Hello food lovers!
This last week or so I have been experimenting with the delights of citrus cheesecake, Oh yes, I'm on a BIG cheesecake kick, folks! You see before I was diagnosed with coeliac disease, I could quite happily munch my way through an entire chocolate cheesecake in 2-3 days. And I was only a size 8-10...ahh the joys of youth.
Anyway, because of our shared history, cheesecake and I are very firm friends and I know how hard it can be to get hold of a gluten free cheesecake (especially if you don't want it to also be dairy free). And because not everyone is a fan of chocolate...although I don't know WHO these people are?!?...I decided to test out a lemon and lime cheesecake.
Now, I'll be honest. The first attempt was an unmitigated diaster. Such is life! Of course, in this case it was a silly rookie mistake of leaving out all the sugar. Oops! Anyone who is a big fan of the zingy tang of citrus fruits knows you need sugar to help carry flavour, as well as to combat the sourness. So...imagine for a moment a cheesecake with NO sugar, and a LOT of lemon and lime zest. Ohhh I promise you, it was baaaaaad. Actually, bad isn't quite enough to describe just how rotten it tasted. I was a tad upset. Not quite hissy-fit levels, but I did feel a bit like growling like a rabid dog.
Fast forward a few days and with the previous cheesecake-tastrophy a thing of the past, I decided to have another bash. This time, I decided to incoporate a few ginger biscuits into the base, I DID remember the sugar (go me!), and I used the juice of one lime and half a lemon. I also swirled some lime curd through the mix once it was in the tin. And how did it turn out?
It was loovvvely! Well, I'll admit I actually don't really like citrus flavours at all, but the ginger biscuits complemented the zingyness (zingyness??) beautifully, and this time it had BAGS of flavour in it. I'm very pleased with how it worked out. My wonderful husband has taken it into work today, so I shall see how it gets on with his colleagues, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
As for lessons learned from this cheesecake, the severe cracking in it that you can see on the picture below is the result of using cold cream cheese and cold lime curd before putting it into a hot oven. So next time, so I am reliably informed, the key is to let my ingredients come up to room temperature (as you should always do with a sponge cake) first, and also keep a bowl of water in the bottom of the oven while it bakes. In theory, that should reduce or eliminate the cracking altogether.
See? Stuff like this is why I should have paid more attention in science class!
So, that's two awesome cheesecakes down. Whatever next!? Banoffee cupcakes? Cookies? I guess we'll see where the oven takes me next week. Stay tuned!
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