring (optional)
For the decoration:
Half a 1 pint lemon jelly

1. Place the biscuits into a bowl and crush using the end of a rolling pin(no fancy kitchen equipment needed here). Melt the butter.  Add the melted butter to the crushed biscuits.
2. Put the silicone tray onto a sturdy metal tray.  Divide the biscuit crumb mixture between the cavities. Press down with a spoon. Place in the fridge for a couple of hours to chill.
3. Boil the kettle, add half the jelly tablet to a jug and make up to ¼ pint with hot water.  Stir to dissolve the jelly.  Cool and then place the jug in the fridge to chill until it is the consistency of unbeaten egg white.
4. Beat the cream cheese with the caster sugar and lemon rind.  Gradually whisk in the chilled jelly.  It will go lumpy but keep on beating with a hand whisk and it will become smooth.  Remove the cupcake tray from the fridge and fill the cavities nearly to the top with the cream cheese/jelly mixture making sure there is a space for the topping. There will be some cream cheese mixture left over when you make individual cheesecakes.  If making the 20cm cheesecake all the mixture will be used up.  Place the silicone tray back in the fridge to chill until the filling is set.
5. To make the topping: Make the lemon juice up to ¼ pint with water.  Place the arrowroot into a basin and mix with some of the liquid to make a smooth paste, add the rest of the liquid and the sugar. Pour into a small saucepan, bring to the boil whilst stirring to prevent lumps.  Boil to produce a clear mixture.  Remove from the heat, add the butter and a little yellow food colouring.  Let the mixture cool.
6. Take the cheesecakes from the fridge.  Spoon the sauce over the top.
7. Place the cheesecakes into the freezer to partially freeze, this will make it easier to remove them from the moulds.
8. In the meantime, make up the other half of the lemon jelly to ¼ pint as before.  Pour into heart shaped silicone moulds.  Chill down and then place in the freezer.  Remove from the freezer and take the hearts out of the mould.
9. Take the cheesecakes out of the freezer and remove from the moulds, place on individual plates to return to room temperature.  Place a heart on each plate.
10. Decoration: Half a lemon jelly dissolved in ¼ pint of hot water. Place on a tray and chill in the fridge until set, remove from the fridge and chop to make 'diamonds'.

Raspberry Cheesecake - Recipe

No bake Mini Raspberry Cheesecake

These were supposed to be called raspberry rippled cheesecakes but my rippling wasn't great.  I've always liked cheesecake but I haven't made a cheesecake for some time now and these mini cheesecakes were really lovely and remind me of warm days. I used a silicone muffin tray which makes turning them out easy.

I'm suffering from 'writers block' and my posts are a 'little to the point' at the moment, hopefully I'll find something interesting to say in future posts - maybe I should say I fell into the raspberry canes in my fruit patch whilst picking the raspberries but I have to admit the raspberries came from the freezer cabinet in Waitrose!

Do you prefer bake or no bake cheesecake? I would be really interested to know.

Will they freeze?  I have no idea - they didn't get as far as the freezer but I can't see
a reason why they shouldn't freeze and thaw successfully.

Makes: 6 in a regular size silicone muffin tray or 12 in a silicone mini muffin tray

Ingredients:
55g butter
115g crushed digestive biscuits
3 tbsp water
2tsp powdered gelatine
150g raspberries + extra to decorate
2 tsp lemon juice
3 tbsp caster sugar
zest of 1 lemon
150ml double cream
150ml ready made custard
freeze dried raspberries to decorate

Method:
1. Melt the butter and add the crushed digestives. Place the silicone tray onto a metal tray. Divide the biscuit mixture between the six holes. Press the biscuit mixture down with the back of a spoon.  Place the tray in the fridge for an hour.
2. Place the water into a heatproof bowl, sprinkle over the gelatine, leave on one side for 5 minutes.
3. Puree the raspberries, then press through a plastic sieve to remove the seeds.
4. Place the bowl of gelatine in a saucepan of gently simmering water and heat for 5 minutes, stirring until the gelatine is a clear liquid.
5. Pour the cream into a bowl and whisk to soft peaks.  Fold into the custard with the grated zest of a lemon and the sugar.  Stir 1½ tablespoons of the gelatine into the raspberry puree and fold the remainder of the gelatine into the custard and cream mixture.  Pour the mixture into the muffin moulds.  Place blobs of the raspberry puree on top and taking a skewer swirl the mixtures together. Chill in the fridge for a few hours to set.
6. Remove the cheesecakes from the moulds and decorate with extra raspberries and freeze dried raspberries.