Mascerpone Cheesecake with Mixed Berry Compote

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, 3/4^th 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.

1. Pre heat the fan oven to 160 ˚C.
2.  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.
3. 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.
4. Bake the biscuit base in the preheated oven for 10 minutes and then leave it out to cool.
5. 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.
6. Add the sugar and mix till incorporated evenly.
7. Add the egg and yolks one by one and mix it till the eggs are incorporated but do not over beat.
8. Add in the vanilla extract and the lemon zest.
9. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin which has already been lined with foil on the outside.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.

 

Shortbread tartlets

A perfect recipe for petit fours, for parties, these tart shells are easy to make and can be frozen as well. They melt in your mouth, dainty and tender, they can be filled with a variety of fillings from cream cheese to chocolates. I have filled them with crème patissiere. You can then top them with any fresh fruits you want.

Ingredients
113 g unsalted butter
27 g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 g plain flour
15 g rice flour or cornflour
1/8 th tsp salt

Unlike shortbread cookies they contain cornflour or rice flour which gives them the melting taste like in cornflour cookies. 

This recipe makes 18 small  2” tartlets, you can easily double the recipe.

1. You can do this by hand as well, or using a hand mixer beat the butter till smooth. Do not over beat because you do not want to incorporate air.
2. Then add the icing sugar and beat it in just till it is incorporated in the butter.
3. Next mix in the vanilla extract. Then combine the plain flour, cornflour and salt. Mix it in the butter mixture. Do not over beat, just only till all the flour is incorporated.
4. Just a couple of tips, now since the butter I had used was too soft my dough was really sticky to work with. So you can keep it in the fridge for 20-30 mins so that it is easier to handle. If your butter is not too soft, your dough will be soft but not too sticky.
5. Now prepare the tart tin tray by greasing the tin with butter. Take a tablespoon of the shortbread dough and press it in the tin with your fingers along the base and sides. To prevent it to puff up, cover the tart tin tray with cling film and put it in the freezer for 15 minutes.
6. Pre heat the oven to 170 ˚C fan oven. Remove the tray from the freezer and remove the cling film. Bake the tarts for 15-20 mins till the tarts are golden in colour. In between check the tarts, if they are puffing up just poke the tarts with a fork.
7. After they are baked , take them out and cool completely in the tin on a wire rack. The tarts are tender and crisp so carefully take them out of the tin. They should not stick to the tin but if they have just run a knife around to loosen them up.
8. Pipe your filling in the tart and decorate as desired.

Check out recipes for more petit fours here.

Mini Pavlova with Raspberries

Rain rain go away, come again another year!!
Arrgghhh…there has not been a single rain-free day for in the past 2-3 weeks. Really could do with some sunshine in Scotland.

One of my all time favourite desserts is meringues and pavlova. They are the easiest things to serve when entertaining. They look gorgeous and taste delicious. One of my best friends was visiting a while back and I made these mini pavlovas for dessert.

I have used this recipe many times and have got it from a BBC goodfood dessert recipe book. For a pavlova to serve 6, you will need:

2 tsp cornflour
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp white wine vinegar
5 egg whites
300 gm caster sugar
400 ml lightly whipped cream
200 gm of raspberries
2 tbsp of icing sugar for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 120°C fan oven. Line a baking tray with a baking sheet.
2. Mix the cornflour, vanilla extract and white wine vinegar and keep aside.
3. Whisk the egg whites with a hand mixer or a whisk till it is frothy. Then start adding caster sugar and add all the sugar in 5-6 parts. Beat the egg white and sugar till it forms soft peaks then add the cornflour mixture and beat till the mixture is smooth and shiny and forms stiff peaks. Do not over beat the mixture.
4. Spoon the mixture onto the baking sheet, swirl the edges with the back of the spoon and make a dip in the center . Since I wanted to make mini pavlovas, I had halved the ingredients and it gave me enough mixture to make 4 small pavlovas.
6. Bake at 120 °C in the preheated oven for an hour. You will be able to see some cracks on the meringue when they are done. Switch the oven off and leave it to cool with the oven door open. If the meringues are going brown, that means your oven temperature is too high. Lower the temperature by about 10 degrees.
7. I usually add about 2-3 tablespoon of sugar to my whipped cream while whipping but it is totally to personal liking as to how sweet you would want your dessert.
8. Spoon 3-4 tablespoon of the whipped cream on the mini pavlova. Decorate with raspberries and dust with icing sugar.

And there you go…

Have fun!