I was chatting to my friend the other day, she works at a very successful bakery in Rome and I was asking if, among all those wonderful cakes, they also prepare cheesecakes. And even if cheesecakes were asked by the clients very often, alas, this bakery is not producing them.... Sigh, even my friend never tried any cheesecake! How come??
So, this one I prepared especially for her and the family...
There are two points of view about the method of the Cheesecake preparation: those who think that the baked ones are better and those, like me, who prefer "no bake" recipe!!
Cheesecake is one of my favourite cakes and I try to vary the ingredients: this one is no bake banana and strawberries!
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 8
250g biscuits
100g butter
200ml whipping cream
300g Philadelphia cheese
150g Greek yogurt
2 medium bananas
14g gelatine
400g strawberries
6-8 tbs sugar
some mint leaves
1. Process biscuits till they are crushed finely.
Note: I used the Italian almond cookies called "Cantucci", but you may use any short-breads you have.
2. Melt butter in microwave till it's liquid.
3. Mix biscuit crumbs with melted butter.
4. Use a spring-form mould, 20cm in diameter, cut a circle out of baking paper that perfectly fit in it. This facilitate the cake removal later.
Note: This is my first time using a new adjustable cake ring. As you may see from the name it's just a ring, it doesn't have any bottom, but the great thing about this bakeware is that you can adjust the diameter between 16 and 32 cm. I think it's absolutely amazing to have a possibility to vary cake size just using one ring!!!
So, I used the serving dish that I chose for the cake and dressed the ring bottom with baking paper as I said before.
5.Put the biscuits to the ring / mould and using a spoon or a small glass press it to the bottom to create a base about 1cm think.
6. Refrigerate the cake base for the time you prepare the cream.
7. Soak 8g of gelatin in cold water for 5-10 minutes.
8. Peel bananas and process them with yogurt.
9. Keep one third of the mix in the blender glass and transfer the rest to a big bowl.
10. Add Philadelphia cheese to the blender with banana puree and process it all together.
Note: This time I used low fat Philadelphia...
11. Add the cheese mix to banana in the bowl and mix well with a spatula or just a tablespoon.
12. Whip the cream and add some sugar if needed.
Note: I usually try to avoid using whipping cream as my husband is intolerant to some of dairy products, so in this recipe I substituted whipping cream for sweetened vegetable cream with the same result.
13. Add whipped cream to the cheese and banana mix and using a spatula (tablespoon) integrate it well with the down to up movements.
14. Try the cheese cream and add 3-4 tbs of sugar if you like it sweeter.
Note: I usually go by taste in this recipe.
15. Squeeze gelatine sheets to remove the water and put them in a small bowl. Melt gelatin in a microwave oven for about 25-30 seconds.
16. Whisk melted gelatin into the cream mix.
17. Cut 12 small strawberries into halves.
18. Display strawberries leaned to the mould sides with the same distance one from the other.
19. Pour the cream into the mould that you removed from the fridge. Refrigerate for the time you prepare the strawberry mousse.
20. Process strawberries with 3-4 tbs of sugar to have a smooth mousse. Keep the most beautiful from the medium strawberries for decoration.
21. Squeeze and melt 6g of gelatin as described earlier.
22. Incorporate gelatin into strawberry mousse.
23. Pour strawberry mousse into the cake mould over the banana cream that already set a little.
Note: Be careful while leveling out the strawberry mousse over the cream.
24. Cover the mould with a plastic foil and refrigerate the cake overnight.
25. Take the cake out of the mould: to do so you may either try opening the spring-form carefully taking care of not breaking the cake side, or if the cake doesn't want to come out of the mould you may use a hot knife and carefully pass it over the cake's edge.
26. Decorate your cheesecake with strawberries that you kept and some mint leaves.
ENJOY !!!!!
Hmmm... Fitness everyday and then? Craving for a cake.... and not for any cake: the creamiest cake ever!!! CHEESECAKE..... I have prepared many different ones but this one seems to be the most gourmand one!!!
Cheese is good with pears and pears are good with chocolate... and these are the ingredients for today.
By the way, it's almost the 8th of March (for those who celebrate), Let's treat ourselves with something exquisite, dear Ladies!!!
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 8
200g dry nut cookies (any type)
100g butter
450-500g pear
1,5 packages of Philadelphia (375g)
300ml cream (sweetened)
100g chocolate (with nut bits)
4tbs sugar
1tbs any liqueur
10g gelatin
lemon
springform pan
1. Melt butter in a microwave oven
2. Crumble cookies in a blender
3. Mix crumbled cookies and melted butter.
4. Lay the bottom of a 24cm springform pan with a baking paper and close the ring, cut off the excess of paper, cut wide stripes of paper and dress the sides of the pan (unfortunately I didn't do that :-) but in any case I can manage differently), this way it will be much easier to take the cake out of the pan later.
5. Place the butter crumble into the pan and with a spoon delicately press the mix to the bottom.
6. Cool the base of the cake in the fridge while you are preparing the cheese filling.
7. Pour some cool water in a bowl and put the gelatin in it.
8. Peel the pear and cut three quarters of it in pieces, sprinkle the last quarter with some lemon juice to prevent it from browning.
8. Cook the pear with 2 table spoons of sugar and liqueur (I used Limoncello) for about 5 minutes. Cool it down.
9. Crush the pear up in a blender.
10. Add 250g of Philadelphia cheese, 2 table spoons of sugar and blend them together.
11. Transfer the mix into a big bowl.
12. Use the same blender container and whip 200ml of cream. I usually use a vegetable cream to make the recipe at least a bit lighter.
13. Using a whisk, whip the cream in the cheese and pear mix.
14. Squeeze the two thirds of gelatin and melt it in a microwave oven at max power for 30 seconds.
15. Mix the gelatin into the cheese mix.
16. Carefully pour the mix into the pan with the cooky base.
17. Twist the pan gently from right to left without lifting it from the table. This is done to distribute the mix better.
18. Place the pan in the fridge.
19. Now prepare the chocolate layer. To do so melt chocolate in the microwave over. Cool it down.
20. Mix chocolate and 125g of Philadelphia cheese in a blender.
You even don't need to wash the blender container you used before, great!!!
21. Add 100ml of cream and blend together.
22. Place the mix to a bowl and add one third of remaining gelatin that you have melted. Mix gently.
23. With a spoon pour the chocolate mix to the pan with the cake and level it carefully. Move it back to the fridge.
24. In the meanwhile prepare the decoration from the remaining pear. I did it this way: I cut the pear into slices. Then prepared the cake glaze as it was written on the box of it. After that I displayed the pear in a shape I liked I fixed it with the cake glaze helping with a silicon brush.
25. When the decoration was fixed I moved it to the cake.
26. After the decoration you need refrigerate your cake for 4 hours minimun, better if you if you do it overnight.
27. To remove the cake from the pan, use a thin knife and pass it round the pan border, then open the ring. Or just open the ring veeeeery carefully in order to let the cake separate from the borders.
What can I add? Enjoy!!! But be careful about the shape!!!
With this recipe I don't suggest the measures of the ingredients. When it comes to cooking I never use precise quantity, it's either common sense or experience, unless when it comes to pastry. There the measures are VERY important!!
INGREDIENTS:
chicken breast slices
prosciutto crudo slices
mushrooms
Philadelphia cheese
EVO oil
1-2 garlic cloves
chilli
salt
1. Slice your mushrooms and start cooking them with the oil, garlic cloves and chilli
2. In meanwhile wash the chicken breast slices and dry them with paper towel. Salt them just a bit.
3. Lay the chicken with Prosciutto slices and roll them up with the chicken inside and Prosciutto outside. One slice of prosciutto per each slice of chicken. Fix the roll with the use of a toothpick.
4. Sear the rolls with the mushrooms and add Philadelphia cheese with some water to dilute. For example, for 300g of chicken you may add half a bowl of Philadelphia (that is about 125g) but it depend on how much sauce you prefer.
5.Cook rolls with the sauce for 10 minutes, if the sauce becomes too thick, add some more water. In any case the sauce consistency should be creamy at the end.
I was chatting to my friend the other day, she works at a very successful bakery in Rome and I was asking if, among all those wonderful cakes, they also prepare cheesecakes. And even if cheesecakes were asked by the clients very often, alas, this bakery is not producing them.... Sigh, even my friend never tried any cheesecake! How come??
100g butter
1. Process biscuits till they are crushed finely. 
Note: This is my first time using a new adjustable cake ring. As you may see from the name it's just a ring, it doesn't have any bottom, but the great thing about this bakeware is that you can adjust the diameter between 16 and 32 cm. I think it's absolutely amazing to have a possibility to vary cake size just using one ring!!! 
7. Soak 8g of gelatin in cold water for 5-10 minutes.
Note: Be careful while leveling out the strawberry mousse over the cream. 
