I love cheesecakes; baked cheesecakes in particular. They are at the decadent end of the cake making spectrum; if they're made properly with good quality real ingredients that is. A basic lemon cheesecake is easy, easy, easy and yet some I've tasted have just been horrible, horrible, horrible. Ok, so we don't all have time to zest and juice lemons in which case use Lemon oil/extract but definitely NOT Lemon essence. Lemon essence... well apart from being truly disgusting... tastes like throat lozenges. There is no excuse for using it really when lemon oil extract is so easy to find and it is that lovely scented oil extracted from lemon skin, you know that stuff you get all over your fingers when you start grating a lemon.
Anyway, after lemon cheesecake, which if made properly is a thing of exquisite beauty and taste, my next favourite is White chocolate and passionfruit cheesecake. Passionfruit always reminds me of New Zealand where they practically grow wild. And wrinkled is ripe, wrinkled is good. Wrinkled is not old and past it! It was great for a while because supermarkets tried to sell them off at half price when the skins got all wrinkly. Not any more sadly, they've wised up.
Here is a recipe for the simplest and tastiest baked ...
White chocolate and passionfruit cheesecake
Grease and line the sides (make sure you take the baking paper quite a way above the side of the tin as this cheesecake will rise quite a lot before settling down and you don't want it all over the bottom of your oven) and base of a 23cm springform cake tin. Preheat the oven to 160 deg C or 140 deg C fan oven.
Ingredients:
Crust:
250g digestive biscuits, crushed finely
100g melted butter
Cheesecake
400g white chocolate
400ml double cream
200g cream cheese
4 tablespoons sugar
200g mascarpone
1/2 cup passionfruit pulp
4 eggs
Mix the crushed biscuits and butter together and press into the bottom and up the side of the cake tin.
Heat 200ml of the cream but don't let it boil. Break up the white chocolate and put it into the warm cream to melt. Stir after a few minutes to make sure the chocolate has melted into the cream, and leave to cool.
Beat the cream cheese, mascarpone and sugar together until smooth. Slowly add the remaining 200ml of double cream and beat until thick.
Add the eggs one at a time.
Gently fold the melted white chocolate and cream into the cheese mixture along with the passionfruit pulp.
Bake for approximately 1/2 - 3/4 hour or until the mixture wobbles a bit like jelly. Turn the oven off and leave to sit for another hour or until the oven is cool. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.
Enjoy
Anyway, after lemon cheesecake, which if made properly is a thing of exquisite beauty and taste, my next favourite is White chocolate and passionfruit cheesecake. Passionfruit always reminds me of New Zealand where they practically grow wild. And wrinkled is ripe, wrinkled is good. Wrinkled is not old and past it! It was great for a while because supermarkets tried to sell them off at half price when the skins got all wrinkly. Not any more sadly, they've wised up.
Here is a recipe for the simplest and tastiest baked ...
White chocolate and passionfruit cheesecake
Grease and line the sides (make sure you take the baking paper quite a way above the side of the tin as this cheesecake will rise quite a lot before settling down and you don't want it all over the bottom of your oven) and base of a 23cm springform cake tin. Preheat the oven to 160 deg C or 140 deg C fan oven.
Ingredients:
Crust:
250g digestive biscuits, crushed finely
100g melted butter
Cheesecake
400g white chocolate
400ml double cream
200g cream cheese
4 tablespoons sugar
200g mascarpone
1/2 cup passionfruit pulp
4 eggs
Mix the crushed biscuits and butter together and press into the bottom and up the side of the cake tin.
Heat 200ml of the cream but don't let it boil. Break up the white chocolate and put it into the warm cream to melt. Stir after a few minutes to make sure the chocolate has melted into the cream, and leave to cool.
Beat the cream cheese, mascarpone and sugar together until smooth. Slowly add the remaining 200ml of double cream and beat until thick.
Add the eggs one at a time.
Gently fold the melted white chocolate and cream into the cheese mixture along with the passionfruit pulp.
Bake for approximately 1/2 - 3/4 hour or until the mixture wobbles a bit like jelly. Turn the oven off and leave to sit for another hour or until the oven is cool. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.
Enjoy