Hellooo hello!!
I have just come back from a quick wonderful trip to Heidelberg and I sincerely am missing the good food I had there. Germany is famous for great sausages and schnitzels;what was a complete revelation was a very Heidelberg specific speciality, Heidelberger Kurfürstenkugel – a sponge ball filled with nougat cream and covered in chocolate!!Ohhh so good!! It was also wonderful to meet a couple of friends after so many years. A night of beers , a very interesting speciality of white asparagus was completed by absolutely stunning cocktails at Cocktail Cafe Regie.
Right back to the recipe on hand, a friend was visiting a while back and I decided to make a cheesecake. I wanted something light, not super sweet like my favourite white chocolate cheesecake, something a little different so I decided to make this mascarpone cheesecake. The recipe is adapted from gracessweetlife.com. Very light and creamy, this is a perfect summer cheesecake. The topping can be inventive but I like a mix of berries to go with the lightness of the cheesecake. I make all my cheesecakes in bain-marie, and the steps are similar to this recipe.
For the base: 150 digestive biscuits + 75 g ginger nut biscuits (you can use all digestive biscuits, I just love adding some ginger nut biscuits to give it a crunch)+ 100g melted butter.
For the cheesecake filling:
600 g soft full-fat cheese
250 g mascarpone cheese
2 eggs + 2 egg yolks
zest of one lemon
4 tbsp plain flour
175 g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
For mixed berry compote, I think this can be very variable depending on how much berries you want to use, how sweet you like it and can be customised by changing the amount of sugar or berries added. For this cheesecake, I used about 1 ½ to 2 cups of berries-a mix of raspberries and blueberries, 3/4th cup of sugar, 2 tbsp butter , 2 tbsp lemon juice and 1 tbsp cornstarch.
To make the berry compote- Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 4 minutes. Cool the compote and store it covered in the fridge. This can be stored for 3 days.
- Pre heat the fan oven to 160 ˚C.
- I always make baked cheesecake in the water-bath so to do that I cover the outside of the spring form tin with a double layer of foil. Make sure there are no holes otherwise the water will seep in and the cheesecake will have a soggy bottom.
- Crush the biscuits for the base in the food processor and take out into a bowl. Add the sugar and melted butter. Mix well and press this mixture into the base of a spring form tin spreading it along to 2/3 way up the sides as well.
- Bake the biscuit base in the preheated oven for 10 minutes and then leave it out to cool.
- Meanwhile make the filling. I used a hand mixer but you can do this by hand whisk as well. Beat the cream cheese for about 3 minutes till it is light and fluffy. Add the mascarpone cheese and flour and beat again for another minute.
- Add the sugar and mix till incorporated evenly.
- Add the egg and yolks one by one and mix it till the eggs are incorporated but do not over beat.
- Add in the vanilla extract and the lemon zest.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin which has already been lined with foil on the outside.
- Using a deep roasting tray or a baking tray with a high edges, pull out the oven shelf, set the cheesecake tin and then pour boiling water in the roasting tin such that it comes up just half way up the cheesecake tin. Make sure it does not go over the foil lining –that is the whole point of the foil lining-to prevent water entering the spring form tin.
- I also cover my cheesecake very lightly with a foil sheet to prevent the cheesecake from browning too much. Bake the cheesecake for 45-60 mins till the middle of the cheesecake still wobbles slightly. Take out the cheesecake and leave it to cool in its tin at room temperature. Once cooled, leave it to set in the fridge overnight.
- Next day, run a knife along the side of the cheesecake and open the spring form tin and take the cheesecake out. Top it with the berry compote.
theflourmill 