French Vanilla Cheesecake with Fresh Berries

I might get this blogging caper happening as a regular happening at some stage in 2017 but I cannot believe that 57 days into the New Year and we still haven't stopped being very busy. Oh well I guess this is just life and how fast it goes by. So much has happened since my last blog (in all honesty without looking I couldn't say when that was). Work has been busy, footy training has started and we have already been on a holiday with the Murray side of the family and a road trip to NSW to visit family and friends in a whirlwind 5 day trip that was a MUST to do. We went to visit my Aunty Maureen and Uncle Dave. In just 10 short weeks we have lost someone very special to me and my family to terminal cancer - Aunty Maureen passed late Thursday evening after such a dignified and amazing journey. Both Mam and I will be attending the service on Friday in Sydney.

I first met my Aunty Maureen, Uncle Dave and my 3 cousins, Steven, Michelle and Alison (the Jones) at the age of 18 months. Strangely the first time I met them was on a Greek Ocean Liner called the Elinis. We were all on our way to start our new lives in Australia - this was in 1973. The Jones were coming from Liverpool. It was then that I also met more family - Lars, Pip, Marica and Annette who were from Finland and Rolf, Anchristin, Ingela and Anna from Sweden. Who would have thought 44 years ago that we would have all still remained so close. Distance may be an issue at times but to me growing up with all of these important people infiltrating my life at some stage, and still today, my life has been truly blessed. While we are not related by blood we are still very much family.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because of my Aunty Maureen. Even while she was sick every time we spoke she told me how she follows our cooking adventures on Facebook all the time and that she was always in awe of our food. She often would encourage me to take up a career in food because she knows that I have the passion for it. It's actually because of her that I am making the effort to post this today.

Today we had close friends Leigh and Lauren over for lunch with their two gorgeous daughters, Harlow and Lenni. Funnily they seem more like family to me than just friends. Knowing that they both love cheesecake, I decided to make my signature French Vanilla Cheesecake with Fresh Berries (to be honest have no idea why I haven't posted about this cheesecake before?) Harlow helped me to decorate the cheesecake just before serving which was a very special moment for me today.

This French Vanilla Cheesecake is so easy to make, is no bake and the vanilla flavour is to die for. It's not an overly sweet cheesecake and I think that the fresh berries are a perfect compliment to the creamy vanilla center. 

For the base today I used Marie Biscuits however you could actually use any biscuit flavour of your choice.  Depending on your pan and the thickness you press the crumb you may have some left over and that is perfectly fine.  Don't make it too thick or it will be hard to cut.  

The recipe calls for it to set overnight but to be perfectly honest 6 hours is long enough.  If you wanted to make a smaller one in a flan tin just half the recipe.

Do yourself a flavour and give it a go.....

French Vanilla Cheesecake with Fresh Berries

(recipe adapted from Taste.com)

Serves: 8

500g packet plain sweet biscuits (such as Marie)

300g butter, melted

600ml thickened cream, whipped

6 teaspoons powdered gelatine

3 tablespoons boiling water

1000g cream cheese, softened

1 1/3 cup caster sugar

300ml thickened cream, extra

1 tablespoon icing sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste

Fresh berries of your choice, to decorate

Grease a 20 cm round (base) spring-form pan. Using a food processor, process biscuits until fine crumbs. Add butter. Process until combined. Press the biscuit mixture over base and side of prepared pan. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat cream until thickened. Set aside.

Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatine over boiling water in a heatproof jug. Whisk with a fork until gelatine has dissolved. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Gradually beat in gelatine mixture until combined. Fold in whipped cream. Pour mixture into prepared pan, leveling top with a spatula. Cover.

Refrigerate overnight or until set.

When ready to decorate, place cream and icing sugar in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until thickened and forming peaks.

Remove the cheesecake from pan. Decorate top of cheesecake with whipped cream and fresh berries of your choice. Serve.

(Click here for a printable version of this recipe)

Homemade Cajun Seasoning

Oh my time flies when you are having fun or if you are just out right busy!!

Apologies for my absence - life has just been one massive juggle for the last few months. One thing after another and I found myself saying many times "I'm too old for all this shit" but we all pulled through it together as a family.  Sanity wise I am ok (well at least I think I am), a little exhausted but needing to control the stress better and also actually let myself relax every now and then.  

As you can only imagine I have so many recipes banked up to share with you so hopefully you will enjoy what you see while I am not only catching up but creating new meals doing what I like best - enjoying myself in the kitchen.

While I was preparing BBQ Beef Ribs for dinner and gathering all the ingredients for the dry rub I was missing Cajun Seasoning.  Rather than get in the car and drive to the shops just for 2 tablespoons of mixed herbs and spices I decided to make my own.  I already make my own Homemade Taco Seasoning and that is damn good, even if I say so myself.

It is not a hard process at all - simply measure and mix!  Thankfully I had all the ingredients to make the recipe to use in the original recipe I had planned to make.  LOL what a laugh this process has been - I hope these BBQ Beef Ribs are bloody good!  Will let you know tomorrow as they are marinating overnight.

Homemade Cajun Seasoning

(recipe sourced from Allrecipes.com)

Makes 1/4 cup

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 1/2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 1/4 teaspoons dried oregano

1 1/4 teaspoons dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

Stir together salt, garlic powder, paprika, black pepper, onion powder, cayenne pepper, oregano, thyme, and red pepper flakes until evenly blended.

Store in an airtight container.

(click here for a printable version of this recipe)

Low Fat Raspberry Jelly Swirl Cheesecake Slice

Some of you may have noticed a few problems occurring on my blog this last week or so..... I am not 100% sure what happened but I think I have fixed all the problems and at the same time thought I would update the look...... I hope you all like it.

 

Moving on from my IT issues, here in Australia we had a long weekend... so I got to spend some precious time with my family and also in the kitchen.  Lots of things were made, eaten and more importantly enjoyed.  From Roast Beef and Yorkshire Puddings to Homemade Chilli Tomato Ketchup and of course, these little tasty, sweet treats.

Not a heavy cheesecake - in fact very light and fluffy.  The raspberry jelly added a nice texture and was a beautiful replacement to a fruit sauce or a jam.  I am guessing that you could actually use any flavour jelly as long as you think that the flavours would work well with cheesecake.

Very easy to make - practically in the fridge setting in around 40 minutes and to be honest gone in about 5 minutes.

Low Fat Raspberry Jelly Swirl Cheesecake Slice

(Recipe adapted from Taste.com)

Serves: 24

ProPoints per serve: 3

250g packet Marie biscuits

100g reduced-fat spread, melted

9g sachet low-kilojoule raspberry jelly crystals

2/3 cup boiling water

2 teaspoons gelatine powder

500g light cream cheese, softened

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1/2 cup reduced-fat thickened cooking cream

250g reduced-fat vanilla yoghurt

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
 

Grease a 3cm-deep, 17cm x 27cm (base) slice pan. Line base and sides with baking paper, allowing a 5cm overhang at long ends.

Process biscuits until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add spread. Process until just combined. Press mixture evenly over base of prepared pan. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool.

Place jelly crystals in a small, heatproof jug. Add 1/2 cup boiling water. Using a fork, whisk until dissolved. Add 1/2 cup cold water. Stir to combine. Pour jelly into a shallow, heatproof dish. Refrigerate for 30 minutes (jelly consistency should be similar to thickened cream).

Place remaining 2 tablespoons boiling water into a small, heatproof jug. Sprinkle over gelatine. Using a fork, whisk until gelatine dissolves. Set aside.

Process cream cheese, sugar, cream and yoghurt until smooth and combined. Fold gelatine into cream cheese mixture.

Pour mixture over base. Using a tablespoon, dollop jelly over mixture. Using a butter knife, swirl together. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Cut into 24 slices.

(click here for a printable version of this recipe)