“But don’t forget, in the meantime, that this is the season for strawberries. Yes.”
Clarice Lispector
Baked White Chocolate Cheesecake with Mascarpone & Strawberries might well be my best cheesecake to date. Smooth, rich, indulgent, satisfying and quite impressive for something made so simple. It’s inspired of course by the Dark Chocolate Cheesecake which is an absolute winner recipe by Ruchira.I had to bake dessert the other day, another late decision, another fast track recipe. I wanted something different this time, something lighter, something more Spring. This was experimental, and we waited with baited breath while it was cut. One bite … and I knew it was a winner.It’s not always easy to throw in this and that, hoping things will work out. Sometimes stuff like this works, sometimes it’s a total disaster. This time around it was surprisingly a 100% success. There was nothing I’d change about this Baked White Chocolate Cheesecake with Mascarpone & Strawberries recipe, and I’m glad I took notes as I threw things in.As I mentioned earlier, I was really short on time. I first put the white chocolate into the Thermomix and blitzed it into a fine powder, then just added the remaining ingredients and stirred everything together. Ideally, like most cheesecake recipes with chocolate, you need to first melt and cool the chocolate before adding it to the batter. Well, this worked fine for me, so I think that’s yet another chocolate cheesecake shortcut will turn too often. If you have a sturdy food processor, then it takes less than a minute to grind chocolate really fine. Do try it this way too someday!This Baked White Chocolate Cheesecake is the easiest as the base doesn’t need to be baked separately. Leaves you a ton of time to figure out how to top it. Maybe too much time because I went a little indulgent. Well, to be honest, it was a special occasion bake, so some luxurious vanilla bean spiked mascarpone was much in place. Then of course the strawberries. So much you can do with them! This season in North India has seen an EXCELLENT strawberry crop, possibly the best ever. I’ve used them in just about everything, and they’re still falling off carts in the city. A quick jam like reduction, some balsamic, some vanilla, a dash of lime juice and sugar of course yielded a beautiful topping for the Baked White Chocolate Cheesecake.
Baked White Chocolate Cheesecake with Mascarpone &; Strawberries
Baked White Chocolate Cheesecake with Mascarpone & Strawberries might well be my best cheesecake to date. Smooth, rich, indulgent, satisfying and quite impressive for something made so simple. A quick jam like reduction, some balsamic, some vanilla, a dash of lime juice and sugar of course yielded a beautiful topping for the cheesecake.
Prep Time 15 minutesminutes
Cook Time 1 hourhour
Total Time 9 hourshours15 minutesminutes
Servings 8people
Ingredients
Biscuit base
185gdigestives biscuits
25gjaggery {or brown sugar}
55gbutter
White Chocolate Filling
200gwhite baking chocolate melted
300gcream cheese
400mlsingle cream
20gcornflour
4eggs
1/2tspvanilla bean paste {or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract}
100graw sugar
Vanilla Mascarpone Cream
150gmascarpone cheese
25graw sugar
1/2tspvanilla bean paste
Strawberry Topping
250gstrawberrieschopped
Few sprigs fresh rosemary
100gsugar
1/2tspvanilla bean paste
1tbspbalsamic vinegar
Juice of 1/2 lime
Instructions
Biscuit base
Whiz the biscuits and jaggery in food processor until you get a fine meal. Add butter, whiz again to mix. Press into 7-8" loose bottom tin. Chill in the freezer while you get the filling ready, and the oven preheats.
White Chocolate Filling
Preheat oven to 160C.
Place all ingredients in bowl of food processor, and blend well to mix, 1-2 minutes on medium speed.
Pour into crust, and bake for an hour.
Cool completely in the oven, then chill covered in the fridge, preferably overnight.
Vanilla Mascarpone Cream
Place all ingredients in a large bowl an whisk until just mixed and smooth. Don't overmix. Spread over chilled cheesecake.
Strawberry Rosemary Topping
Place all ingredients except lime juice in a non reactive sauce pan. Simmer over low heat until it becomes jam like and reaches the desired consistency. Taste and adjust sweetness. Discard rosemary. Add lime juice if desired. Cool completely {Can be made a day ahead}. Top the Vanilla Mascarpone Cream with this.
Garnish with freshly sliced strawberries and fresh rosemary sprigs.
Dark Chocolate Cheesecake with Wine Macerated Strawberries is really as good as it sounds and looks, and tastes even better. The cheesecake is a chocolate lovers delight – deep, dark, rich, sensuous, indulgent, sinful. With so many superlatives, I might well throw another in. It’s dead S I M P L E too! Make it ASAP and you’ll know just what I mean.It’s a recipe I’ve minimally adapted from Ruchira @ Cookaroo. She’s quite the best ‘chef’ I know. Her recipes are always quick, simple and foolproof. I’ve made this Dark Chocolate Cheesecake before and it was SO GOOD that I couldn’t wait to make it again.The recipe now lives in my head. I go about tweaking it here and there depending on what I have on hand. It’s a keeper! Minimal fuss, maximum taste! I throw it together in my Thermomix and it takes under 20 minutes to come together. I used digestive biscuits the last time. Didn’t have digestives on hand this time, so I threw in Hobnobs instead. Just as good! I do a lot of chocolate desserts, simple ones mostly. Simple recipes like these leave you a lot of time to think about what more you can do. I could have just gone naked {ahem} with the cheesecake, but a luscious rich chocolate ganache takes this beautiful Dark Chocolate Cheesecake to a delicious new level. How could I skip it. The cake was for a birthday, so now something had to be celebratory, I mean a little more celebratory. Also, so much time on hand makes me fidgety. I just have to do something more!
I thought maybe salter butter caramel and had visions of gooey goodness dripping off the edges. Yet when I opened the fridge, I saw a box of juicy fresh strawberries and I knew I had to have them on some way. Maybe do strawberries in balsamic vinegar? No, no, strawberries in red wine screamed the bottle of Shiraz at me.You might remember these Lamb Chops with Red Wine I made recently, best I’ve ever made. Rosemary, garlic, and a limited edition Shiraz came together ever so beautifully to create this dish with so much character and loads of depth. There was some wine left over, so red wine macerated strawberries it was going to be.Anything on my kitchen counter becomes an ingredient in my recipes. Loads of fresh oranges and star anise sitting pretty on the counter could only mean one thing. They would help flavour my macerated strawberries. In went the zest of an orange and a few star anise. They created delightful undertones as you can well imagine.The result was a flavoursome, beautifully coloured red wine topping which tastes as good as it looks. Here you go, the recipe is a must try. For me, it’s the only chocolate cheesecake recipe I’ll ever need! Thank you Ruchira ♥!
Dark Chocolate Cheesecake Red wine macerated strawberries
Dark, divine, sinful, creamy, chocolaty and above all, as simple as can be, this Dark Chocolate
Cheesecake will leave you wanting for more. Recipe minimally adapted from Ruchira @
thegreatcookaroo.com. You won’t need another recipe ever! Can be made 2-3 days ahead of time.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 1 hourhour
Total Time 13 hourshours10 minutesminutes
Servings 8people
Ingredients
Biscuit base
150gHobnobs or digestive biscuits
30gcocoa powder
20gorganic jaggery granules
50gbutter
Dark Chocolate Filling
200gdark couverture chocolate melted
300gcream cheese
200mlsingle cream
30gcup cocoa
3eggs
1tsppure vanilla extract
90gorganic jaggery granules
Ganache
100g52% couverture
100mlsingle cream
Red wine macerated strawberries
250gstrawberrieschopped
50-75gbrown sugar
2-3star anise
zest of one orange
100mlred wine
40mlorange juice
Instructions
Biscuit base
Whiz the biscuits, brown sugar and cocoa in food processor until you get a fine meal. Add butter, whiz again to mix. Press into 8″ loose bottom tin. Chill in the freezer while you get the filling ready, and the oven preheats.
Dark Chocolate Filling
Preheat oven to 160C.
Place all ingredients of the filling in bowl of food processor, and blend well to mix, 1-2 minutes on medium speed.
Pour into crust, and bake for an hour. Leave to cool in the oven, then cover and chill for 4-6 hours, better overnight.
Red Wine Macerated Strawberries
in a non reactive bowl, put in the strawberries, star anise, orange zest and brown sugar. Stir to mix, then pour in the wine. Stand covered in the fridge overnight.
Discard the star anise, and strain the strawberries. Reserve in a bowl. Place wine in a small saucepan with a quarter cup orange juice, and simmer until thick and syrupy. taste and adjust sweetness if required. Cool slightly, then pour over the strawberries.
Ladle the strawberries over the ganache. If the syrup is thin, reduce it further until nice and thick. Cool and pour over strawberries.
Ganache
Place chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl. Heat in microwave for 1 minute. Whisk with a balloon whisk until smooth. Cool about 30 minutes, then whisk again. Chill until a little firm. Whisk once again till glossy and smooth, and holds peaks. Spread over chilled cheesecake.
“Dreams are only dreams until you wake up and make them real.”
Ned Vizzini
Dark Chocolate Cheesecake … life’s guilty pleasures simply served up, or life’s simple pleasures maybe with a little guilt. Whichever way you choose to look at it, this recipe is a winner. The recipe isn’t mine. It’s a recipe created by the super talented Ruchira @ Cookaroo, on the go as she said. She did make everything sound so simple, so matter of fact, that of course I didn’t believe her!
That changed very soon. In fact as soon as I put in the cheesecake to bake, I realised that it was really very S I M P L E. Absolutely fuss free. I changed a few minor things. The base for one as hers has Oreos and I prefer Digestives. No big deal there. Both packaged cookies so no work at all. I threw in some cocoa to make mine a chocolate base. Barely any other change other than using brown sugar for white!
The other guilty indulgence I added was topping the chilled cheesecake with a dark chocolate ganache as we had folk over for dinner. I wanted it to look special. the ganache and the dusting of cocoa gave it the ‘bells & whistles‘, and some more yumminess of course.
The beautiful thing about the Dark Chocolate Cheesecake, other than the ease of putting it together of course, is that you can bake it a couple of days before you need to serve it. Keep it covered in the fridge in the tin for a day or two. Demold it the day you intend to serve it, top with ganache and you’re good to go. Do remember to thank the Cookaroo if you make this. I’ve thanked her, and so has a reader of my blog, Tania Fothergill, from Tasmania who I shared the recipe with over 3 weeks week ago. It was Tania’s birthday and she really wanted to bake it. Here’s what she said about the cake.
Dark, divine, sinful, creamy, chocolaty and above all, as simple as can be, this Dark Chocolate Cheesecake will leave you wanting for more. Recipe minimally adapted from Ruchira @ thegreatcookaroo.com. You won't need another recipe ever! Can be made 2-3 days ahead of time.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 15 minutesminutes
Cook Time 1 hourhour
Total Time 9 hourshours15 minutesminutes
Servings 8
Ingredients
Biscuit base
150gdigestives biscuits
30gcocoa powder
20gbrown sugar
50gbutter
Dark Chocolate Filling
200gdark couverture chocolatemelted
400gcream cheese
200mlsingle cream
1/3cupcocoa
3eggs
1tsppure vanilla extract
3/4cupbrown sugar
Ganache
100g52% couverture
100mlsingle cream
Instructions
Biscuit base
Whiz the biscuits, brown sugar and cocoa in food processor until you get a fine meal. Add butter, whiz again to mix.
Press into 7-8" loose bottom tin. Chill in the freezer while you get the filling ready, and the oven preheats.
Dark Chocolate Filling
Preheat oven to 160C.
Place all ingredients in bowl of food processor, and blend well to mix, 1-2 minutes on medium speed.
Pour into crust, and bake for an hour.
Cool completely in the oven, then chill covered in the fridge, preferably overnight.
Ganache
Place chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl. Heat in microwave for 1 minute. Whisk with a balloon whisk until smooth. Cool about 30 minutes, then whisk again. Chill until a little firm. Whisk once again till glossy and smooth, and holds peaks. Spread over chilled cheesecake. Dust with cocoa.
“The only way cheese is dessert is when it’s followed by the word cake.” Michele Gorman
Eggless Cheesecake with Mango Lime Sauce must be the easiest dessert to make. Minimum fuss, barely four ingredients, one bowl dump and quick hand whisk, can’t ask for much more in a dessert for summer. I make this often, and am constantly amazed at how versatile I can get with it. Even if summer has slipped by, please make the basic cheesecake and dress it up with anything you like – a salted butter caramel sauce, a berry reduction, a dark chocolate ganache, a homemade preserve, maybe grated chocolate and toasted nuts.
I made a series of mango based desserts this summer. Have been busy with work, some travel, loads of house work etc. Did I mention the guinea pig? Now there are TWO just because they are social animals so a pair seemed right. Then there is Coco who now eats ALL vegetables with renewed interest trying to beat the guinea pigs at their game!
In any case, that I procrastinate is quite obvious else this would have been on the blog a while ago. I made this a short while ago, and recently shared the image on Facebook and Instagram. With so many requests for the recipe, I thought I had better share it before summer sneaks by us, while a few of you can still make it.
So here you are. A quick, eggless delicious cheesecake that is a western take on an old Indian classic, ‘bhapa doi’. Make the Eggless Cheesecake with Mango Lime Sauce a day ahead, chill well, and then enjoy the compliments that come your way. Looks like a lot of work, but all this actually needs is half an hour in total. The mango sauce compliments it beautifully, and makes it look pretty too if you ‘dress it up’ a little. I had fun cutting out shapes with a sharp cookie cutter! I’ve baked this several times before. With summer stone fruit, a Mishti Doi Cheesecake for a festive feel, a Salted Butter Caramel Cheesecake, and a Dark Chocolate Orange Cheesecake too.
Quick, eggless delicious, the Eggless Cheesecake with Mango Lime Sauce is the Western take on an old Indian classic, ‘bhapa doi’. Make it a day ahead, chill well, and then enjoy the compliments that come your way. Looks like a lot of work, but all this actually needs is half an hour in total. The Mango sauce compliments it beautifully, and makes it look pretty too.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 20 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours30 minutesminutes
Servings 6people
Ingredients
Eggless Lime Cheesecake
1tin sweet condensed milk {approx 400g}
400gyogurt
2tspmilk powder
Zest of 1 lime
Mango Lime Sauce
150mlmango juicefresh/tinned
Zest of 1 lime
Juice of 1 lime
1tspcornflour dissolved in 1tbsp of cold juice
1/2tspsugar
Instructions
Eggless Lime Cheesecake
Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 6″ dessert ring with a double layer of foil to come up around the edges so the mixture doesn’t leak. You can also use a loose bottomed tin but make sure you wrap it with foil too.
In a large bowl whisk together all ingredients for cheesecake until smooth.
Turn into prepared tin and bake for 15 minutes. Leave to cool in tin, then cover and place to chill in fridge overnight.
Meanwhile, prepare the sauce for topping.
Mango Lime Sauce
Place the mango juice a in a heavy bottom pan with lime zest and sugar, and cook over medium high heat until halved in quantity. {If you like a slight hint of chili, you can add half a slit deseeded green chili for 2-3 minutes, and then discard it}
Once the juice has reduced, add the lime juice and corn flour stirring until it thickens to desired consistency. The sauce will thicken a bit more on cooling.
Cool sauce, and then chill overnight with the cheesecake. {The sauce can be made in advance}
Top with cutouts from mango slices, fresh basil leaves, flowers if in bloom. Chill until ready to serve!
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” Charles M. Schulz
White Chocolate Cheesecake with balsamic strawberry topping, music to this bakers ears. I’m not one for cheesy baking on V Day; possibly the last one who’ll bake for the day. Yet, I am a sucker for good recipes that catch my eye, and this one certainly did. A white chocolate cheesecake with ingredients as many as the fingers on my hand would tempt any baker or cheesecake lover. It certainly tempted me!
The minute I saw BetterButters fun video, part of their V Day series, to get men into the kitchen to bake something simple for their loved ones, they had me in the loop. If the first frame lists 5 simple ingredients, 4 of which are already there, then what’s to stop this rabid baker? Not much!! All it took was a trip to the local grocery store, grab some cream cheese, also some thyme that happened to be there, and I was set. I always have strawberries at home since they are so much in season these days.
It’s a simple recipe, S I M P L E. Make sure you see the video twice. First to enjoy the ease, and next, if you are like me, to jot down the steps. Else grab someone a willing soul, asking them to play the video as you go along. One thing I always do is follow the main recipe as is the first time. This was super fun, and I am going to bake this again soon. You know the other thing what I loved about the recipe? The natural quintessential cheesecake sink in the centre that holds the delicious filling.
A few things I might change. Maybe make the white chocolate cheesecake with quark the next time around. I am not a huge fan of Britannia Cream Cheese as the slight saltiness creeps through and takes away somewhat the joy and beauty of white chocolate. Talking about white chocolate, make sure you use good quality white chocolate. With as little as 5 ingredients in the cheesecake, each one counts in the end.
This is a great great recipe for beginners, for bakers, for cheesecake lovers and especially for people like me who need a springboard for creativity. I have already begun dreaming of what else I can do with this. For now, enjoy it as it is, a beautiful White Chocolate Cheesecake with balsamic strawberry topping. You could even do a light jelly topping that BetterButter did, but try this recipe you must! You can download the BetterButter app here – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.betterbutter.android
Recipe: White Chocolate Cheesecake
Summary:White Chocolate Cheesecake with balsamic strawberry topping is a great recipe for beginners, for bakers, for cheesecake lovers and especially for people like me who need a springboard for creativity. You could even do a light jelly topping that Better Butterdid, but try this recipe you must! Makes a 7″ cheesecake
Prep Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 1 hour Ingredients:
White Chocolate Cheesecake
200g white chocolate, melted {I used white baking chocolate}
200g Cream Cheese {Britannia}
4 eggs, separated
pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean, scraped
1/2 tsp strawberry extract
Topping
150g strawberries, quartered
40g brown sugar
1-2 tbsp water
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 vanilla bean shell
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Garnish
Fresh strawberries, thyme
Method:
White Chocolate Cheesecake
Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 7″ dessert ring or a loose bottomed baking tin.
Place egg whites with a pinch of salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until stiff peaks form
In the meantime, place the melted white chocolate, egg yolks and cream cheese in a large bowl and whisk until smooth. Add vanilla and strawberry extract and whisk again.
Add 1-2 tbsp of the beaten whites to loosen the mixture, then gently fold the rest in. I turned the chocolate mix into the bowl of the KitchenAid stand mixer as it is a large very convenient bowl to mix in.
Transfer batter to prepared tin and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 150C and bake for a further15 minutes. Finally, reduce the temperature to 120C and bake for another 15-20 minutes.
Allow to cool completely in tin, then chill for a few hours or overnight. Gently demold and place on serving platter.
Top with strawberry topping, and scatter fresh thyme over.
Topping
Place all ingredients in a heavy bottom non-reactive saucepan. Simmer gently until thick and jam like. Taste and adjust sweetness if required. Cool. {Can be made a day or so in advance}
“Cut my pie into four pieces, I don’t think I could eat eight.”
Yogi Berra
Light Pumpkin Pie. It’s difficult to not think pumpkin and get deluged by orange thoughts once fall is in the air. Come autumn, and pumpkin pie spice is the on the top of my head. It breaks my heart to say goodbye to stone fruit when summer draws to a close, and somewhere in the hot summer months I always forget the charm of fall. These days there’s loads of pumpkinon the table.
Oh the orange hues. persimmons, pumpkin {which is there pretty much all the year around here though}, and the little bitter kumquats. Such bright colours and so much fun! It’s around this time that the boy will gently come and request for a pumpkin cake on Halloween. For him it’s customary to ask. For me, it’s another opportunity to experiment. With a steady source of good quality pumpkin pie spice from the sister in the US, I am happy to take the pumpkin route.
The pumpkin pie came along in a hurry as usual. The ingredients were very basic with fresh pumpkin puree and some left over condensed milk thrown in. There was an orange sitting on the counter so in went some zest as a last minute thought, then a dash of Grand Marnier to compliment it. You can always skip the liqueur, but try and add the orange zest. The flavour orange zest added was amazing.
Whenever I experiment with pies or cakes, there is a sense of panic on the other side. Will it set, won’t it set. Will it slice cleanly, or maybe not??? Then again, hope it tastes OK! Heaved a mighty sigh of relief when it left the pan easily and didn’t flow like lava. YES! It had set. A few pictures, then a slice later, a sense of jubilation. It set beautifully AND was firm enough to be sliced, staying light and moussey!
The boy wolfed down a couple of slices in the evening. Is it dessert Mama he asked, before eyeing another slice. It was his after all, made on personal request. I would have done him a pumpkin pie latte on the side but I got a little lazy.
The husband gave it a thumbs up too. Is it pie, is it cake I asked? Cheescakey he said. It’s a pie that thinks it’s a cheesecake I guess.
[print_this]Recipe: Light Pumpkin Pie
Summary: Bursting with orange and fall flavours, this Light Pumpkin Pie is simple to make and quite addictive to eat. It’s a pie that thinks it’s a cheesecake. Serves 8
