I have taken a little break from cooking and blogging over the past couple of months, mainly because of exams, but also because I have recently become gluten free, due to my IBS. As someone who loves bread, cake, pasta and basically all things gluten, this has been hard, and I have found it challenging to get inspired and cook new things. Before I move to Australia I have been working my way through meals and dishes I must eat before I go. I have already been treated to sausage, rice and peas and a lovely GF orange polenta cake courtesy of Mum- now it is my turn to treat myself.
Today, in the midst of packing, I chose to take some time to make a white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake. As usual, I partially followed a recipe which I will link below, my ingredients were:
- 200g GF biscuits (I chose hobnobs and Tesco finest dark chocolate and ginger)
- 50g Unsalted butter
- 200g White chocolate
- 200ml Double cream
- 200g Soft cheese (full fat)
- 150g Mascarpone
- 1 Handful raspberries
(I didn’t end up using the icing sugar, see how it is used as a topping in the link below. Also non gluten free biscuits can be used too)
I started off by preparing the biscuits. Sealing the biscuits in a freezer bag I used a big rolling pin to crush them into crumbs. I kept some of the pieces slightly chunkier just to add another texture when its ready to be eaten, rather than a really fine base. The use of dark chocolate biscuits works well as a bitter touch to the sweet white chocolate and cream cheese filling. Once the biscuits were crumbled I added them, along with 50g of melted butter, into a bowl and gave it a good mix. The butter acts as a binding agent so it needs to be mixed in really well.
I pressed the biscuit mix into a non-stick springform tin, using a spoon and my hands. It’s useful to get your hands a bit messy just to ensure there’s an even layer pressed firmly down into the bottom of the tin. It was then time to work on the creamy filling, so I put the tin in the fridge to chill.
I started off by melting the white chocolate in the microwave. I was very lucky as my lovely Mum bought me the ingredients yesterday, so I was able to use Green and Blacks chocolate. It is so creamy and rich and perfect as a sweet touch in the sour cream cheese. I gave it bursts in the microwave for about 5 minutes, keeping a careful eye on it. Melting choc in a microwave can be a bit risky; if it catches, or burns, the chocolate will be bitter and ruined. An alternative method is placing the bowl of chocolate over a saucepan of boiling water.
Whilst the white choc was melting I began making the cheese mixture. This was really easy, like the rest of the recipe actually. With a wooden spoon I mixed the cream cheese, mascarpone and double cream. It is important not to beat the mixture too much as it will become too stiff and mixing in the chocolate will be a challenge. Once the chocolate was melted it was combined into the cream cheese mixture. At this point the cheese did become slightly lumpy but I used the wooden spoon to smooth it out- easy.
I removed the tin from the fridge and began spooning in the chocolate cream cheese mixture, slowly, ensuring it was even. In between spoonful’s I dropped in a few raspberries and ensured that the mixture was once again smooth. Once I had used all of the mixture I halved a few more raspberries to decorate the cheesecake.
Finally, the cheesecake was ready to be chilled again. The only issue I had is that I couldn’t eat it straight away! It is supposed to take between 3-4 hours in total to chill the mixture, however the recipe does recommend leaving it overnight- I knew I wouldn’t be able to wait this long! I waited around 4 hours, and as the pic shows, my slice was a little messy, just because it needed a bit more chilling. So, once again, it is back in the fridge. The slither I had was delicious! I really recommend GF Hobnobs too for people who can’t eat gluten/wheat!
Unlike my normal cooking this wasn’t something I tried to make on a student budget, 1) because I am treating myself 2) my mum bought me the ingredients. On the website I used it states you can buy all of the ingredients from around £1 per serving (10 portions). I have added the link below give it a go…
https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/baking-and-desserts/eton-mess-cheesecake/
Food Ob-cec-d 