Week 4 of The Great British Bake Off already and it is DESSERT WEEK. Oh the joy, who doesn’t love a good pudding. This weeks technical challenge was an Austrian classic.. the Spanische Windtorte, haven’t heard of it? Neither had we.. But I guess that’s why its called a challenge. We also decided not to do it.
This time we have gone for the showstopper challenge, because one cheesecake isn’t enough – everyone needs three, three cheesecakes.
Now, it took a long time to think of the flavours that were different yet complimented each other well. We went for a Lemon Meringue layer, a White Chocolate & Raspberry layer and also a Gooey Caramel layer. SHOWSTOPPER RIGHT?
- 700g cream cheese
- 250g sour cream
- 200g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp butter,melted
- 300g digestive biscuits
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 can condensed milk
- Boil the can of condensed milk for 2 hours in a pan of water, keep topping up the water to prevent it drying out. Leave to cool before opening the tin, the condensed milk should now be a nice caramel colour.
- Grease a 10″ springform tin
- In a food processor blitz the biscuits to a fine crumb and combine the melted butter & brown sugar. Press the mix into the bottom of the tin – refrigerate to set.
- Combine the cream cheese, sour cream, vanilla & sugar in a stand mixer till smooth. Now mix in the eggs.
- Pour half the cheesecake mix on top of the biscuit base, spoon the cooled caramel on & finish with the rest of the cheesecake mixture.
- Bake in the oven at 160C for 1 hour or until there is a slight wobble. Cover it with foil or turn the heat down if the top begins to crack or goes too brown.
- Turn the oven off and leave to cool inside before refrigerating over night
- We saved a little caramel to swirl on the top for decoration
- 400g cream cheese
- 150g sour cream
- 2 eggs
- 100g caster sugar
- 100g white chocolate
- punnet of raspberries
- 2 tbsp butter, melted
- 200g digestive biscuits
- Grease a 8″ springform tin
- In a food processor blitz the biscuits to a fine crumb & combine the melted butter. Press the mix into the bottom of the tin – refrigerate to set.
- Set aside 2 tbsp of the sour cream
- Combine the cream cheese, sour cream & sugar in a stand mixer till smooth. Now mix in the eggs.
- In a saucepan melt the chocolate with the sour cream till smooth & stir into the cheesecake mixture.
- Place the raspberries on top of the biscuit base, pour over the batter.
- Bake in the oven at 160C for 45 minutes to an hour, or until there is a slight wobble. Cover it with foil or turn the heat down if the top begins to crack or goes too brown.
- Turn the oven off and leave to cool inside before refrigerating for a few hours
- 200g cream cheese
- 100g sour cream
- 50g sugar
- 1 egg
- 100g digestive biscuits
- 1 tbsp butter, melted
- 2 egg yolks
- juice & zest of 2 lemons
- 20g cornflour
- 80g caster sugar
- 150ml water
- 2 egg whites
- 180g caster sugar
- Bake the sugar in the oven at 200C for around 5mins to heat the sugar (this helps it dissolve in the egg whites & makes it extra glossy). Turn the oven right down to 100C
- Whisk the egg whites till stiff, then add the hot sugar a tablespoon at a time to form a glossy meringue that forms ribbons & stiff peaks
- Using a piping bag, pipe little meringue kisses onto a lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 30-40 mins
- Grease a 6″ springform tin
- In a food processor blitz the biscuits to a fine crumb & combine the melted butter. Press the mix into the bottom of the tin – refrigerate to set.
- Combine the cream cheese, sour cream & sugar in a stand mixer till smooth. Now mix in the eggs.
- Pour half the cheesecake mix on top of the biscuit base, spoon the cooled caramel on & finish with the rest of the cheesecake mixture.
- Bake in the oven at 160C for 30 minutes, prepare your lemon curd
- Mix the juice, zest & cornflour to form a paste.
- Boil the water in a pan and add the lemon mix, whisking it fast to prevent any lumps.
- Quickly stir in the egg yolks & sugar to create your lemon curd / pie filling.
- Pour most of the mixture (depending on how thick you want the layer) on top of the cheesecake & put back in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Leave to cool in the oven (with the oven off), then pop in the fridge fora few hours set.
- Remove the cheesecake from the tin & decorate the top with your meringue kisses.
If you wish to only make one of these cheesecakes, rather than all 3 the basic batter mixture is the same therefore making it easy to change the quantities. e.g. a large (10″) lemon meringue recipe will have the same quantities as the caramel cheesecake, you just need to double the the curd mixture – however there should be enough meringue!
You may serve your cheesecakes after a few hours of cooling, the baking process should have set the mixture enough. We left ours in the fridge over night just to be on the safe side, we didn’t want a Sandy situation on our hands! Also making 3 cheesecakes is a long process & it was getting late…
We stacked the cheesecakes by leaving them on the base of the tin & stacking them on top of each other using wooden dowels for support. In an ideal world we would have a 3 tired cheesecake stand but unfortunately we don’t, sorry Paul & Mary.
Now if you’ll excuse us, we have A LOT of cheesecake to eat. (Only minor burns were received during this bake)
