Category: Fruit

White chocolate and Strawberry Cheesecake (no bake)

We all love cheesecake!

This was a request from the Facebook page, you can use dark chocolate but i find the flavour of white chocolate works a bit better with the strawberry and slight sourness from the cheese.

Recipe!

Ingredients (serves 8)

For the base

  • 1 pack of biscuits (i like to use hobnobs)
  • 100-200g butter (depending how buttery you like the biscuit base, using more than 150g can make the base go soggy though)

For the filling

  • 200-400g strawberries, sliced (thickish, about 4 slices per strawberry)
  • 200g White chocolate
  • About 400g soft cream cheese
  • 50-100g icing sugar
  • 200ml double cream
  • Fresh mint or basil leaves (optional, to decorate)

Prep and cooking (30 minutes)

  1. First smash the biscuits up, easiest if you’ve got a food processor just blend them with a blade attachment, if not chuck them in a sealy bag and wrap a towel around it and smash it with a rolling pin.
  2. Put the biscuit dust into a mixing bowl and melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat.
  3. Mix the butter with the biscuit until it holds together.
  4. Line a cake tin with baking paper and layer the biscuit over the bottom, push down with a wooden spoon or your hands to compact it into the cheesecake base, cover with cling film and put in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
  5. Whilst it’s cooling down make the filling, melt the chocolate over a bain marie on the stovetop (saucepan with small amount of water in and a bowl over the top, using the steam to heat) or in a microwave, if using a microwave be careful not to burn the chocolate.
  6. In a seperate mixing bowl whisk the cream cheese with the sugar, add 1-2 tbsp of boiling water and whisk until its nice and smooth.
  7. Now pour in the melted chocolate with 2-3 tbsp of the cream and mix well.
  8. Put a layer of strawberry slices over the biscuit base and then cover with the cream cheese mixture and spread out evenly.
  9. Whip the rest of the cream and layer this on top of the chocolate/cheese filling.
  10. Arrange the rest of the strawberries on top, decorate with mint or basil leaves if using.
  11. Eat the damn thing.

More recipes soon!

Mascarpone lemon cheesecake

This cheesecake uses mascarpone instead of regular cream cheese, which gives it a much creamier texture.

I like to do it with lemon because regular cream cheese has a slight sharpness/tang to it whereas marscarpone is a lot more mild.

Here’s the recipe!

Ingredients (makes 1 cheesecake)

For the base

  • 1 pack of digestive biscuits
  • 100-200g butter
  • 1-2tbsp brown sugar (preferably light)

For the filling

  • 200-300g marscarpone
  • 200-300g double cream
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 100-200g icing sugar
  • 2-3 lemons

Equipment

  • Food processor, or ziplock bag and a rolling pin
  • Zester or fine grater
  • Knife, or lemon juicer
  • Mixing bowl
  • Whisk, an electric one helps
  • Microwave or saucepan
  • Tart/cake dish
  • Wooden spoon
  • Spatula
  • Pallet knife

Prep and cooking (45+minutes)

  1. First make the base by smashing the biscuits, this is where a food processor helps, if you don’t have one just put the biscuits in a ziplock bag, wrap it in a tea towel and smash it with a rolling pin until it’s fine with little or no lumps.
  2. Melt the butter in the microwave/saucepan and mix with the biscuit until it holds its shape, using more butter will help it hold better but too much will make the base go soggy so don’t over do it.
  3. Grease the tart dish with butter and place the crumb in, fill the base and push down with a wooden spoon/hands.
  4. Put in the fridge for 10-20 minutes to chill.
  5. Whilst it’s chilling make the filling by beating the mascarpone with the icing sugar until smooth. Zest the lemons and mix well into the cheese. Juice the lemons and add a little at a time, mixing well in between adding more juice, until you have the desired flavour.
  6. Whisk the cream with the caster sugar to soft peaks and fold it into the cheese with a spatula.
  7. Spoon the mixture on to the biscuit base and smooth over with a pallet knife.
  8. Chill for at least 30 minutes, preferably a few hours.
  9. Either cut into portions, or just eat it like a huge biscuit.

More recipes soon!

Banoffee pie recipe

An English classic, toffee and banana, invented in East Sussex in the 70s when the chefs eventually reworked an American dish of a coffee toffee pie.

Here’s my recipe for banoffee pie;

Ingredients (makes 1 pie, enough for 8-12)

For the filling

  • 100g soft brown/light muscovado sugar
  • 1 tin of sweet condensed milk (about 380g)
  • 100g butter
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract/essence

For the topping

  • Bananas! As many or as few as you like, I usually use 3 or 4
  • 300ml double cream
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 50g white or dark chocolate

For the base

  • 1 pack of digestive biscuits
  • 100-200g butter

Equipmemt

  • Food processor, or rolling pin and a ziplock bag and/or tea towel
  • Mixing bowl
  • Measuring jug
  • Whisk, an electric one helps
  • Wooden spoon
  • Pallet knife
  • Piping bag
  • Tart case/quiche dish (22-24cm)
  • Chopping board
  • Knife
  • Microwave, or saucepan
  • Saucepan
  • Fine grater

Prep and cooking (60+ minutes)

  1. First make the base by smashing the biscuits, this is where a food processor helps, if you don’t have one just put the biscuits in a ziplock bag, wrap it in a tea towel and smash it with a rolling pin until it’s fine with little or no lumps.
  2. Melt the butter in the microwave/saucepan and mix with the biscuit until it holds its shape, using more butter will help it hold better but too much will make the base go soggy so don’t over do it.
  3. Grease the tart dish with butter and place the crumb in, fill the base and push down with a wooden spoon/hands.
  4. Put in the fridge for 10-20 minutes to chill.
  5. Whilst it’s chilling make the filling by heating the butter in a saucepan on a low heat and add the sugar. Stir constantly until the whole mixture is smooth and clean then add the condensed milk.
  6. Turn the heat up full, as it starts to come to the boil turn the heat back down low to simmer for about 5 minutes, make sure you keep stirring it and it should start to turn into a rich deep caramel.
  7. Pour this onto the biscuit base and level it out with a pallet knife. Put it back in the fridge for about 29 minutes until the caramel is cool.
  8. Ideally you need to do this fairly soon to when you intend to serve it as banana discolours quite fast, you can easily keep the base in the fridge for 2-3 days;
  9. Slice the bananas and place on top of the caramel however you wish.
  10. Whisk the double cream until whipped to soft peaks. Spread or pipe over the bananas.
  11. Grate the chocolate on top of the cream, you could make a caramel sauce to go over the top.
  12. Eat the damn thing!

More recipes soon!

Classic lemon tart recipe

Sharp and citrus! With delicious pastry.

Lemon tart (should) go down well pretty much anywhere, anytime.

This is a request from @michaelsmeatham on the Facebook page, so on to the recipe.

Ingredients (makes 1 large tart, 16 portions, or 8 large)

  • 500g shortcrust pastry
  • 8-10 eggs
  • 5-8 lemons (8 is pretty intense)
  • 250-350g caster sugar depending on your sweet tooth
  • 200-300ml double cream
  • Flour to roll pastry

Equipmemt

  • Rolling pin
  • A quiche/tart dish, around 23-28cm
  • Tin foil
  • Baking beans, or rice etc. (Dry and weighty)
  • Mixing bowl
  • Whisk

Prep and cooking (45-90 minutes)

  1. If you haven’t already, masker some shortcrust pastry.
  2. Heat oven to about 160°c fan (gas 4)
  3. Roll it out to about 1-1.3cm thickness, put in pastry case and blind bake for 15-20 minutes, I’ll upload a guide on blind baking on my next day off.
  4. While the case is in the oven get the filling ready by putting the eggs, sugar and cream in a mixing bowl and mix well, you can add a few extra egg yolks if you want it to make it a bit richer.
  5. Now zest the lemons into the mix, how many is up to you, when zesting try not to get the piff (white part under the skin and before the fruit) as it makes it more bitter, we want sweetness.
  6. Juice the desired amount of lemon juice, add and mix well. Lemon juice really adds sharpness, so you want enough to counteract the sugar but not incapacitate your mouth. At the end of it it’s all down to personal taste.
  7. When the case is ready turn the oven down to 140-150°c fan (gas 3). Pour the mixture in and bake for about 49 minutes, I set a timer every 10 minutes to check to adjust heat/turn it round if needed.
  8. Voila! Ideally you want to chill it before eating, but some things can’t be helped.

You saucy tart

Maybe not so saucy, or at least until you cook it, but a joy to eat nonetheless.

You can cut the recipe in half for a smaller tart, or you could use a cupcake/muffin tray to make mini tarts.

Having a look at the supermarkets, the price seems to range from about £2.50-£4, that’s for a regular (8 slice) tart, about 400-450g which is close enough to half the size of the above recipe.

Costing the recipe (I used tesco online for prices) the above recipe will set you back about £4.25 or about 26p a serving, giving you twice as much for the same (similar) price, and its homemade(!)

Any problems give me a shout!