Despite not really being a pudding kind of girl (a bag of cherries seems to fit the bill for my less than sweet tooth), I've had the niggling feeling that perhaps Cheesecake is the kind of dessert I should probably be able to make/ kind of dessert I most definitely like eating. After having the most fantastically caramel/cheesecake dessert in Seville in February, followed by a white chocolate cheesecake to die for in Cambridge's lovely D'arrays a few weeks ago (this was coupled with a big win of £50 on the bingo, some girls are born lucky I guess...), around two weeks later D'arrays had a big fire, so I can't go back for the next few months, it also seems unlikely I'll be whisked back to Seville. Thus, here I am, at home and trying to bake the next best cheesecake of my life.
Alas, I cannot take full responsibility for the recipe (for a first attempt penning my own recipe would indeed be a fairly heroic act). Instead I direct you to the saviour of many of our mealtimes, the BBC Good Food website, where the Bake Raspberry cheesecake recipe did sound foolproof. I substituted the raspberries for some frozen mixed berries, but kept in the tons of cream cheese, sour cream and everything else basically, and also used 10 digestives rather than 8 to allow for inevitable eating of biscuit/butter mix (too tasty by far). As the recipe directed I made my base and stuck it into the oven to crisp us, then 'beat' together the remaining ingredients. I say 'beat' because the mixture didn't allow for the sort of beating my mother used to show me, instead I seemed to go from sludge to liquidy lumps in seconds, and after about half an hour of attempts at beating, the lumps did go (I never got anywhere near light and fluffy, if only i had a swanky pants kitchenaid, or even a kitchen big enough to store one). My lower arms still ache today, which proves that making cheesecake reaches parts that my dumbbells have never reached, so its health food really. A definite result!
Now I'm not sure on blogging protocol (it's my first time, you see) but I don't think i need to include the recipe again (as its online at the link above), please advise if I should, or definitely shouldn't - not sure about copyright ?!! Anyways, stuck ye olde cheesecake in the oven for 40 mins and fished it out, allowing it to sit, cool and crack in the most delightful way. A few hours later, after a successful Jambalaya (ooo recipe later, i promise!), I stuck on the sauce and go down to some cheesecake tasting...
Et Voila! We eat the cheesecake that tasted ok, but was nothing to write home about, and after a few gins its felt a bit sickly and i felt cross with myself for attempting to foray into the world of puddings. Thankfully we watched 'In Bruges' which is quite possibly the best film I've watched all year, and cheered me up no end.
This morning I stuck my head in the fridge and saw the offending cheesecake, and thought it might be worth another try, just to make sure it was such an absolute failure, and do you know what said ugly duckling had turned into? A Magnificent Swan! It's lovely, it tastes sweet and cheesy and generally like a cheesecake, and yes it may not be the best cheesecake ever, but we've all got to start somewhere haven't we? Unfortunately this meant I was eating a slice of cheesecake at 11 this morning, which isn't the healthiest way to start a Sunday.. hey ho!
Right now, I have a lamb provencale sitting in the slow cooker, which has about four hours left to go, so I'll hopefully be back with that recipe asap. Gosh, this has been fun, how cathartic a blog is :)
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