Cheesecakes, cheesecakes everywhere!

There's just something about cheesecake, isn't there? That sort of dense but light, creamy, rich and decadent filling, and that crunchy, chunky biscuit base under it. It makes for this textural explosion on the palate on its own, but once you add particular flavours it becomes something even more incredible.

When I was diagnosed with coeliac disease, it was leaving cheesecake behind that crushed me more than anything. In 2003, there weren't any biscuits that would have been good enough to make it and you'd never even hope to see a cheesecake in any shops anywhere. Imagine that - a world without cheesecake!?? So of course, before going gluten free I had a HUGE cheesecake binge. An entire 20cm cheesecake in two days. Yupp. I felt very sick but it was sooooo good!

Aaaaaanyway, I digress. So, the cheesecakes I've made this week are toffee apple, white chocolate and lavender, and coconut and lime (what I've begun affectionately calling 'Put-The-Lime-In-The-Coconut-Cheesecake'). Pictures, you ask? Oh alright...

Lavender and white chocolate cheesecake

Toffee Apple Cheesecake

There's no picture of the coconut and lime cheesecake just yet, I'm afraid. It's still chilling out in the fridge (enjoying a cider with the tomatoes, I imagine), but I will post pics once it has been de-cake tinned. I had a sneaky taste earlier and it was pretty good!

All of them need a little bit of fiddling with, recipe-wise, but they were surprisingly tasty! Now look, I KNOW there will be those of you who are thinking 'Er...I'm sorry...did she just say LAVENDER?!?!?!?' Okay, I know it sounds weird and flowery and a little gross but please, please trust me on this - it works! I did slip a little when I made the mini cheesecake and put a whole teaspoon in, so the lavender is a touch too strong in that one but actually, it complements the white chocolate perfectly. I'm seriously tempted to make that one for the Bournemouth & Poole Coeliac Support Group's Food Fair later this month. But will people want it??

The toffee apple was SO good! The apple needs to be a little softer before cooking next time, but this would be a great product around Autumn in particular. I layered up homemade caramel, slices of apple and cheesecake mix, then topped the cheesecake with a little crumble mix, for some extra crunch. 

Lastly, the coconut and lime cheesecake. The lime came across REALLY well, but the coconut wasn't very strong at all. So it tastes good but not really in the way it was meant to so next time I'll try using more coconut next time.

In all, feeling pretty good about the cheesecakes. Next up is something I'm keeping under my hat as a surprise (partly because it's VERY cool and partly because it might go horribly wrong) but I'm very excited. Watch this space! So many ideas!