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.

#NovemberRoad - Banoffee Pie

“I'm not telling you it's going to be easy - I'm telling you it's going to be worth it.” ― Art Williams

I had no clue what Banoffee Pie was until a friend from Delhi called to tell me that I owe her a treat on her Birthday (which she happens to share with Sid) since I have started this blog.

I started searching immediately and found this website with the prettiest Banoffee Pie pictures. In Chef Curtis words Banoffee is a Banana and Toffee Pie!

Yeah so back to the recipe, this one turned out to be the show winner. Everyone at home loved it and I had enough left over to serve my friends who came to give me a farewell. Tonight also happens to be the last night at our lovely hill view apartment. Nostalgia is in air...

Recipe follows:    

The recipe was sourced from Curtis Stone

P.S. For NovemberRoad Project, all the recipes will be displayed as a link. I will not be writing about them until I make any changes to the same. Thanks.

Strawberry, Vanilla & Chocolate Panna Cotta

The countdown has begun...
And there is not much that I can do in kitchen without taking long breaks...

But I really wanted to make this, taste it and see if it is as good as it looks on David's blog.

I found this really simple, mouthwatering and healthier dessert (as my doctor has asked me) - Panna Cotta.
It is an Italian Desert made with Cream, Milk, Sugar and Gelatin mixed together and letting it set.

I could not stop myself to just Vanilla, so I added whatever I found in the refrigerator to add flavours to the creamier heaven. 

Out came the strawberries and Chocolate and Raspberry jelly...yumm~

The recipe was adapted from David Lebovitz

Recipe follows:

2 Cups Low Fat Cream
1/2 Cup Milk
2 Tbsp Condensed Milk
3 Tsp Gelatin
1/4 Cup Water

For the Vanilla version:

1 Tsp Vanilla extract

For the Chocolate version:
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
1/4 Cup Milk

For the Strawberry version:

2 Tbsp Strawberry Puree

Additional:
Weikefeild Raspberry Jelly
Fresh Strawberry

Procedure:

Soak gelatin in 1/4 cup water and keep aside.

Simmer cream, milk and condensed milk together.

Pour warm creamy mixture over gelatin and stir until the gelatin dissolves.

Divide the mixture in 3 equal parts. Add vanilla extract, Strawberry puree and Cocoa mixture to each respectively and keep aside.

For the chocolate mixture, simmer 1/4 cup milk and add cocoa powder until it dissolves with no lumps.

Follow raspberry jelly instructions as per the packet.

Divide the mixture to the glasses in different order and let it set for a while before adding another layer.

After all the layers are done, cover the glasses with clear film and let it set for few hours.

Serve cold with fresh Strawberries.