Plum Swirl Cheesecake

Its a beautiful start of year 2015. The things are taking beautiful meaning and more importantly the move was not as bad as I was dreading it to be. This month flew by right in front of our eyes and we could do nothing. Almost nothing is what I meant.

The next month's anticipation has already started and soon the air will be filled with everything red and all the food blogs with strawberries. 

I have this perfect cheesecake for who do not like very sweet deserts. The plum preserve adds the right amount of sweetness and the tartness, ohh yumm! Annndddd its Red!

What all was I saying about filling skies with red and love? 

It's Plum swirl cheesecake!

Recipe follows:

For the Base:
12-14 Digestive Biscuits
4 Tbsp Melted Butter
2 Tbsp Granulated Sugar (Optional)

For the Cake:
1 Cup Cream cheese
3/4 Cup Heavy Cream
2 Tbsp Water {normal temp}
2 Tsp Gelatin
1/8 Cup Condensed Milk or Desired Sweetness

For the Topping:
Plum Preserve  {or any other as you desire}

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350 Degree F (170 degree C) and grease eight inch spring form pan.

Crush digestive biscuits to fine crumbs, add sugar (optional) and melted butter to it. Press down the crumbs to a greased spring form dish.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until light brown.

Soak Gelatin in water for 2 minutes and melt on double boiler.

On a medium speed, whip heavy cream until it reaches soft peaks stage. Add condensed milk or desired sweetness.

Add melted gelatin and mix cream cheese beating the mixture until smooth.

Pour this mixture to the biscuit base. Add plum preserve randomly and give it a swirl by moving a skewer around. Refrigerate until firm. (Minimum of 4 hours till overnight)

Move cake mixture to fridge from chiller for 30 min before serving.

No - Bake ~ Blueberry Cheesecake

Many a times my family and friends question my blogging? What exactly it does for me?
I do not answer them straight. I just laugh it off or better still give them some vague answer which keeps them on their toes.

But for me I have always known what this blog started with and where it is taking me. It did take a major turn when I finally wrote it down in an interview for Homegrown Magazine.

For this dream to come true, there are many milestones, many doubts within my mind that needs to be addressed. One of the biggest is..."What if they don't like my cake?"

To overcome my fear, I did what I do best. Put myself on the line and wait for the consequences.
This Blueberry cheesecake was also conceived in similar fashion. I received message on my twitter from an acquaintance if I could make a cheesecake for his dear friends birthday.

As bored as I am at work, the only 'high' I get is from the challenges I set for myself . This was something out of my comfort zone and I took it without overthinking. {thinking leads to missed opportunities} 

And beauty it was!

While I made several with different flavors at home to test the recipe, I was still on the edge and kept waiting for that one text saying that it was awesome ;)

And awesome it was! Yay for recipe follows!


Recipe follows:


For the Base:
12-14 Digestive Biscuits
4 Tbsp Melted Butter
2 Tbsp Granulated Sugar (Optional)
For the Cake:
1 Cup Cream cheese
3/4 Cup Heavy Cream
2 Tbsp Water {normal temp}
2 Tsp Gelatin
1/8 Cup Condensed Milk or Desired Sweetness


Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350 Degree F (170 degree C) and grease eight inch spring form pan.

Crush digestive biscuits to fine crumbs, add sugar (optional) and melted butter to it. Press down the crumbs to a greased spring form dish.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until light brown.

Soak Gelatin in water for 2 minutes and melt on double boiler.

On a medium speed, whip heavy cream until it reaches soft peaks stage. Add condensed milk or desired sweetness.

Add melted gelatin and mix cream cheese beating the mixture until smooth.

Pour this mixture to the biscuit base and refrigerate until firm. (Minimum of 4 hours till overnight)

Move cake mixture to fridge from chiller for 30 min before serving.

Layer the top with desired crush or preserve. Here I have used Blueberry Preserve.
 

Homemade Cream Cheese

I make my own Cream cheese.

Those Philly blocks at INA & Gourmet stores in Delhi are very expensive. And considering the number of times a cheesecake is made in my house, I find home made cream cheese not just economical but also lot healthier.

Cream cheese is a fresh cheese and  has a very short shelf life. Mild flavored with slight tang, it is very smooth and creamy textured.

There are lots of ways to make it at home, but following is the recipe to make the easiest cream cheese in no extra time.

The recipe was Adapted from Rajul

Recipe follows:

100gms Cottage Cheese / Paneer

3 Tbsp Cream

2 Tbsp Thick Curd

Milk (Optional : to smooth the mixture)

Procedure:

Blend all the ingredients together in a blender until smooth.

Add milk to the mixture if it is grainy until it reaches the creamy texture.

And Voila!