Apple, Cinnamon & White chocolate cheesecake

I've been having a little Christmas break in blogging, and it's actually more than a week from the last time I posted something. I haven't had time to cook anything else than Christmas food, and it feels it's about a time to start doing something else. Yesterday I visited my dear friend in Nummela, and I had promised to bake a cheesecake and to bring it with me. I wanted to try something new, and I got an inspiration when I thought about the apple & cinnamon cookies one of my friends had gave me as a Christmas present. Then straight away I decided to make a cheesecake with the apple & cinnamon theme, I added some white chocolate to the filling to give extra delicious flavour. And there were also apple sauce and cinnamon in the filling, of course. I must say this cake was very excellent, delicate and unique, it was perfect. When my friends ate it they were speechless, and one of my friends said that he will order this cake to his wedding! So I was very pleased, because I wasn't sure at all if this cake would be good. I think I'll make it again, quite soon. Because it was so perfect.

Ingredients:

150g Bergen apple & cinnamon cookies

100g cinnamon Bastogne cookies (about ten pieces)

(if you can't find those cookies, use somekind of cinnamon cookies or digestive cookies)

100g butter or margarine

For the filling:

600g philadelphia cream cheese

200g creme fraiche (not low-fat)

3 eggs

200g white chocolate

juice of one lemon

grated zest of one lemon

2 dl powdered sugar

125g applesauce (you can buy it, but try t use one without any added sugar)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon (you can put two, if you like it)

1. Heat the oven into 170°C. Crush the cookies well, melt the butter and mix with the cookie crumbs.

2. Line the base of the springform pan with a parchment paper, butter the sides of the pan. Spread the cookie crumbs on the base.

3. Melt the white chocolate.

4. Beat the chocolate (when it has cooled down a bit) with the creamcheese and the creme fraiche until smooth. Add vanilla extract, cinnamon, grated zest of lemon, juice of lemon, apple sauce, powdered sugar and the eggs. Mix carefully until smooth.

5. Spread over the cookie crumbs, even up.

6. Bake in the oven for 1,5 hours, take the heat off and let the cake stand in the oven for couple of hours. Then remove, cool down in the room temperature and keep in the fridge over night.

7. If you want to, you can decorate the cake with some cinnamon sprinkled over. Enjoy in a good company!

Persimmon cheesecake with chocolate sauce

Today it's the Independence Day of our country, Finland. We celebrate it by inviting some of our closest friends, eating good food and watching the big party from TV which is held every year in the castle of our president. Every celebrity, politician or famous sportsman get invited, and the veterans of our wars with Russia too (they are the guests of honour). I love the day of Independence, because on that day it feels that everything goes back to where it should be, on that day we realise how wonderful it is to have an independent country and what have the men in war done for it. It's so amazing.

So, I wanted to bake something very delicious and also try something new. I love persimmons, they're my favourite fruits right now (I could eat a dozen in a day!) and in my mind I had a thought rising about the persimmon cheesecake. That's what I did, and it turned out great. I decided to use Finnish Domino cookies in the base (quite same as Oreos) and puree the persimmons for the filling. I didn't want to put any sugar to the filling, because the persimmons are so sweet, that's why I added one can of condensed milk (it gives sweetness but not too much). And the other thing I must say to you is that the crust doesn't need any butter, because the domino cookies have a cream filling, which works like butter in the crust. And if you keep your cheesecake in the fridge overnight the crust becomes even more moist, I really suggest you to do that.

So wonderful, I have to say. And everyone loved this cake, they wanted to have more and more end even my brother who's very hard to please said that is was crazily good! The chocolate sauce was a magnificent companion to the persimmon - it was so terrific that I can't even describe it!

Ingredients:

250 g Domino or Oreo cookies

3 packages philadelphia cream cheese (600g)

(Remember to take the cream cheese into room temperature for 30 minutes before baking, so that it softens)

1 can condensed milk

3 persimmons

3 eggs

Chocolate sauce:

100 ml cream (20%)

100 g dark chocolate

1. Heat the oven into 150°C. Line the base of the springform cake pan with a parchment paper, butter the sides of the pan. Crush the Domino cookies and spread over the base.

2. Whisk the cream cheese so that it's soft and smooth (no lumps). Add the condensed milk, mix well but not too much (the cheesecake's surface will crackle if there's too much air in the filling.

3. Wash the persimmons, take the leaves off and then cut into smaller chunks.

4. Puree them with a handmixer. It's okay that the puree has small chunks of the fruit, it's only good for the cake. But only small.

5. Add the persimmon puree to the cream cheese, mix and then add the eggs, mix well.

6. Pour into the cake pan, bake in the oven for about one hour. Open the oven's door, take the heat off and let the cake stand in the oven for one hour. Then take away to the room temperature, let cool down for about 1-2 hours and put in to the fridge overnight.

7. To make the chocolate sauce: melt the chocolate in a kettle with the cream on a low heat, mix to create a smooth sauce.

8. Serve with chocolate sauce, and decorate with persimmon if you want to.

Strawberry swirl cheesecake

This cake is one of the two cakes I made on my birthday. I waited forward making it, because it seemed so good and the swirl decoration looked very pretty. I also liked the addition of condensed milk in this cake. It actually gave a wonderful moist flavour. I really loved this cake, and so did the others too. It was a perfect cake, easy to make and it tasted awesomely good!! That's it.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup sugar (I would put half less)

1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

2 (10 ounce) packages frozen sweetened strawberries, thawed

1 tablespoon cornstarch

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup lemon juice

3 eggs

1 tablespoon water




1. Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter. Press onto the bottom of an ungreased 9-in. springform pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.






2. In a blender or food processor, combine strawberries and cornstarch; cover and process until smooth. Pour into a saucepan; bring to a boil. Boil and stir for 2 minutes. Set aside 1/3 cup strawberry sauce; cool. Cover and refrigerate remaining sauce for serving.

3. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy.






4. Gradually beat in milk.






5. Add lemon juice; mix well. Add eggs, beat on low just until combined.

6. Pour half of the cream cheese mixture over crust. Drop half of the reserved strawberry mixture by 1/2 teaspoonfuls onto cream cheese layer. Carefully spoon remaining cream cheese mixture over sauce. Drop remaining strawberry sauce by 1/2 teaspoonfuls on top. With a knife, cut through top layer only to swirl strawberry sauce.






7. Bake at 150°C for 45-50 minutes or until center is almost set. Take the heat off, let stand in the oven for one hour, leave the oven door open. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; refrigerate overnight. Remove side of pan. Thin chilled strawberry sauce with water if desired; serve with cheesecake.

Decadent chocolate tofu cheesecake

My mother's birthday was the 12th of November, and today we are celebrating it. I always bake a cake when I have a good reason, and this is an excellent one. I had planned to make a cheesecake (again!) and when I found this recipe with tofu I had to try it, because I love tofu and it's a wonderful way to use it in a cheesecake.

The original recipe said that you can't even notice that the cake contains tofu, and I have to say you really couldn't. This cake is very easy to make, and it doesn't take a lot of time. I decided to serve this cake simply with chocolate sauce and strawberries. And the taste...it was too good to be true.

When we ate this with our family we all were quiet, it was so extraordinary amazing, it was the best chocolate cheesecake I've propably ever made! I haven't recovered yet, really, this an excellent cake, I just had nothing to complain. You must try it.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup chocolate cookies (about 10-12), finely crushed (I used finnish original domino cookies)

100 g baking chocolate, broken into pieces

400 g cream cheese (I used philadelphia)

1 contaibner (about 430g) silken tofu, drained

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon baking cocoa

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 160 °C. Lightly grease 9-inch springform pan; sprinkle cookie crumbs over bottom.

2. Melt the chocolate in a small kettle, that is in a bigger kettle with boiling water, stir.

3. Place melted chocolate, cream cheese, tofu, sugar and cocoa in food processor; cover. (You can also mix it by hands with a whisk, but it won't be so smooth). Process until smooth. Scrape sides of container; add eggs and vanilla extract. Process until smooth. Pour into prepared pan.

4. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes or until edge is set but center still moves slightly. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. (I had the cake overnight and a couple of hours- I really recommend keeping the cake in the fridge, it makes it a lot better!)

5. Take the cake away from fridge about 30 minutes before serving. Decorate with chocolate sauce and strawberries. ENJOY!

Banoffee Cheesecake

We had planned to spend an evening watching Gossip Girl series with my friends, and of course to eat some delicious food...And I just couldn't resist baking a cake, and it had to be a cheesecake of course, because it's my favourite. For a moment I considered baking a banoffee cake, I've heard so much about it and it's the new trend cake. After a long thinking session and some researching in the net I found recipe for banoffee cheesecake, and TADAA, my problem was solved! I hope the cake is good, I have to wait until the evening for the tasting, but at least it looks very very good, and I'm waiting forward for the evening!!

Banoffee Cheesecake

Crust:

85 g [1/3 cup] butter - melted

200 g digestive biscuits - crushed

Filling:

600 g philadelphia cream cheese

3 large eggs

2 Tbsp cornflour

140 g [heaping 2/3 cup] golden caster sugar

finely grated zest of lemon

1 tsp vanilla

Toffee Sauce:

50 g butter

100 g [1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp] light muscovado sugar

142 ml [1/3 cup + 1/4 cup] double/heavy cream

Toppings:

2 medium bananas - sliced thickly

fresh lemon juice

284 ml [1 cup + 2 Tbsp] whipping or double cream

Preheat oven to 350F/180C/gas mark 4.

For the crust:

1. Mix melted butter with the biscuit crumbs and press the mixture evenly into the bottom of a 23cm springform pan (preferably non-stick).

For the filling:

1. Beat all the ingredients in a bowl with an electric mixer until well combined.

2. Pour into the cake pan set on a baking sheet making sure to level off the top.

3. Bake for 50 minutes until golden brown. The top will be a little wobbly but it will set as it cools. Turn the oven off and leave the oven door open leaving the cheesecake to cool completely inside.

For the toffee sauce:

1. Melt the butter gently with the double cream and sugar in a saucepan while continously stirring until the sugar dissolves. Let it gently boil briefly.

For the topping:

1. Whip the whipping cream to soft peaks.

2. Squeeze some lemon juice onto the sliced bananas.

To assemble:

1. Put the whipped cream on the cooled cheesecake in a swirling fashion.

2. Wedge the banana slices in the cream.

3. Drizzle a little toffee sauce on top and also serve on the side.