Easy and delicious NO-BAKE mango cheesecake



 Cheesecake is one of my favourite desserts. This particular recipe is tailored to my taste buds :) but anyone who tries it, falls in love with it. It is also very easy and quick to make.
Sponge base makes the whole composition very light. It is different to the biscuit base in most common version.
Delicate filling topped with mango glaze will melt in your mouth.

SPONGE BASE* 8'' You will need only 5mm layer for the base so the leftover you can use to make different dessert
5 eggs
3/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup potato flour (corn flour will give you same results)

Separate the eggs and put egg whites in a mixer bowl. Beat it until soft peaks and start adding sugar. When the mixture is firm and glossy (about 4min) start adding egg yolks.
Sift both flours together and gently fold into the mixture.
Onto the lined baking tin and bake in the 175C for about 30-40min or until dry inside (you will need to check it, I use a kebab stick)

* If you are more traditional or really busy, just skip the sponge making and crush some digestive biscuits with melted butter to line the base of your tin.

FILLING
150g white chocolate
340ml double cream
100g mascarpone cheese
80g quark
100ml mango puree (I used ready made puree but you can easily make your own)
2 gelatine leaves bronze (about 7g)

Put gelatine leaves in cold water and set aside.
Warm up 100ml double cream with white chocolate constantly mixing. Take it of the heat. When chocolate is melted add gelatine (remember to squeeze all the water before).
In a bowl blend together quark, mascarpone and remaining double cream until smooth. Now pour chocolate over the cheese mixture and mix together. Add mango puree and stir until combined.

MANGO TOPPING
90ml mango puree (mango juice will also do the trick)
90ml water
1 gelatine leaf

Bloom the gelatine first. Heat gently puree with water until warm enough to melt gelatine.
Leave it to cool.

ASSEMBLY

Prepare the sponge. Cut the thin layer and place it back in a tin. (at this stage you can soak it with a mixture of mango juice and water) Pour the cheese filling onto the sponge and leave it in the fridge to set. It needs to be firm enough to hold the topping. Pour mango sauce over the top and put it back in the fridge until completely set.
Enjoy!

 

My first pattiserie challenge

 

 When reading BBC Good Food magazine I was stunned with this beauty. It was Edd Kimber's Caramelised white chocolate, ginger caramel & macadamia tart.

Great British Bake Off winner said: These tarts have a lot of steps, but please trust me when I say that each and every part of this recipe is achievable and it's so worth the effort.

 There was no getting away from it!

 There is a sweet pastry, caramelised white chocolate, caramelised chocolate bavarois, ginger macadamia caramel and the caramelised white chocolate glaze to make but it just sound difficult! It really is achievable!
It can be prepared in any shape but if you want a little tarts, you will need a silicone dome shape pan.

 



If you feel ready, just click here to find the recipe. Good luck!

 

I also made one in a U shape terrine mould (yule log). I can't stand the idea of using it only at Christmas. It is too beautiful.

Plum crumble tart with almond frangipane

 Gordon Ramsay's 'Three star chef' book sat on my bookshelf for ages. I was never brave enough to try anything. That was a book for looking at the pictures only. I don't know if it was sudden boost of self confidence or just the act of silliness but I've decided to make one of his desserts.
I chose Plum crumble tart with almond frangipane.
I have to say that this dessert is time-consuming to make but tastes amazing.  The more flavoursome plums the better.

PASTRY

225g plain flour

pinch of salt

1tsp caster sugar

140g unsalted butter, diced

1 medium egg yolk, beaten with 2tbsp water

Sift the flour and salt into bowl, add sugar and put into a food processor along with the butter. Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse  crumbs. Adds the egg and mix until the mixture comes together. Wrap into a cling film and put it in the fridge for 30min.

FRANGIPANE

75g unsalted butter

75g caster sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

75g ground almonds

Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy. Incorporate the egg and almonds. Cover the bowl with cling film and set aside.

PLUM FILLING AND SAUCE

12 firm plums

500ml stock syrup

Half and stone 8 plums, then cut into wedges. Put stock syrup in a saucepan and poach plums for 6-8min. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool.

For the sauce, stone and cut 4 plums. Poach in the same syrup for 8-10min. Put it in the blender and make a puree. Push it through a sieve.

PLUM PUREE

3 plums

2tbsp caster sugar

Stone and chop the plums. Toss it with the sugar and place in a frying pan. Cook over medium heat until juices are cooked off. When soft, puree the plums.

CRUMBLE

45g plain flour

pinch of salt

40g unsalted butter

35g caster sugar

45g ground almonds

I put all the ingredients in the bowl and rub them with my fingers until they look like a crumble.

For the assembly, roll out the pastry and line it in a tin of your choice. I filled five 8cm tart rings and one 20cm. Blind bake it for 15 min. Cool slightly, then spread a thin layer of frangipane over the base of each tartlet case. Bake for another 8-10 min until frangipane is slightly golden. Now spread a little puree in the middle of each tart. Arrange plums segments in a overlapping circle on top. Sprinkle a little crumble in the centre and bake for 5min until the crumble is golden.

Technically you should leave it to cool but I couldn't wait and tried it warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Maple syrup little slice

Eat one slice and you will have to finish the whole thing - the title of this recipe sounded so inviting.
It looked like it was very easy to make yet still very presentable. I found my missing ingredients on line (again! :)). Few days later and few pounds lighter I was ready to start.


MAPLE SYRUP SPONGE         
210g almond paste (65%)                               
5 eggs                                                      
95g maple powdered sugar                                                
85g brown sugar                                                                  
170g pastry flour
5g baking powder
180g slightly salted butter
95g maple syrup

MAPLE SYRUP SOAK
150g water
150g maple syrup

MUSCOVADO ICING
70g 35% cream
45g butter
70g icing sugar sifted
 145g muscovado sugar

MAPLE SYRUP FUDGE       
10g maple syrup
120g brown sugar
5g pastry flour
30g slightly salted butter
60g evaporated milk
pinch of baking powder

The amount of sugar in this recipe screamed 'DIABETES' but I am no pastry chef. I know very little about composing new formulas. If famous pastry expert says that he is in love with it I had to give it a go.

Hmmm, the verdict....it looked much better than it tasted. My intuition was right! It was way too sweet. However, sponge was really nice and moist. If you are a fan of sticky toffee pudding, you might just! like it. 

Praline ice cream or vanilla ice cream with praline :) I couldn't decide...

 Hazelnut praline leftovers were calling me to my kitchen all night. So when I woke up, I went straight to scavenge the fridge. I was very pleased to find some cream and eggs because I already knew that praline ice cream is what I wanted.

PRALINE ICE CREAM
375ml whole milk
500ml at least 30% butterfat cream (I use 36%)
5 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod seeds
at least half a cup of praline

Food Standard Agency advices to make an ice cream based on cooked eggs. Especially when you serving people at high risk for foodborne infections: infants or pregnant women.
Although I like sorbets and yoghurt based ice cream, the cooked ones are my favourite.

Combine the milk and 300ml cream in a saucepan, add half a sugar, vanilla seeds and bring it to over 83C. In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until you will achieve a pale colour.
Pour it into the cream and mix it. Keep heating it up, the mixture will thicken a little. Watch carefully to not to boil it as the cream will separate and your ice cream will be ruined.
Take it of the heat and add remaining cream to stop the cooking process. Let it cool and refrigerate it ideally over night or at least for few hours.
Pour the mixture into ice cream maker. After it is done and before moving it to a container of your choice, add praline.

I love the taste and texture and the look of the praline. That is why I added quite a lot. But be careful, it will add to the sugar which is already in the ice cream. If you don't want to end up with very sweet taste add less praline or reduce the sugar in the first step.

Keep it in the freezer for few hours. Now you can ask : Ice cream anyone?

Chocolate and hazelnut praline tartlets

Chocolate and hazelnut is a combination widely used in pastry kitchen. I absolutely adore this flavour! Do you know of anyone who would say no to Nutella? Me neither :)
I found this recipe in a 'Best of Christophe Michalak'  book but I adapted it to my requirements and resources.

CHOCOLATE SPONGE - 10cm flan rings x10
3 eggs (150g)
60g caster sugar
pinch of salt
50g pastry flour
15g cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 200C. Beat the egg whites with sugar and salt.
Sift the flour and cocoa together and set aside. Start adding egg yolks to the mixture one at a time, constantly whisking. At the end gently fold the flour and cocoa powder with a spatula. Bake it for about 5-7min.

Baking time depends on vessel you will be using. I used 10cm tart ring because I love the look of round desserts. There is no rule.

Batter will rise a little so don't fill the form to the top. You will need some room for the mousse as well.

CHOCOLATE 'SOAK'
120g water
40g caster sugar
10g cocoa powder
Bring everything to boil. Let it cool and soak the sponge with the brush.

MILK CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

80g whipping cream 36%

80g whole milk

10g brown sugar

1 egg yolk (30g)

90g milk chocolate 32% *

235g milk chocolate 43%*

275g whipped cream (soft peaks)

Chop the chocolate and put it in the bowl. In a pan mix cream, milk, brown sugar and egg yolk together. Bring it to 85C. 

Pour it over the chocolate, wait a little and mix it together.

When it will reach 40C fold in whipped cream.

* I used widely available chocolate from the local supermarket but the cocoa solids percentage was as close as I could find to the original recipe. Sometimes it is very hard to get exact same ingredient but I can't see why you  could't use a substitute.

Put about 100g of mousse in the pastry bag  and leave it in the fridge. The rest divide between the tarts, pouring it on the top. Put it into the freezer for good few hours, ideally overnight.

HAZELNUT PRALINE

130g caster sugar

100g blanched and roasted hazelnuts

pinch of salt

Cook sugar until brown. Put hazelnuts on sheet of baking paper or silicon mat and pour sugar over them. Add pinch of salt. Let it cool and use the blender to grind them. Congratulations! You have just made a praline noisette.

Assembling the tarts is absolutely individual thing. You can go for layered version (sponge, mousse, praline) or use a mousse which was set aside in the fridge to make little 'dots' which will hold chocolate. You can experiment, it is entirely up to you how finished product will look like. 

.

 For finishing touches I used a chocolate decoration topped with gold leaf and a praline sprinkles

  

Gelatine disaster!


Shortly before Easter I've been asked to do a dessert to 'WOW' large number of people.
Questions like that are what I'm waiting for because I spend hours browsing the net for new recipes, techniques, books etc. So that kind of requests are very sought after.
Something beautifully looking, fairly easy to make and in large quantity. I had a recipe just right for it. It came from Callebaut website so it must have been fool proofed, or so I thought!


White chocolate, raspberry and lime cheesecake. I could see it plated already, perfect for the occasion!
The recipe was as  follows :

• 200g egg yolks
• 405g sugar
• 1kg cream cheese
• 9 leaves gelatine
• 1kg white chocolate
• 1l cream
• 50g lime zest
• 500g digestives biscuits
• 250g butter
• 100g stock syrup
• 2 leaves gelatine
• 100g raspberry puree

Huge quantities, overwhelming even. Because I have never done anything like it I was very excited and maybe a little scared. Bought all ingredients , started on first few steps and then it stroke me. Gelatine! The recipe called for 9 leaves but I had at least 3 strengths of gelatine in my house!
At the end I used the one I've never worked with (bronze), I didn't know what I was doing when changing quantities and it was a mistake. The cheesecake turned out rubbery (great for slicing though) and the glaze on the top was so hard that you could mistake it for gummy bear. I wasn't happy! You can imagine my disappointment when taken out of the fridge.

Of course my close circle of friends cheer for all the successes and great bakes but they also cheer when the worst strikes :) So everybody was so happy when I gave it away apart from me!

That was it, lessons learnt.
First of all, if you unsure about any of the new ingredient work with the small quantities, your failure will be less expensive!
Second, boy don't I know a lot about a gelatine now! :)

  Here are the most common facts:

                                   

• The definition given by the Food and Agriculture Organization says that it is a protein produced by partial hydrolysis of collagen in skin, tendons, ligaments, bones etc. of animals. It is 100% animal product.
• It's colorless and tasteless and acts as the binder. It is used in both sweet and savory recipes.
•  It is wildly available in powdered form (all supermarkets) and leaf/sheet form (some supermarkets, gourmet food shops, on-line shops).  Not so long ago gelatine in leaf form was almost exclusive to professionals. Using sheets results with clearer, more transparent product with smoother consistency. Times have changed and now when shopping on-line is so easy, anyone can try it. I prefer it too!
• The gelling properties of gelatine are dependent on its gel strength. This is given in Bloom grams( the firmness of a 6.67% gel after 17h storage at 10C) according to the method defined by the American scientist Oscar T. Bloom. In addition, they are dependent on the gelling time, temperature and viscosity. Gelatin sheets bronze 125-155 bloom (3.3g per sheet) , silver 160 (2.5g per sheet), gold 190-220(2g per sheet), platinum 235-265(1.7g per sheet).
• The best way to work with gelatine is to stick to instructions. However the most common and simplified 'equation' could work if you don't have any. 1 sheet of gelatine will set a 100ml of liquid into a soft texture (that can be turned) and 125ml into a wobbly texture (you will need to serve it in glass).
• There is no solution to convert from powdered to leaf gelatine. I suspect that weight is a key. Simply if you need a 10g of powder and your leaf one weights 2g per sheet, you will need approx. 5 sheets for your recipe. Also 1 tbsp of powdered gelatine = 4 sheets is very common practice.
• Some fruits like pineapple, papaya, kiwi, melon contain protein digesting enzymes which prevent gelatine from setting. You can deactivate the enzyme by bringing the fruits to 80C.
• Gelatine melts at 30-35C and sets at <20C.
• Do not boil gelatine nor the gelatine mixture because it will loose its setting properties.
• All gelatine needs to be hydrated before it can be used. Powdered gelatine is sprinkled over a cold water to soften the granules for about 3-5 min and then heated to clear liquid before use. Leaf form must be left in cold water for 3-5 min before it can be added to the product.

There is of course a lot more to find out about gelatine but I feel that the more I read the less I know. So taking all the information into account I am going to try a new recipe and will see how this will turn out.