Sharing the love of food and trying new recipes...

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

No-bake, passion fruit cheesecake





When I arrived in Sweden last week I found about 2 kg of ripe passion fruit in the fridge. I remembered a nice cheesecake with passion fruit coulis that I had tasted a while ago. Since I had no eggs in the fridge I set to come up with a cheesecake recipe without eggs and that required no baking. I have already tested and posted the classic cheesecake recipe (which requires about 1 hr of baking) so this one is quite different in that it takes a lot less time to prepare and is a bit lighter and fluffier.

The passion fruit coulis is great with this no-bake cheesecake and you can also top the classic cheesecake or panna cotta with it too. The cornstarch will enable the coulis to thicken a bit and stay on top of the cheesecake when slicing, but if you like your fruit coulis more fluid you can skip the cornstarch. I also used the leftover passion fruit coulis in my breakfast the next day it was great :-)

In any case, try this no-bake cheesecake recipe, I really like it and makes for a nice dessert in Summer!

Recipe for a 24 cm springform cake

Base:
250 g digestive biscuits
150 g melted butter

Filling:
600 g cream cheese, room T
150 g sugar (1.5 dl)
1 vanilla pod
2-3 tbsp passion fruit juice
2 tbsp water
3 leaves gelatin
3 dl liquid cream, whipped

Topping:
200 g passion fruit pulp
1 tbsp maizena (corn starch)
1 dl water
60 g sugar

Crush finely the digestive biscuits, add melted butter and mix a bit with a spoon. Grease a spring form and cover the base and sides of it with the biscuit mixture. Refrigerate for at least 10 min (leave it in the fridge until you need it).

In a bowl whip cream cheese (it has to be at room T), sugar and seeds from a vanilla pod.
In a small saucepan, heat up a bit the water and passion fruit juice. Add pre-wetted gelatin sheets and swirl until melted.
Add melted gelatin to cream cheese mix while mixing. Finally fold in the whipped cream.
Transfer the cream to the spring form and even out the surface. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours (overnight is better).

Place sugar and passion fruit pulp in a saucepan. Mix maizena and water in a bowl and add to the fruit. Heat up while stirring (don't stop) on medium heat and stir for about 3-4 min until thickened. Let the fruit cool down and then transfer on top of the cake. Refrigerate for another 2 hrs.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Rhubarb cobbler




A few days ago my friend Scott brought be a raspberry cobbler. I didn't know what a cobbler was beyond its shoe-mender definition. But I loved the cake. It was moist, sweet, a bit bready, and full of fruits. Since I had a lot of rhubarb at home I decided to try and make a rhubarb cobbler and it came out great. You can eat it straight out of the pan with a spoon but I recommend serving it lukewarm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, it's just perfect :-)

Recipe of the rhubarb cobbler (small pyrex dish)

2.4 dl milk
2.4 dl flour
2.4 dl sugar
5 dl rhubarb cut in 2cm-pieces
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.6 dl melted butter (4 tbsp)

extra: some more sugar for sprinkling

Whisk sugar, flour, baking powder and milk in a bowl. Add melted butter and mix.
Grease a pyrex dish with butter. Pour half of the batter, add half of the fruit, then pour the remaining batter and sprinkle the remaining fruit pressing them in a bit.
Sprinkle 2 tbsp sugar on top and bake approximately 50 min at 175 C. Then sprinkle another 2 tbsp of sugar and bake for another 10 min.

Let it cool down a bit and serve lukewarm as is or with some whipped cream, double cream, or vanilla ice-cream.