Tiramisù Mini Cheesecakes (Wheat Free)

Good Monday all my wonderful readers! I apologise timely for the lack of Friday recipe, and I have no reasonable excuse: I was busy socialising. I had a party on Saturday night though, and I made some very tasty mini cheesecakes, and these ones were a twist on the classic retro dessert tiramisù!

Fluffy sponge base, silky vanilla cheesecake with a coffee syrup swirl, topped off with some whipped cream and a dusting of cocoa powder... it is sinfully delicious, and actually very similar to a normal tiramisù, bar the raw egg.

Each person who has eaten one of these morsels has said to me that the coffee flavour in a cheesecake is very unusual, but very nice. The coffee is swirled in, making it quite subtle and not overpowering, but good and intense in some pockets where the syrup has collected.

This is what the cake looks like without the cream and the cocoa dusting...

Without the cream and cocoa dusting that makes this a 'tiramisù' cheesecake, it's a simple and elegant coffee swirl cake, which is equally delicious.

I love mashing up classic desserts, and if you've been following my blog regularly you will have noticed many varieties of dessert mash-ups, which mostly revolve around ice cream and cheesecake, which are my two favourite desserts. However, I have done a nice Neapolitan Coconut Ice mashup, which is neither cheesecake or ice-cream related.

But anyway, back to the actual making of this concoction. This was my second attempt at this particular recipe, the first one failing on account of a botched base sponge: I had both used the wrong sort of cake, and forgotten the baking powder. Thus, they were tough and stodgy, and dislodged themselves from the cream cheese layer. Fail.

I then put my thinking cap back on, and remembered that traditionally tiramisù is made with savoiardi biscuits (or lady fingers), which are little fingers of fatless sponge. I slightly enrich my fatless sponge with sunflower oil to make it more flexible, but it's still very light and airy. It worked much, much better, and even the cream cheese layer and the swirl worked out a bit better the second time too. I think the practise run did me good.

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Eggs
☒ Dairy
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS

For 12 muffin sized cheesecakes:

For the sponge cake bases:

• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) white spelt flour
• ½ ounce (15 grammes) cornflour
• Pinch of salt
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) sunflower oil
• 1 medium egg
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) milk, or water

For the vanilla cheesecake filling:

• 8 ounces (225 grammes) full fat cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 medium egg
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) natural yoghurt, cream, or milk
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence, or the seeds of one vanilla pod
• Pinch of salt

For the coffee syrup:

• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) strong coffee
• Optional: 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) white rum or Marsala

To serve:

• 8 fluid ounces (240 millilitres) whipping cream
• 1 or 2 tablespoons (15 or 30 millilitres) icing sugar
• Cocoa, for dusting
• Optional: Grated dark chocolate, or decorating

METHOD

To make the bases:

• Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF, Gas Mk.4). Line a 12 hole muffin tin with large paper cases and set aside.
• Get a large mixing bowl and a smaller bowl, and separate the egg, putting the white in the large bowl and the yolk in the smaller bowl. To the yolk, add the oil and the milk and mix well until smooth and fully combined.
• Using an electric mixer, beat the white until it forms soft peaks, then gradually add the sugar, about a tablespoon at a time, beating all the while. Beat until it forms stiff peaks. (Once you have finished beating, you will need to wash the beaters as you'll be using them later to whip egg white again).
• Pour the yolk mixture into the whites and gently fold together. It should still be as fluffy and as increased in volume, but a little more yellow.
• Sieve in the spelt flour, cornflour and salt, then fold very gently until you get a batter that is relatively thick. Divide the batter between the 12 cases; it won't seem like much, but it rises quite a bit so don't worry.
• Bake the bases for 8 to 10 minutes, or until set and slightly springy to touch, and the faintest of golden brown. Remove from the oven, set on a wire rack, and reduce the oven temperature to 150ºC (300ºF, Gas Mk.2)

When your bases come out of the oven, immediately prepare the coffee syrup:

• In a saucepan, heat the sugar and coffee over a low heat until this sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil, and cook for about 2 minutes, or until the bubbles are a little less rapid and the syrup has visibly thickened slightly.
• Remove from the heat and, if using, mix in the rum or Marsala.
• Using a pastry brush, gently dab some of the syrup onto the little sponge bases. If you don't have a pastry brush, use a spoon to sprinkle half a teaspoon's worth of syrup on each sponge.

Now, make the cream cheese layer:

• Like with the bases, you will need two bowls, both about the same size. Separate the egg, putting the white in one bowl and the yolk in the other.
• To the yolk, add the cream cheese and mix until smooth and creamy. Gradually add half the sugar to the cream cheese mixture, mixing between additions, so the cream cheese doesn't turn runny. Gently stir in the yoghurt and vanilla.
• Using an electric mixer once more, whip the egg white as before, gradually adding the remaining sugar and the pinch of salt.
• Once the white is beaten to stiff peaks, gently fold it into the cream cheese mixture in two additions. You'll have a lovely light batter.
• Divide the batter between the 12 cases, spreading out evenly. Give the tray a firm tap on the work surface to even out further and release any trapped air bubbles.
• Pour about a teaspoon (5 millilitres) of coffee syrup into the centre of each cheesecake and then, using the tip of a knife or a chopstick, swirl the syrup into the cream cheese layer. Don't overdo it, or you'll end up completely mixing the syrup in and losing the swirl effect.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until set around the edges and a little bit jiggly in the middle. Remove from the oven and cool for about 10 minutes in the tray before transferring the cakes carefully to a wire rack.
• Chill for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Serve chilled.

To serve:

• Whip the cream and icing sugar to stiff peaks using , and then use it to fill a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle. Pipe a little rosette on each cake, and dust with some cocoa powder. If you like, you can sprinkle some grated dark chocolate on top too for that extra decadence factor.

Now, as you've probably read, there are quite a few steps involved in making these, but none of these steps is very complicated. But the result is delicious and well worth the effort. These are a great little morsel to bring along to a party, because everyone can have a serving of cheesecake without the hassle of cutting up or plating up.

THIS TIME IN 2014: Spanner in the Works: White Spelt Flour No Longer Exists

THIS TIME IN 2013: Dinosaur Kimberleys (Wheat Free)

Mini Chocolate "Melkterts" (Wheat Free)

Three updates this week! How I spoil you all.

I don't know what it is with my brothers and I, but there seems to be a family weakness for things South African: they each at a time were going out with a South African, I have a lot of friends who are South African, and theirs is an accent I could listen to all day. Their cuisine is a delightfully bizarre blend of all things European with the local twist applied, through spices and local vegetables.

My next oldest brother was going out with a woman who was a friend of mine in college, and she was originally from Cape Town. She really missed her home land, and would often recreate things she and her family would eat back home when she came around for dinner. Oxtail was her real favourite, spiced to Hell with dried bird's eye chillies, but another was Melktert, or "Milk Tart" as she called it.


Melktert is basically a pastry or biscuit-crumb base filled with a set vanilla scented custard and dusted liberally with ground cinnamon. It is absolutely amazing by itself, but what in this world cannot be improved with chocolate?

I used the same recipe for the bases as I used in my lemon meringue tarts recipe, but instead I made smaller cases using a muffin tin and filled them with a simple set custard, flavoured with cocoa powder.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten (unless you use gluten-free oats)
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Eggs
☒ Dairy (check italics for alternatives)


 INGREDIMENTS

For pastry:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes)  cornflour
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter or margarine
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• Pinch of salt

For custard filling:

• 10 fluid ounces (285 millilitres) whole milk
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) cornflour
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter or leave out

HOW-TO

• Make the pastry according to the lemon meringue tart recipe, and cook into one big case or into little cases. Allow to go cold.
• In a saucepan, mix all the custard ingredients except the butter and blend into a smooth liquid. Cook over medium heat, mixing continuously with a whisk, until thickened. It will be the consistency of fairy thick custard, almost as thick as a pudding consistency. The longer you cook it the thicker it gets so if you want a really thick custard just keep cooking.
• Remove from the heat and stir through the butter. This will make the filling richer and shinier.
• Pour into the pastry and shake to level out. Allow to cool to room temperature before chilling in the fridge.
• If you like, you can dust it with cocoa powder, icing sugar, or ground cinnamon.
  
  
  

As you can see, I cooked my custard quite thickly. I like an almost ganache like consistency with chocolate tarts, but you can set it softer, more like a chilled cheesecake, if you cook it less.

Variations on a Theme: Neapolitan Coconut Ice

Yes, yes: I know I'm going on a little coconut ice trip recently, but it's totally delicious! This recipe is a little different from the traditional kind, as it uses a little cocoa powder, too. Introducing Neapolitan coconut ice!

Once I saw the usually white and pink coconut ice, it instantly made me think of the white, pink and brown striped appearance of Neapolitan ice-cream. Here in Ireland, Neapolitan ice-cream is actually vanilla, strawberry and lemon, making a white-pink-yellow appearance, but lemon doesn't go so well with coconut in my opinion; lime, yes, but lemon not so much.

This is made in three layers, like the usual two layers but with an extra chocolatey stripe. Because cocoa powder overpowers any already present colour, it can go into the pink mixture so you don't have to make another batch of ice. Just one third kept white, remaining two thirds coloured pink, pink third poured out, and remaining third coloured and flavoured with cocoa powder and set into the tin. Simples!

This is a little more fiddly than the usual coconut ice, but it's totally worth it!

HOW-TO

• Make a quantity of coconut ice mixture according to this recipe, and stop before you do any pouring into tins or colouring of any kind.
• Now, it's time for a little bit of maths. Overall, the weight of the entire mixture will be 24 ounces (680 grammes), so each coloured layer will be roughly 8 ounces (225 grammes). However, the chocolate layer will need to be a little thicker for two reasons: a) because most tins widen out as they get taller, so the chocolate layer will be thinner as a result, and b) there will be two layers of straight out coconut versus one layer of chocolate flavoured, so if it's a little thicker you'll get a little more chocolatiness.
• So, set your 8 inch square tin (20 centimetre) on a weighing scales and set to zero. Take the raw, white coconut mixture and pour in 7 ounces (200 grammes) of the mixture into the tin and flatten out with a spoon.
• Return the rest of the mixture to a low heat (just to keep it soft) and add in a few drops of food colouring to make it a delicate pink colour. Pour in another 7 or 8 ounces (200 or 225 grammes) of the pink mixture on top of the white. Flatten out with a spoon.
• Once again, return the mixture to a low heat and add 2 tablespoons (60 millilitres) of sieved cocoa powder; mix well but gently to thoroughly combine, then pour this remaining mixture out onto the pink layer, flattening out with the spoon.
• Leave to set as directed in the recipe.

And there you have it! Stripy coconut ice with an added cocoa flavoured layer. The texture of the chocolate layer is a little crumblier than the other two layers, due to the added cocoa powder and also the prolonged mixing, but it still holds up and has a delicate melt-in-the-mouth texture. I could eat a whole batch by myself, but I don't recommend that course of action!