cheesecake Archives - Page 4 of 5

Dark Chocolate Cheesecake Tart With Summer Fruits

28|03|2015

So, we are well into Autumn! There are no color changing maple leaves where I live. The sun hasn’t started to set earlier either. There is a very slight chill in the morning. But it is still Autumn. Because it is no longer summer. Because the beautiful raspberries, nectarines and plums are getting replaced with apples and oranges. I will be waiting a long wait before I play with them again. The change of the seasons, more specifically the end of summer does have a slight depressing effect on me. It could have something to do with my love for colors and my need for sunshine. It could also have to do with the other side of the world, where nature is presenting itself in the form of my favorite produce.

This cheesecake tart is once again one of those excuses for me to get hold of the last summer produce and lay them out generously on the top. I wanted a nice crumbly chocolate-y crust and a rich filling to complement the fruits. I fully baked the shell till it was nice and crisp and then added the cheesecake filling. Once the filling was set, I poured chocolate ganache on top for another layer of chocolate indulgence. So, three layers of chocolate and some gorgeous berries, grapes and figs and you have an impressive dessert.

Dark Chocolate Cheesecake Tart With Summer Fruits
Serves 8-10

For the Tart Shell (adapted from here)
125 g chilled butter
1 cup (150 g) plain flour
1/3 cup (60 g) icing sugar mixture
1/4 cup (30 g) almond meal
1/4 cup (30 g) cocoa powder
1 egg yolk

For the Chocolate Cheesecake Filling
250 g dark chocolate, melted and cooled
400 g cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup castor sugar
125 ml heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks

Chocolate Ganache
200 g dark chocolate
1/4 cup heavy cream

Make the tart shell: Place the butter, flour, icing sugar, almond meal and cocoa powder in the bowl of a food processor and process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and process until mixture just comes together. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead until almost smooth. Shape into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

Preheat oven to 200°C. Roll pastry on a lightly floured surface to a 4mm-thick disc. Line the base and side of a 20cm (base measurement) round, fluted tart tin with removable base. Use a sharp knife to trim the edges. Place in the fridge for 15 minutes to rest.

Place the tart tin on an baking tray. Line the pastry with baking paper and fill with rice or beans. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 180 degrees C. Remove the rice or beans and bake for a further 15-20 minutes or until pastry is perfectly cooked through. Remove from oven and set aside to cool (do not remove from tart pan).

Meanwhile make the cheesecake filling : Melt chocolate in a double-boiler over medium heat. Leave to cool. You can also use a microwave, just follow the instructions on the chocolate packet.

Whip cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the whipped cream and mix till smooth. Stir in melted chocolate until mixture is smooth and well blended.

Pour mixture onto the tart shell. Level out the surface with the back of a spoon. Chill for at least 5 hours. Remove from refrigerator and pour over chocolate ganache. Allow to set in the fridge for 15 minutes. Decorate with fresh fruits, just before serving.

To make the chocolate ganache, heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan. Before it reaches boiling point, remove from heat, add the chocolate. Leave aside for 10 minutes. Mix till chocolate is well blended and smooth. Alternately, you could place the cream and chocolate together in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for a few seconds.

Rose And Cardamom Cheesecake Mille-feuille

13|03|2015

With puff pastry, I think the sky is the limit when you think of recipes. Remember my story about my fridge overload. One of the things I always stock up on is puff pastry. I stopped making my own a couple of years ago. It is not difficult to make at all but time consuming. With two little boys on tow, I would never remember to take the dough out on time after it had rested between the different stages of rolling. When I would remember, it would be too hard to roll. I would leave it on the counter and forget again. But now that I keep the rolled sheets at home, I find it really helpful to make sweet and savory food in a jiffy.

Mille feuilles are a great way of using puff pastry. Layers of pastry cream or even whipped cream and fruit sandwiched between crumbly layers of pastry. Visually, they are beautiful in their little rustic stacks and the perfect marraige of contrasting textures. Here I’ve use whipped cream cheese between the layers for a no-bake cheesecake kind of dessert. So basically it is a fusion of two desserts that come together in minutes. I’ve infused the cheesecake with rose water and tiny bit of cardamom powder and sprinkled them with with ground pistachios. You could go with vanilla, orange or even lemon if you do not have rose water at home.

Piping the cheesecake certainly makes them look pretty but if you are not comfortable with piping, you could spread the cheesecake mixture on the layers. I would insist though that you give piping a try. A plain round tip will work nicely too or if you do not have nozzles and piping bags at home, just cut a tiny opening at one corner of a zip-lock bag and use that to pipe on the pastry layers. These mille feuilles can be stored in the fridge but is best assembled just before serving.

Rose And Cardamom Cheesecake Mille-feuille
Makes 4

1 sheet (25 x 25 cm) frozen ready-rolled butter puff pastry, just thawed
250 g cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup icing sugar, sifted
1/2 cup cold whipping cream or heavy cream
1 tbsp rose water (or 1 tsp rose essence)
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
1 handful pistachios, skinned and finely chopped

Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut the pastry sheet vertically and horizontally. You will have four squares. Cut each square equally to get 8 rectangles.

Place the pastry rectangles on the lined tray. Top them with another sheet of baking paper and another baking tray. Bake in oven for 12-15 minutes. Turn the trays over and bake for a further 5-10 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and golden. Set aside for 30 minutes to cool completely.

Meanwhile, make the cheesecake filling. In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the icing sugar and beat until smooth. Gradually add the heavy cream, rose water and cardamom powder and whip until the frosting is thick enough to pipe. In case you are using a brand of heavy cream that does not whip easily, then whip the cream separately to stiff peaks and fold it gradually into the cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate till needed.

To assemble, pipe the cheesecake filling onto one pastry rectangle. Sandwich with another pastry rectangle. Pipe filling again. Sprinkle with pistachios. Decorate with edible rosebuds.

Ferrero Rocher Ice Cream Cheesecake

27|11|2014

The best of both worlds! A Ferrero Rocher Cheesecake and ice cream combined together to make a delicious frozen treat.

At work, we often had training sessions on personality development, leadership, team building and such things. I remember one of the mentors talking about the importance of ‘being at the right place at the right time. People who are able to do that are deemed smarter and successful. It always made me wonder what the right time was..who knows! I would say it has a bit to do with luck and a lot of persistence.
Ferrero Rocher chocolates (which happen to be the most favourite chocolate of mine) were the first things to go on sale at my local supermarket this year. I wouldn’t like to think of myself a person who keeps tabs on sales…in fact quite the oppsosite, but Ferrero Rochers at half price is a pretty big deal. I noticed it in the mailers and made a mental note to be there. By the time I went there, they were gone. Every single one of them. I checked with the store manager and he smiled. ‘They were gone in a couple of hours’. He told me they would be put up on the shelves again at the end of the week. This time I made sure I was there at the start of business. I waited for a few minutes since they told me that the new stocks hadn’t arrived. Finally I came back ,without the Ferrero Rochers of course. So I guess I was not at the right place at the right time. Or maybe at the wrong time at the right place. But here’s the twist to the story.

The same evening we attended a birthday party. There were two celebrations going on at the same time, one of them for a little girl. My boys came back with return gifts in pretty paper bags. When I opened them, what do I see! Yes, two boxes of Ferrero Rochers. Some things are just destined. Like this cake. Our weather totally demands it and the festivities call for it.

As much as I love cheesecakes and you see them often on the blog, I don’t enjoy the waiting time to photograph them. Which is mostly the next day to make sure they are are nicely set and hold up shape outside while I shoot them. This one being a ice cream blended cheesecake, took about 4 hours to set and the edges/sides were neat when I removed it from the spring-form pan. So you could make this even at the spur of the moment and you could have a gorgeous cake to serve after dinner. The cake has a chocolate cookie crust, a layer of ice-cream cheesecake filled with chopped Ferrero Rochers, a drizzle of chocolate sauce and more Ferrero Rocher Chocolates on top. It is really simple to make with no fancy equipment or technique. The taste is like a vanilla cheesecake with crunchy bits of chocolate and hazelnut in each bite. So good!

Though I did cut into the cheesecake the same day, I though it was better if you keep it longer in the freezer. Make sure to take it out 10 minutes before you serve it. The best thing is that the cake will keep for months in the freezer so it makes for a fantastic make-ahead dessert. When I had posted my Ferrero Rocher Mousse Cake a few months ago, I had smashed the chocolates in a zip-lock bag. This time I figured out, it was better to chop them up with a sharp knife. It makes it easier to handle the chocolates. You may use use store bought chocolate sauce to drizzle on top. I always have home made sauce in my fridge so I used that.

Ferrero Rocher Ice Cream Cheesecake
Makes a 19 cm round cake

200 g chocolate cookies
70 g unsalted butter
8-10 Ferrero Rocher chocolates, roughly chopped
400 g cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
500 ml vanilla ice-cream, slightly softened (I used store bought)
1/2 cup dark chocolate sauce (recipe below), to drizzle
8-10 Ferrero Rocher Chocolates, to decorate

For the dark chocolate sauce
100g dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup pouring/single cream
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Line the base of a 19 cm round Spring-form pan with baking paper.
Place the cookies in a food processor. Process until fine crumbs. Add melted butter and mix to combine. Alternatively, you could crush the biscuits with a rolling pin inside a zip-lock bag. Using your fingertips, press biscuit mixture over base of prepared pan. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes or until firm.

Beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl (with a mixer or a whisk) until well blended. Add the ice cream and mix well. Gently fold in the chopped chocolates. Pour over the prepared crust. Freeze for 4 hours or until firm. Remove from freezer 10 minutes before serving. When ready to serve, drizzle with chocolate sauce, top with remaining Ferrero Rocher chocolates and drizzle with more sauce.

To make Dark Chocolate Sauce: Combine chocolate, cream and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool. To store, pour into a cup/jar, cover and store in the refrigerator till needed. Warm up before using.

Ombre Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Tart (No Bake)

21|07|2014

Let’s talk about colours! Or the absence of them. Can you imagine a world without colours? How boring would that be! Colours contribute to our visual experience. They help us to relate to our environment. They stimulate imagination and creativity. One of the earliest and basic things we learnt as kids were to recognise and differenciate between colours. We painted the yellow sun, wanted to dive into the blue sea, ride the red bike and messed up the brown cake. Most of us loved it. Because it simplified our understanding of the big world around us and gave us our first powers. The power of choice! I can tell you how big and powerful I felt at 4 years when I was allowed to choose the colour of my birthday dress.

As bloggers, photographers, food enthusiasts colours have never been more important to us. How much do we love Pinterest! Being a colour fanatic myself, I love what I can do with the pictures and recipes on of my blog. I feel empowered, in a humble way. On the topic of colours, Ombre is amazing! It is a feast for the eyes. When you add Chocolate and Cheese to it, it is a feast for the soul.

Getting the Ombre effect on a tart was impossible without piping the filling onto it. I didn’t want to make a cake as there are plenty of beautiful ones out there. So I decided to go with the usual no-bake crust that I use to make my cheesecakes, only in tart form. I started out with a base cheesecake mixture, then divided it into three bowls and mixed the 3 types of chocolate individually. Then it was a matter of filling up a piping bag and piping in the filling (starting with white) in a shaded effect.

This recipe is easier than it looks. Like a no-bake cheesecake, this is best stored in the refrigerator. Because this is a large tart, the tart crust might be slightly delicate to deal with, so do be carful while releasing the sides of the tart pan. I have not used gelatine in this recipe, which I would usually do to get a firmer texture for my cheesecake. Since, I intended to pipe the cheesecake filling, I reduced the heavy cream content so it was firm enough to hold shape. If you are going to use a single piping bag, needless to say, it is best to start with the white chocolate filling.

This Ombre tart is my contribution to the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop for the month of July. This is hosted by the lovely JJ of 84th &3rd and the theme as you might have guessed is Ombre. Do check out the other creations at the bottom of the post.

Starting with something sweet on a Monday morning is my best start to a week. I hope you are off to a colourful & sweet start too!

Ombre Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Tart (No Bake)
Serves 8-10

300g chocolate cookies
100g unsalted butter, melted
200g dark chocolate, melted and brought to room temperature
150g milk chocolate, melted and brought to room temperature
150g white chocolate, melted and brought to room temperature
500g cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup Castor sugar
250 ml heavy or thickened cream
cocoa powder, to serve
chocolate shavings, to serve

Grease a 23 cm Tart pan (with a removable base) and line the base with baking paper.
Place the cookies in a food processor. Process until fine crumbs. Add melted butter and mix to combine. Using your fingertips, press biscuit mixture over base of prepared pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.

Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl until smooth. In a separate bowl, whip heavy cream to stiff peaks. Fold through cream in the cream cheese mixture, gradually. Divide this mixture equally among 3 bowls. Mix the dark, milk and white chocolate individually into a bowl of the cream cheese mixture. Fold in till smooth and blended.

Fill up a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle with the white chocolate cheesecake filling. Meanwhile, refrigerate the other two bowls. Pipe cheesecake kisses onto 1/3rd of the tart base. (I have done two overlapping layers). Repeat with the milk and dark chocolate cheesecake fillings till the entire tart base is covered. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until set. Sprinkle with cocoa. Decorate with chocolate shavings. Serve cold.