baked blueberry cheesecake

baked blueberry cheesecake

27 Feb 2023

I've had this cheesecake recipe bookmarked for a while now. As you know, I'm not a fan of crumb crusts so when I saw this blueberry cheesecake had a baked pastry case, I was in. I really like my almond shortcrust pastry recipe, so I used that to make the pastry shell but adapted the filling recipe to fit my little tin.

Unfortunately, I had a few problems with the filling. I used 500g cheese but changed the ratios of cream cheese to ricotta cheese (to reflect what I had in my fridge), but I don't think that was the problem. The filling was very, very runny and I think the added rum plus the juices from the blueberries were to blame. I knew the blueberries would sink to the bottom while the cheesecake baked but didn't anticipate that the lattice pastry topping would end up submerged. The unbaked lattice looked really pretty so that was a bit disappointing. Next time I make the cheesecake, I'd skip the lattice and drain and flour the blueberries before adding them to the filling.

Here's the recipe for the cheesecake which can be made the day ahead and refrigerated. The pastry recipe is my own but the filling was adapted from a Neil Perry and Richard Purdue recipe I found online. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Baked blueberry cheesecake - makes a 17cm cheesecake.

Almond shortcrust pastry
110 g (4 oz) cold unsalted butter, diced
¼ cup icing sugar (40g)
¼ cup (30g) almond meal
1⅓ cups (200g) plain flour

pinch of salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cold water
1 extra egg, lightly beaten, for brushing

Ingredients
250 g cream cheese, softened
70 g (1/3 cup) caster sugar 
1 tbs plain flour 
1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk at room temperature
250 g soft fresh ricotta, well drained
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp rum 
Finely grated zest of 1/2 orange
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
125 gm blueberries, macerated overnight in 1 tbsp caster sugar
Icing sugar, for dusting

Method
To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 160°C, conventional. Grease a 17cm springform tin. Cut off ⅓ of the dough and roll out thinly on a lightly floured surface to fit the base of the spring-form tin. Using a rolling pin, drape the pastry over the base cutting it to fit. Divide the remaining pastry in half and roll out one half thinly on a lightly floured surface. Use this half to line the sides of the tin leaving a little overhang. Using your fingers, gently press dough up the side of the tin, trim excess dough with a knife and discard. Refrigerate the pastry case until needed.

Roll out the other half of the dough on a lightly floured work surface until 4mm thick and 20cm round, then cut into 14 x 1cm-wide strips (using a fluted pastry wheel, if you have one). Place pastry strips on a tray lined with baking paper, brush strips with a little of the extra beaten egg and chill until needed.

Beat cream cheese, sugar and flour in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until the cheese is smooth. Add the egg followed by the yolk, making sure each one is fully incorporated before adding the next. Add ricotta, vanilla extract, rum and citrus zests and mix until just combined. Crush blueberries lightly with a fork and then add blueberries and macerating juices. Spoon filling into pastry case and level surface with an offset spatula. Carefully arrange the pastry strips over the top in a lattice pattern, then trim excess pastry.

Bake the cheesecake until the filling is just set and pastry is golden (1¼ hours), (I increased the temperature to 180°C for the final 15 minutes) covering the top with foil if it is over-browning. Transfer the cheesecake to a wire rack and cool in tin for 25 minutes, before unclipping the side to finish cooling completely. To serve, dust with icing sugar and cut into wedges.

The recipe might not have gone quite to plan but the cheesecake still tasted lovely. 

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now, 

Jillian

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crystallised lemon bundt cake

crystallised lemon bundt cake

20 Feb 2023

I saw Claire Saffitz make a crystallised Meyer lemon bundt cake on her YouTube channel a few weeks ago. I decided to make a version using regular lemons because a bit like key limes, I've never seen Meyer lemons for sale in my fruit shop. In the end, although I made a crystallised lemon bundt cake, I didn't end up using Claire's recipe. Here's what happened.

The cake component didn't look terribly different from my go to lemon cake, so at the last minute I used Aran Goyoaga's lemon yoghurt and olive oil cake recipe for the base, because well, it's just perfect. I've made the cake at least 5 times now and it's never failed me. I also read a few comments complaining that the sugar crystals in Claire's recipe dissolved in the glaze, so instead I used a crunchy lemon glaze from a David Lebovitz recipe.

So, here's the recipe for my crystallised lemon bundt cake, inspired by a Claire Saffitz recipe. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Crystallised lemon bundt cake – adapted from an Aran Goyaga recipe
Cake
100g (⅔ cup) plain flour

2 tsp baking powder
pinch table salt
65g (⅔ cup) almond meal, any lumps broken up
135g caster sugar
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 eggs
100mls (80g) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing
2 tsp vanilla extract
125mls (½ cup) whole-milk yoghurt

Glaze - adapted from a David Lebovitz recipe
40 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
30g granulated or raw sugar
75g (½) cup icing sugar
1 tsp olive oil

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and flour a 5 cup bundt tin and place in the fridge until needed.

Sift the flour, the baking powder and salt into a small bowl. Stir through the almond meal and set to one side. In a large bowl, rub together the sugar and lemon zest until fragrant. Add the eggs to the bowl and stir to combine. Drizzle in the oil and the vanilla extract and mix until incorporated. Add the flour in batches alternating with the yoghurt and stir until a smooth batter has formed.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt tin and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes. While the cake is cooling, make the glaze by whisking together the lemon juice, the granulated sugar, icing sugar and olive oil. Add more lemon juice if needed to make a pouring consistency.

Unmould the cake onto a wire rack set over a foil lined tray. Brush with the glaze; you can also brush on any glaze that drops into the pan beneath the cake. Let the cake cool completely before serving.

I used my favourite bundt tin because, touch wood, the cake always unmoulds perfectly.

I cut into the cake while it was still a little warm and despite that, the crumb was still perfect. 

I'm taking this cake into work for a farewell morning tea, so it hasn't been shared yet, but I have a feeling it will be an absolute winner. I'll let you know next week.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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key lime pie

key lime pie

13 Feb 2023

My freezer is full to bursting at the moment. Whilst rifling through the freezer looking for some ricotta gnocchi, I found a packet of almond short crust pastry I'd completely forgotten about. As I haven't baked a pie in ages, I decided to make one. I defrosted the pastry; parbaked a tart shell then scratched my head wondering what kind of filling to make. I looked through the fruit and vegetable drawer and found a bag of limes, so the decision was made for me, I was going to make a key lime pie. 

Have you eaten key lime pie, because I haven't, and I've certainly not made one. I did some digging online and found most recipes were pretty much the same - a biscuit crumb crust and a lime custard filling made with sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks and lime juice +/- grated lime rind then served with whipped cream to offset the sweetness of the filling.

As I'd already made the pastry shell I wasn't going to make a crumb crust, so I just made the filling. I based my filling on an Australian Women's Weekly recipe but I used one fewer egg yolk. I also used one beaten egg white to seal the pastry before filling.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 4cm deep 17cm tart. The filling quantity is enough for a regular 9-inch tart. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Key lime pie

Almond short crust pastry

110 g (4 oz) cold unsalted butter, diced
¼ cup icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
¼ cup (25g) almond meal
1⅓ cups (200g) plain flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cold water

Filling
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon finely grated lime rind
400 gram can condensed milk
½ cup fresh lime juice

Topping
300 mls thickened cream, whipped
Lime zest

Pastry
To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes. You’ll only need about half of the pastry dough for this recipe. The pastry freezes well so just wrap the remaining pastry in plastic wrap and store in the freezer.

Grease a deep 17cm tin. Roll out the pastry quite thinly then line the base and sides of the tin to form a pastry case. Line with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans. Chill for 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 180°C and bake the pastry shell for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. If you like, you can seal the tart shell with egg white and return to the switched off oven for a few minutes until dry. Cool completely before filling.

Filling
Lower the oven temperature to 170°C, conventional. Place the egg yolks and the grated lime rind in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on high speed for about 4 minutes until the mixture lightens in colour and thickens somewhat. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk, mixing until smooth then beat at high speed for 3 minutes. The filling will become slightly thicker and gain a bit of volume. Add the lime juice, stirring just to combine then pour the filling into the tart shell and return the tart (on the baking sheet) to the oven. 

Bake the tart for 15 to 20 minutes, until it appears set around the edges though still a bit wobbly in the centre. Remove the tart from the oven and cool to room temperature then refrigerate for several hours before serving. Just before serving, decorate with the whipped cream and lime zest. If you refrigerate the cream topped pie for an hour or so before serving, you'll find the pie much easier to slice.

All in all, the key lime pie was pretty easy to put together and it would be even easier if you made a crumb crust. The pie filling set nicely using just 3 egg yolks and I was able to get a clean slice. I had my slice last night and it was delicious - crisp pastry, soft just set filling topped with lashings of cream. 

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian 

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nectarine and cream layer cake

nectarine and cream layer cake

4 Feb 2023

I've had this nectarine (or apricot) and cream layer cake recipe bookmarked since last year, when I first saw Warren Mendes make a version of the cake on The Cook Up. I just had to wait for stone fruit season.

As soon as nectarines appeared in the fruit shop, I made the cake as written, using plain flour. As you'd expect, the cakes didn't rise at all, and I was concerned they might be a bit too dense. I found another version of the recipe on Warren's instagram page, but that version used self-raising flour. I decided to remake the recipe with self-raising flour and a little bit of extra baking powder and I was so much happier with the way the cakes turned out. 

It just wasn't my day when I made the cake because I also had trouble with the cream cheese icing, which just collapsed in the heat. In the end I topped and filled the cakes with vanilla scented whipped cream and I also took liberties by adding a layer of homemade apricot jam, because why not?

If you'd like to make my version of the cake, here's the recipe for you which makes a 17cm layer cake. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60 g eggs. My oven is a conventional oven so if you have a fan-forced oven you may need to reduce the temperature by 20°C. 

Nectarine and cream layer cake – adapted from a Warren Mendes recipe
Ingredients
250g ripe nectarines or apricots, halved, seeds removed
50g honey
110g (½ cup) caster sugar
2 tsp finely grated lemon rind
125g unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
pinch of salt
150g (1 cup) self-raising flour sifted with ½ tsp baking powder
50 g (½ cup) almond meal

Topping and filling
300 ml thickened cream
1 tbs caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla bean paste
¼ cup apricot jam
2 nectarines or apricots stones removed, flesh chopped into 1cm pieces
 
Method

Preheat oven to 170˚C, conventional. Grease and line 2 x 17cm round cake tins with baking paper.

Place the nectarines, honey, sugar and lemon rind in a large bowl and use a stick blender to blend until smooth. You can also do this step in a food processor. Add the butter, oil, eggs, vanilla and salt, then blitz again to combine. Stir through the flour and almond meal until well combined, then divide between the cake tins. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the topping, combine the cream, sugar and vanilla bean paste in a bowl and whisk until thick, either using a hand whisk or using a hand mixer.

If needed, trim the top of the cakes using a serrated knife to create a flat top. Spread the apricot jam over the base of one cake. Dollop over half the cream mixture, then smooth out and top with half the chopped nectarines. Top with the other cake and repeat with the cream and nectarines.

So, was it worth remaking the cake? I think it was and the layer of apricot jam with the cream and nectarines, made for a winning combination.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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