Tag: lemon

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!

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!