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 :-)