A question of cheesecake.

My husband does not like baked cheesecakes, and judging by a quick poll of my Facebook friends, he's not alone.  He much prefers the unbaked version, he doesn't like the texture of the baked ones, he says it's like egg custard and panna cotta, hard to describe but he just doesn't like it.  I don't mind, because it just means extra helpings for the rest of us, although I do think I slightly prefer the unbaked ones.

I like both varieties, and have made quite a few in my time.  The husband's favourite is the Mars Bar Cheesecake, closely followed by the white chocolate cheesecake. My personal favourite is probably a peanut butter cheesecake, I've tried baked and unbaked versions of this one and I like the unbaked one best.  The great thing about cheesecakes is the way you can vary the type of biscuit in the base as well as the filling.  Yesterday I made a raspberry cheesecake brownie, of which more later...

My first cheesecake experience was the Greens and Sara Lee packet mixes bought from the village shop and made with Mum, where the biscuit crumbs came in one packet and you mixed them with butter; and the rest of it came in the other packet and was whisked up with milk (and possibly something else but it has been a VERY long time since I have made one so I can't actually remember). And then you squeezed some kind of fruity stuff over the top.

I think my later fondness for cheesecakes started with the Mars bar one, from a recipe book called "Wicked Sweet Indulgences" that I was given for Christmas in the Secret Santa at work one year.  It's a biscuit base made with plain choclate digestives, then a gelatine-set cheese, sugar and cream mixture with chopped up Mars bars in layered with butterscotch and chocolate sauces and a feathered deisgn on the top, the two sauces being gently mingled with a skewer.  It uses lots of bowls and pans (you make the butterscotch sauce and the chocolate sauce in separate pans) but it's so worth it.

Then I made the white chocolate one, with hob nobs for the base. I've also made individual white chocolate, lemon and pistachio ones; and a baked white chocolate and ginger one with cranberry coulis for  a New Year's Eve party.

Next I found a recipe in a Sunday supplement in the tea room at work for a Turkish Delight cheesecake.  This one had rich tea biscuits for the base, mixed with cocoa powder; and an unbaked filling including chopped up chocolate-covered Turkish Delight bars and rosewater.
I've made a raspberry and lemon one with amaretti biscuit base, a baked maple and walnut one, the peanut butter ones (unbaked one being topped with chopped up fudge pieces and toffee sauce), a vanilla baked one with rhubarb topping and a rather fab rosewater and coconut one with the base being made from Cadbury's Turkish Delight biscuits (from a brilliant book called "Saved by Cake" by Marian Keyes).

 

The maple and walnut one.

 

You can set them with gelatine, or vegetarian gel powder, though if you're using the veggie one the procedure is different, be sure to follow the instructions or it won't work.  I found this out when making a limoncello cheesecake and had to put it in the freezer before it went too "freeform".  I also found out it's not a good idea to make the gelatine-set ones after a few cans of cider:  I didn't dissolve the gelatine properly and although the cheesecake did set, some of the gelatine had formed unplesant hard bogie-like lumps which you had to spit out and leave on the side of the plate.

The baked ones sometimes crack when you bake them, or after during cooling, you can minimise this by putting a roasting tin of water in the oven shelf below when you bake them. If they do crack though, you can cover it up with topping, or a dusting of icing sugar or cocoa powder.

Fruity flavours are popular, and my facebook survey revealed lemon to be the most popular.  I did a mango and lime one once, but maybe a purist lemon one is something I should try soon; along with a recipe I've just found, espresso cheesecake with biscotti.

I've even made a Nowegian savoury cheesecake, with chives and dill in the (baked) cheese part and topped with soured cream, smoked salmon and caviar - it got a mixed reception, but I loved it:

So, back to the raspberry cheesecake brownie.  This was a favourite from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, and my daughter suggested I make it for the Laxton Pudding Challenge.  You may be familiar with this if you've read the "competetive spirit... or not" post.  I came second last year and was determined not to be beaten this time.  And....... I won!  The recipe is a three layered fusion of moist chocolate brownie on the bottom, baked vanilla cheesecake in the middle and raspberry cream on the top, so there is something to please everybody :-)  I made a sparkling rose syllabub too, but that didn't score so highly.

 Showing the layers, which were more even nearer the middle!

 

 

The trophy has pride of place on my mantelpiece, for a whole year, what will I make to defend my title?

Thanks, for reading, more soon.
Caroline :-)


How to cook an egg...

My husband said to me recently that he didn't know how to make scrambled eggs until he met me.  It got me thinking of the different ways there are to make scrambled egg, and indeed boiled, poached, fried and other methods too.  It was how Delia started off her "How to cook" series some years ago.  Eggs are the ultimate in healthy fast food.

When scrambling - the big question is whether or not to add milk.  I prefer not to.  Adding milk is a poor man's measure to increase the volume, to make less eggs go further, but I think it spoils the flavour and texture.  All I add is a knob of butter and a bit of seasoning.  I also happen to think that whisking them to a frenzy also ruins them, as with omelettes, a gentle mixing up is all that's needed. I tried microwaved scrambled eggs once, but never again.  They were like rubber.  I like a bit of therapeutic stirring, anyway, hence my fondness for risotto making as well. My Mum always used a spoon with a squared off corner and a hole in the middle, and she gave my daughter one for a present once, so I always use that, it's good for getting to the edges of the pan. Cook them on a medium to low heat in a non stick pan, stirring all the time. I have memories of doing this when I was little, standing on a chair at the cooker, waiting for what seemed like an eternity before the "scrambly bits" came! When the scrambly bits do start to appear, give it a minute or two longer, then turn off completely to let them finish off using just the residual heat in the pan, still stirring all the time.  A grind of black pepper, and voila!

Another thing my Mum taught me was a brilliant way of frying eggs without using loads of fat and making a mess.  Great for one or two eggs at a time.  Put a drizzle of oil in the bottom of a non stick milk pan and crack your egg or eggs into it, being careful not to break the yolk.  At this point, if you have any extra yolks to use up (such as from making macaroons) add them.  Then pop a saucer or side plate on top and leave to cook over a medium heat until the white is set but the yolk still runny.  Perfect, and no need for basting.  Also the pan is easy to clean afterwards, just a brief wipe out is all that's needed.

Sometimes, you can't beat a boiled egg and soldiers. I cook mine in a dinky egg boiler that I was given seventeen years ago and is still going strong.  It looks like this:

 

The head is a salt shaker, and the body comes apart to reveal a rack for up to four eggs.  You measure out water in the measuring cup provided, the amount varying depending on how many eggs and the degree of firmness required, and pour into the base.  The measuring cup also has a handy spike in the bottom with which to pierce the rounder end of the egg.  Then put it back together, switch on and when the buzzer goes, perfectly boiled (or steamed really) eggs.  I wish the buzzer made a chickeny noise though.... I sometimes cut the crusts off my soldiers, and wait for the toast to cool down so the butter doesn't melt too much, maybe it's just me but I think it makes them even nicer.

I've also got gadgets for poaching eggs, because if I try to do it the usual way they always seem to go wrong and/or don't look very appetising!  I use poachpods, lightly oiled, they even have a special tool for lifting them out of the water when cooked.  Can you understand why I don't have much space in my kitchen cupboards?

A poached egg is delicious on top of a smoked fish risotto, or mushrooms on toast cooked in cider and thyme (mentioned in a previous post).

I've cooked with duck eggs and turkey eggs, but never tried cooking a quail's egg, it's something I intend to try in the future.  Duck eggs make the best omelettes, the white is a bit firmer.  I couldn't cook omelettes at all for years, my Mum makes lovely ones and so I thought I'd try, my first attempt was a broccoli omelette for my first husband, luckily he and I just laughed at it, and ate it anyway, even though it was like rubbery scrambled eggs with hard broccoli in.  I learned to do it properly from Delia, with an aluminium pan bought from a special offer in the Radio Times, and a metal tablespoon, tilting the pan, scraping sides to middle and finishing off under the grill, sometimes with extra ham and cheese.  I like a chunky rustic omelette, none of your thin, pancaky versions for me!  I've taught my daughter to make them too, and she is very good at it now.  Even though the broccoli one didn't work all those years ago, I recently made a spring greens omelette with chilli and it was a great success.  I've even made a Japanese omelette that you cut up and serve cold on top of sushi (it has fish stock in and is traditionally cooked in a square pan for ease of folding, though I managed with a round one); and a leek and goats cheese souffle omelette, where the egg whites are whisked and mixed in separately, a different effect, but works.

Baked eggs are good too, in a ramekin in a bain marie with ham and/or mushrooms in the bottom; or a chinese version has soy sauce, sesame oil and prawns in, and is steamed instead of baking, but the end result is similar. 

In other news, today's new recipe for Meat Free Monday is artichoke, asparagus, broad bean and almond pilaf.  And I've bought a new book called "Boutique Baking" - the first recipe I made from it was lemon and raspberry cupcakes, they went down well at a garden party I went to yesterday, but I had one and a half, by which time the sugar got a little bit too much!

Thanks for reading, more soon, I feel the need to make, and write about, cheesecakes soon.

Caroline x