Gluten-free cheesecake or avocado lime pie

Base (can double quantities for larger tin - this gives a 1cm thick base in a 20cm tin)

100g dates
60g whole almonds
25g desiccated coconut
25g chopped dark chocolate, optional

Chop all together in food processor. Add 50g coconut oil or butter, melted and cooled

Cheesecake topping

1/2 284ml pot Guernsey thick cream (or whipped double cream)
225g pack cream cheese
1/5 tin condensed milk or to taste
juice and zest of one large lime

Avocado topping:

Whizz 2 ripe avocadoes with juice and zest from 2 limes, a pinch of salt and 75g honey until smooth. Pour over crust, chill for 3 - 4 hours or overnight.

Lemon sour cream cake with cream cheese frosting by Destitute Gourmet

Destitute Gourmet's recipe:

This moist cake is deliciously citrusy. You bake it simply in a 25 cm tin and serve dusted with icing sugar and a dollop of Greek yoghurt or Bake in a smaller deeper 20 cm tin and split into 3 layers for a celebration cake. Its delicous with lemon curd and lemony butter cream or cream cheese icing.

250g butter
2 cups sugar
6 eggs
4 tsp lemon zest
250g sour cream – use lite if you wish
2 cups pl flour
2 tsp baking powder

Glaze
Juice of 1 lemon combined with ¼ cup sugar

Cream cheese icing
250 g full fat cream cheese – don’t use lite cream cheese see cooks tip
2 ½ cups sifted icing sugar
a squeeze of lemon juice –to your personal taste
¾ cup lemon curd - optional
Pre heat the oven to 180° regular bake not fan.

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, use electric beaters if you have them.
Beat in the eggs 1 at a time then add the lemon zest.
Whip the sour cream with a fork until is it soft then mix it into the eggs, butter and sugar.
Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in gently with a metal spoon.
Place in a greased and lined 20 - 25 cm cake tin.
For a 25cm cake bake 60 – 70 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. For a 20 cm cake reduce the temperature to 170 ° and bake for 1 hr 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Pour the glaze over the warm cake, cover and let cool in the tin.
When cool split the cake into 3 layers, set aside the base of the cake to use as the top as it will be perfectly flat.
Beat the cream cheese until smooth then mix in the icing sugar and lemon juice. Spread one layer of the cake with lemon curd if using and then spread with 1/3 of the icing, place a cake layer on top and repeat with the curd and icing. Add the final layer, which was the base of the cake with the smoothest side facing up. Pile the remaining icing in the and spread it over the top working from the centre out to the sides. Chill the cake until required.
Cooks tip: Lite Cream cheese won’t hold its shape once beaten. It becomes very runny and will simply run off the cake even after refrigeration. Much as we love to use lighter options where we can, in the case of cream cheese icing its full fat or nothing.

Flowers: edible flowers brushed with egg white, dusted with castor sugar and air dried.

Chocolate chip cookies

Here are tips for making good chocolate chip cookies:

Use brown sugar as well as white.
Use full fat cream cheese - recipe below
Refrigerate the dough for up to 3 days before baking
Undercook by a couple of minutes - they will carry on baking afterwards.

Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: About 3 dozen cookies

 

Prep Time: 2 hours (includes chilling)

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
1/4 cup cream cheese, at room temp
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, cream cheese, sugar, light brown sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture, beating to combine, then stir in the chocolate chips.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for a minimum of 2 hours and up to 3 days.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats.

Drop 2- to 3-tablespoon mounds of dough onto the baking sheets, spacing the mounds at least 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies for 9 to 11 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 2 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Kelly's Notes:
Measure 1/4 cup cream cheese by spooning/scraping it into a dry measuring cup and leveling it off.

Belinda's Baked Lemon Cheesecake

Belinda, Richard and Issy came to lunch today. Lovely to catch up with them and trade news, and lovely to eat this delicious cheesecake which Bel brought with her.

Baked lemon cheesecake.

Crust: Mix 85g flour, 40g fine polenta, 50g sugar and 85g butter (melted) all together. I also added a few drips of Sicilian lemon essence. Press into 9"/20cm springform tin. Bake at 150 fan oven for 35 mins til pale gold colour. Cool.



Filling Put these into a blender: 350g cream cheese,150g caster sugar, 4 med eggs,grated zest and juice of 2 lemons, 1 tsp vanilla extract. This will come out bigger than the one I made as I reduced quantities by a third. (200g cream cheese, 100g sugar, 2 large eggs, still 2 lemons - lovely lemony deliciousness.)

Pour over base. Bake for 30-40 mins until slightly risen and just set.

Heat some lemon curd (about 1/3 jar) and pour over cheese cake. Chill overnight.

(The recipe actually says bake for 30 mins, then cool for a few mins, then add 300ml soured cream to the top and bake for 10 more minutes. I didn't do this, as I preferred the lemon curd topping - up to you!)

The crust was quite hard... could try baking this without any crust at all for the gluten-free option.

Cheesecake icecream

Beat together: 1 tin condensed milk and 200 - 250g soft cream cheese.
Beat 300 ml double cream until stiff.
Combine all gently together.
Fold in:
half a jar of lemon curd, 2 handfuls coarsely crushed digestive or ginger biscuits.
Freeze.

Alternative: fold in any kind of fruit pie filling, as long as the fruit is cooked. Berry preserves are probably best.

Carrot cake

A simple carrot cake recipe always seems hard to find. This one is adapted from three different versions!  It seemed to work, anyway. I thought I'd better write it down as I'm bound to forget it later...
Using a food processor is easiest for grating carrots and beating wet mixture together.

From BBC Good Food:
175g light muscovado sugar or a mix of brown and white sugars
175ml sunflower oil  - perhaps even only 5 fluid ounces
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
140g grated carrots (about 3 medium) or 1 carrot and 2 bananas
100g raisins or 75g marmelade
grated zest of 1 large orange
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour)

Mix altoether lightly, bake 180 degrees for 40 - 45 minutes.

Ice with butter/icing sugar/lemon or orange juice. OR for a sticky topping: heat 2tbsp thick-cut marmalade and 2tbsp orange juice together. Make small holes all over the top of the cake with a skewer and brush the marmalade mixture all over. Leave to cool completely before slicing and serving.

Also, for a larger cake:

Grate 12 oz/360g carrots.  Beat in 8 oz/225g sugar (any combination of white/brown sugars and honey if wished), 4 fl oz oil and 4 eggs.
Sift together  9oz/ 260g self raising flour, pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 - 2 teaspoons mixed spice (I used garam masala, ginger and cinnamon). Mix into wet mixture.
Bake in 8 inch square deep tin for 25 - 35 minutes or in 2 shallower tins for 20 - 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Optional: finely grated rind of half an orange, if you can be bothered.  I couldn't.

Ice with normal orange flavoured butter icing, or a mixture of 240g/8oz low fat soft cheese or mascarpone cheese beaten with 1 - 2 tbspn orange juice and 2 tablespoons icing sugar. However, I've always found this cream cheese icing too runny.

Joan's cheesecake

This is possibly my newest recipe. Uncooked cheesecake. Joan, who I know from Alpha and its follow-on, produces this wonderful dessert at every social occasion.  I'm not sure I have the recipe exactly right, but it's good enough:


Uncooked ginger cheesecake

Stir 75g butter or hard margarine into 250g crushed ginger biscuits. Press into an 8" tin with removable sides, or onto a plate within a circle of waxed card, which works just as well. Possibly better.

Beat 400g room temperature cream cheese with the zest and juice of a lemon. Stir in 250ml whipped cream until completely mixed. Pour onto biscuit base and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  Drizzle with a little chocolate melted with a teaspoon of butter.