Cheesecake

This is a simple and creamy-delicious no-cooking cheesecake recipe. I've seen variations on this posted all over the place, but was clued into it by a blogger friend a few years ago.

For the base:

Crush about a dozen digestive biscuits (plain or chocolate) until they reduce to fine crumbs. Mix with a generous spoonful of ground almonds and about 3 or 4 oz melted butter. Press the mixture into a greased baking tin. Use a tin with a separate bottom so you can remove later. Pop the base in the fridge while you make the filling.

Filling:

Beat together 1 lb/500g cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and a dash of cream, together with 1/2 lb/200g melted chocolate. Spread over the base and refrigerate.

Flavors:

The original recipe used melted Toblerone, but you can use pretty much any chocolate - milk, dark, white. This is also good to make plain cheesecake with just vanilla essence as flavoring, or add fruit essence such as lemon.

You can also finish off with toppings such as grated chocolate, or fruit and a fruit gel.

Tips:

To crush digestives, place them in a ziplok bag and press with a rolling pin.

The amount of cream will depend on the cheese you use. The original recipe called for blocks of Philly, which is quite solid so I add a lot of cream - about 1 cup. If  using a softer cheese, say spreading cheese from a tub, use less cream or it will end up too runny and might not set. You should end up with a thick mixture that will barely pour.

The consistency will also depend on the flavoring you use. Adding chocolate will help it set, but you could opt for other kinds that don't thicken as much.

If you are using chocolate, break it into a metal mixing bowl and set over a pan of simmering water. Get this going early on because it will take a while to melt over a gentle heat. In fact, this step largely dictates the overall preparation time.

Gache Melee

I don't often do sweet stuff, but this is a traditional Guernsey recipe, an apple dessert.

Peel and core cooking apples and cut into rough chunks in a large mixing bowl - about 1 1/2 lbs in total. Sprinkle over 3 oz granulated sugar (I actually used demerara sugar). With a sharp knife chop the apple into smaller pieces until the sugar has dissolved into the released juice.

Thoroughly mix in 2 oz suet, 4 oz self-raising flour, and a pinch of cinnamon, and then 1 beaten egg.

Pour the batter into a greased baking dish, sprinkle with a bit more sugar, and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. The top should be nicely browned. Ideally, the top should end up slightly crisp and chewy while the middle is soft and juicy.

Eat hot or cold, with cream or ice cream.

Christmas pudding

This is a traditional English treat - a moist and rich steamed fruit pudding. We usually try to make these at the start of the year to give them plenty of time to mature before eating, and if you make more than you can eat in one Christmas they will comfortably keep until the next!

We are late this year, and only just got around to it last weekend.

This is an old family recipe that I blogged about in detail over on my other blog, including cooking instructions and pictures. Check it out here:
https://thebaldpatch.blogspot.com/2011/09/christmas-pudding.html

Banana bread

We had some bananas that had gone rather ripe for enjoyable eating. This recipe is a great way to use them up. The nuts give it crunch, while the sour cream makes it super moist.

See the link for full details, but here is a quick summary.

Melt 1/2 cup of butter, and mix in 1 cup of sugar then 2 eggs and a tsp of vanilla extract. Combine 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt then stir the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Finally fold in 1/2 cup each of sour cream and chopped walnuts, and 2 mashed bananas. You should end up with a creamy batter. Pour into a baking tin and bake on 350F for about an hour.

Try to at least let it cool a bit before you scarf it all down.