The easiest cheesecake of ever

So as you may well know if you've been friends with me for any length of time, yesterday was World Nutella Day. As Deidre now has a job (RUDE), I was forced to celebrate on my own. Given that it's approximately a million degrees in Melbourne (AGAIN) this week, I decided to keep things simple and go with something that wouldn't require me to use the oven. Pinterest failed me, because all the no-bake Nutella things on there seem to require a tub of Cool Whip, which a) you can't get in Australia and b) I would refuse to use anyway because I'm pretty sure it's not actually food and is instead a giant tub full of chemicals.

ANYWAY.

Luckily, Google delivered in the form of Chocolate Suze's No Bake Nutella Cheesecake. And she really wasn't kidding when she said it was super easy. I used Leda brand arrowroot biscuits for the base, because I needed it to be gluten free, and they were surprisingly awesome. Annoyingly, gluten free biscuits only seem to come in 200g packets when you need 250g, but OH WELL. I also used unsalted butter because that's what we happened to have and also because I really don't like salted butter. I added the butter a little bit at a time because sometimes with gluten free stuff, the quantities of wet ingredients are a little on the high side, and I probably had 5-10g of melted butter left over at the end.

Other than that, the only alteration I made was to stick the jar of Nutella in the microwave for about 20 seconds, just so that it was easier to get out! It looked pretty promising when it went into the fridge:

When I took it out of the fridge five hours later and popped the springform pan, the cheesecake started to split. But that was quickly fixed by locking the pan shut again and running a butter knife around the inside to loosen it!

The verdict? It's pretty rich but totally delicious. The arrowroot biscuits help cut through some of the sweetness and I was really REALLY surprised at how well it set considering there's no eggs or gelatine in it and it wasn't baked. Plus, I had the whole thing made and in the fridge within about 20 minutes. TOO EASY.

How did you celebrate World Nutella Day?

K xx

Baked berry cheesecake

I'll get back to the story of the Central Australian trip when I have more brain power. But for the time being, I did some baking yesterday. It was pouring with rain and freezing cold, so I decided that I'd try my hand at cheesecake. I've been meaning to for ages, it's one of the few types of baked goods I've not tried (except in brownie form!), and my original reason for not trying was the lack of a springform pan. But I've had one of those for a while now, but hadn't christened it. So when I bought a super trashy gossip magazine on Saturday and it had a recipe for baked berry cheesecake, I figured I'd give it a go!

So, here's what you need:

Start with a 23cm springform pan:

Grease and line it and set it to one side:

Then place 250g plain biscuits in the food processor:

And pulverise the crap out of them:

Then take 125g melted butter (incidentally, the photos get a bit shit for a while, because my SLR battery died):

And mix it through the biscuit crumbs:

Then press the biscuit mixture into the springform pan and put it in the fridge until firm:

While the base is in the fridge, place half a punnet of strawberries (I threw in a couple of raspberries for good measure) in the food processor:

Add in 3/4 cup of icing sugar:

(Welcome back, SLR! You were much missed - it took two point and shoot cameras and a lot of me going "Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!" to get the intervening photos...) And pulverise the crap out of it (that's pretty much the basis of this recipe, really!):

Then add in a 250g block of cream cheese (I used low fat) and two eggs:

And pulverise the shit out of it some more:

Then add in 300g sour cream (again, I used low fat):

And DON'T pulverise the shit out of it! Instead, pulse it until just combined:

Then, pour it into the tin on top of the biscuit crumb base:

Bake in a 170 degree oven for 60-70 minutes. It didn't say to, but baked cheesecake is usually cooled in the oven. It looked pretty...wibbly...at the end of the hour, so I cooled it in the oven with the door open. I think it got overdone a little bit:

Once it's cooled, place it in the fridge until cold. Once it's cold, remove it from the tin and the baking paper, and decorate the top with the leftover strawberries and raspberries to cover up the brown bits. Technically, you're meant to put blueberries on it too, and just arrange them all in an artistic pile. But I can't stand blueberries. So it's very...pink (Incidentally, you can see what it was MEANT to look like in the side of some of the food processor photos):

Then slice it with a knife that's been run under hot water and dust with icing sugar. I couldn't find the tiny sieve, so I had to use a teaspoon, which is why the icing sugar is a bit lumpy...

But it was delicious. And for my first attempt at a baked cheesecake (one with a fairly vague recipe, might I add!), I don't think I did too badly at all! I'll definitely be trying cheesecake in the future, but I might try one that's a little less pink, just for something different...

Give it a go, and try NOT cooling it in the oven, and let me know how it turns out?

K xx

Cheesecake brownies

Yes, that's right. I made brownies twice in one week. Although these ones were for Anthea's farewell, and I thought I'd better butter her up so that she's inclined to reply to all my panicky emails when I take over Hobart and Melbourne next week. He he he - if you didn't know the backstory here, someone might think I was plotting world domination... Anyway, onto the brownies - they're part brownie, part cheesecake, all awesomeness.

Start with dark chocolate and butter. Why is it that so many of my recipes start like this???


Melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler and set aside to cool. While that's cooling off, put caster sugar and an egg in a mixing bowl, thusly:

Then beat it until light and fluffy. The electric mixer is your friend. Totally worth the $40!!

Then sift in a mixture of plain and self raising flours:

And pour in the cooled chocolate/butter mixture:

Then mix it all together until it looks like this:

Then you pour it into a greased and lined tin and bake for about 10 minutes. It'll look like this:

Leave the brownie base to one side to cool off a little, and start on the cheesecake topping! First you cut up a block of cream cheese, then add caster sugar, an egg, some vanilla extract (essence is the Devil), and cream. Except in this case, I forgot to buy cream and substituted sour cream instead. It didn't make any difference to the end product, and I just added a little extra sugar to counter any possible sourness. Anyway, it'll look like this:

Then set at it with the electric mixer again (I *told* you it was your friend!) until smooth. Or mostly smooth. I didn't leave the cream cheese out to soften for quite long enough, so it's got some little lumpy bits in it. But it really doesn't matter!!

Then you spread the cheesecake batter on top of the brownie base, and stick it back in the oven for 15 minutes.

And then you leave it to cool in the oven with the door ajar. Once it's cooled, stick it in the fridge for at least three hours. After the three hours (or, in this case, at 6.45 the following morning while frantically trying to eat breakfast and make lunch - are you impressed that I was dedicated enough to still take photos? Because you should be...), take it out of the pan, and cut it into squares. The recipe claims that it makes 16, but the way I cut it makes 30. Frankly, I prefer my way!!!

A nice close up of the side, post-baking and cooling and refrigerating.

Mmmmmm, deliciousness...

And here we have the final product. Solid brownie base and light fluffy cheesecake top. They've been a huge hit every time I've made them. I dare you to be faced with these and not go "Omnomnomnomnomnomnomnomnomnomnomnom" ;)

K xx