Which is Which?

This time, I decided to consider a cheesecake bought from the shop.  How the texture, taste and appearance compared to that of a homemade cheesecake.  And this got me thinking.  As well as comparing it to a homemade cheesecake, I could use two of the same cheesecakes from different price ranges and see how they compare to each other.  So I am going to be exploring what really is the difference between supermarket value food, and finest.  I chose two from Tesco.  Both the same flavour and both titled "New York Cheesecake" , but priced and packaged very differently.  But first, I had to find some willing victims.  I persuaded ten people, friends and family, to tell me which cheesecake they preferred in taste, texture, and also the packaging.  

Everyone agreed that the Tesco finest cheesecake was more appealing in terms of packaging.  Their views considered the colours, and how most thought the bright blue of the Tesco value cheesecake was too bold and brash and looked a little cheap, especially considering it had the price of £2 displayed very clearly on the front.  They preferred the more sophisticated look of the Tesco finest cheesecake, and I have to agree.

When I took them out of the boxes, I was immediately swayed towards the finest cheesecake as it was definitely visually more appealing.

When it came to tasting however, I decided to have a little bit of fun.  Seeing as everyone preferred the packaging of the finest cheesecake, in my mind I thought people might be a little biased knowing which was the cheaper cheesecake in their tasting decisions.  So I blindfolded them!  And as you can see below, mum was looking a little bit worried......

Whilst all this was going on, mum reminded me of a game we used to play when i was younger.  We used to have to close our eyes and mum would put something in our hand to eat, and we would have to guess from the feel and flavour what it was and there was always so sort of prize at the end of this.  It also reminded me of one night when me and my friends had a few too many cocktails on a night out and were all craving something sweet! So we walked to the local Tesco's and bought ourselves a cheesecake to share, and we went for the Tesco value one.  We took it into the middle of town, sat on a bridge overlooking the river and finished off our night quite nicely with a nibble of cheesecake!
Once I had blindfolded my eager volunteers, I allowed them two bites of one cheesecake, followed by some water and then two bites of the next.  Switching which cheesecake I gave first each time so no one was sure which was which.  And overall the results were quite surprising.  The majority vote was for the value cheesecake!  Most people described the finest cheesecake as far too sweet, to the point where they didn't think they could finish a whole slice if it were given to them.  So although the appearance of the finest cheesecake was far more appealing than the value cheesecake, it seems that looks aren't everything.  Which I discovered myself with the chocolate orange recipe I tried.  Although the cheesecake looked wonderful, the cheesecake did not live up to expectations.

Can you guess which is which?

cherry delicious!

So, after the success of my first Nigella cheesecake, and the not so successful attempt at a Sainsbury's recipe, I decided to revert back to Nigella and try a recipe from one of her other books.  This one is titled "Nigella Express".  To me this read as everything inside would be quick and easy to make.  And it should have been....but then of course, I came along.  As always I managed to make things much more difficult for myself than they should have been.  Once again I love the introduction to the recipe, and this time she talks to us about her opinions of baked and non baked cheesecakes and how they have changed:

"I had always been a committed believer that the only true cheesecake was the proper, baked cheesecake, but now I'm not so sure.  This improper, unbaked cheesecake, feature of many a seventies dessert trolley, has entirely won me over."

In a sense, I do agree with her.  Although the other way around.  I used to think baked cheesecake could never be quite as good as a creamy, set in the fridge mix.  However, the banoffee recipe that I posted previously was fantastic and when I compare this to the fact that one of my non baked recipe's didn't set, I was beginning to think baked cheesecakes were the better option.  But this recipe is wonderful!

Ingredients

Base:

125g Digestive Biscuits

75g Soft Butter.

Cheese Mix:

300g Cream Cheese

60g Icing Sugar

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1/2 Teaspoon Lemon Juice

250ml Double Cream

1 Jar Dalfour Black Cherry.

Method:

1.   Blitx the biscuits in a food processor until beginning to turn the crumbs, then add the butter and whiz again to make the mixture clump.

2.  Press the mixture into a 20cm tin.

3.  Beat together the cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla extract and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth.

4. Lightly whip the double cream and then fold into the cream cheese mixture.

5.  Spoon the cheesecake filling on top of the biscuit base and smooth with a spatula.  Put it in the fridge for 3 hours.

6.  When you are ready to serve the cheesecake, unmould it and spread the black cherry over the top.

Everything in this recipe and method went perfectly until it came to putting the cherry on top.  I bought the wrong cherry mix....typical of me really to grab the first one i saw.  So instead of being a thick sauce to spread over the top, I ended up with lots of whole cherries and a very liquid sauce.  Once again, mum was needed.  And she had the perfect solution.  I drained the sauce from the cherries and put this into a saucepan.  I then added 5 spoons of sugar and heated gently until it bubbled to thicken.  I popped this in the fridge to set and when i went to check it i had the perfect thick syrup to drizzle over the cherries which I had placed on top.  And I have to agree with what Nigella said in her introduction, that this unbaked recipe truly does compete with baked cheesecakes.  

When I think back about this cheesecake recipe,  it brings back so many different memories.  The first of which was a new addition to the family!  My Auntie had a little girl and it became noticeable that she was allergic to egg.  So mum began searching around for new recipe's that were specifically egg free and she found this one already in our cupboard.  Mum began collecting lots of recipe's that would be suitable in the years to come that didn't contain egg which would make things much easier when family came to visit!  The second memory that springs to mind is Christmas.  This used to be a family favourite before mum became diabetic and switched to the equally good low fat, low sugar recipe I made previously.  Every boxing day, mum would make this delicious cheesecake as our dessert and I can recall so many wonderful memories which have all been triggered by making this cheesecake!  All of my family sat around the table at lunch time, pulling the leftover crackers and playing games.  Had I not decided to make this one, perhaps some of these memories and days might have been forgotten.

The Worst Of Sainsbury's Entertaining

This time around, I decided to try a recipe from a slightly older book.  The book I chose is called "The Best of Sainsbury's Entertaining" which I thought sounded perfect considering how recently we have been studying how food is used in certain texts to demonstrate a sense of status and can be used to entertain guests.  When flicking through the book initially, I noticed that each chapter had an introduction suggesting which occassions the food in the section could be used for and also includes tips on how to make your event its best.  The recipe I picked was for a chocolate orange cheesecake which to me sounded fantastic! And my dad, being quite a fan of terry's chocolate orange's, was rather keen on the idea as well.

 

The buffet party introduction seemed incredibly well linked to the course which I am currently studying.  Not only have we looked at food as a form of entertainment but also how and who is to prepare the food, particularly considering post war, a time when servants began to disappear and women had to manage on their own. It specifically states that;

"Buffet parties are the entertaining occasions favoured by

 busy people who have little help.  They are infinitely popular

with those who dislike formality."

This to me stated that the recipe's I would find here would be simple and quick to do.  The overall format of the recipe was well laid out and easy to follow...to an extent.  One problem I did find is that the ingredients listed weren't seperated into base and cheese mix so I guessed (and doubled checked with mum) and once that was sorted of I went!

Ingredients

50g Butter

125g Digestive Biscuits

25g Demerera Sugar

454g Curd Cheese

50g Caster Sugar

Grated Rind of Two Oranges

250ml Single Cream

15g Gelatine, soaked in 3 tablespoons cold water

50g Plain Chocolate, melted

Whipped Cream to Decorate.

Method:

Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the biscuit crumbs and sugar.  Spread the mixture over the base of a 20cm tin and press down.  Leave in the refrigerator until firm.
Place the cheese in a bowl with the sugar and orange rind and beat until smooth.  Strain the orange juice and add to the mixture, then gradually stir in the cream.
Heat the gelatine gently until dissolved, then stir into the cheese mixture.  Pour over the crumb base.  Pour the cooled, melted chocolate over the top, swirling with a fork to give a marbled effect.  Chill in the refrigerator until set.  Remove from the fridge and pipe cream around the edge to serve.

I came across a problem with this recipe almost instantly.  Once I had made the biscuit base mix, and put it into the tin that they suggested, it was immediately clear...there wasn't nearly enough.  I had to double the mixture in order to cover the tin!  But once I'd done that, I thought well that's the worst of it!  Turns out that wasn't exactly true.

The cheese mix itself was quite simple and the method clear, but I did begin to worry about how watery it was.  The Banoffee cheesecake I made previously was also quite watery but it was baked so I wasn't worried about that one setting.  This one however is one to be put in the fridge to set.  So because it was so runny, I thought the best thing to do would be to leave it overnight.  

When I came downstairs the next day I checked on the cake, and it was still quite wobbly.  It had set on top but wobbled a lot.  So I left it until the afternoon.  With mum's assistance, of course, we removed the outer casing of the tin.  And the cheesecake stayed upright....for a while.  Once the first slice had been cut, it started to slip.  Not completely but it didn't hold it's shape as it should have done.  This cheesecake was the most appealing visually so far, the chocolate decoration looked wonderful, but when it came to tasting it, I wouldn't say the same.  The flavour's of the cheesecake were wonderful!  The orange was tangy but sweet and the chocolate on top added even more flavour.  But the texture definitely wasn't right which confused me as I followed the recipe exactly.  I have boiled it down to a few things which I would change about the recipe.  Firstly, I would definitely double the quantities of the biscuit base as it needed much more than stated.  Secondly, I would suggest a certain amount of orange juice to use and I feel there may have been too much and that is one cause for the cake not setting properly.  And finally, I would change the single cream to double or extra thick cream.  All this aspects put together I personally think would have made a much firmer, set cheesecake.  But at least it tasted good!  Mum even used it for a dinner party she was having with her friends.  One of which happens to be the head chef of Acton Scott Farming Museum and she was kind enough to write a short review for me of what she thought:

"Base : Tasted good but needed more biscuits.

Cheesecake : Tasted very nice but was too loose.  Next time use more gelatine or less liquid.  I the the recipe was at fault here and should have used double cream also.

Chocolate : Looked beautiful, but due to the very cold temperature used in order to set the cheesecake it was too hard to cut.  If the consistency of the cheesecake had been firmer and served at room temperature the swirling pattern would have been perfect."

So it would appear that she agrees with me completely in the recipe being at fault here.  If I was to attempt this cheesecake again I would combine both mine and her alterations to try and rectify the problems.

just call me Nigella...

For this next cheesecake, I delved into one of my favorite cookbooks titled "Kitchen Recipes From the Heart of the Home"  by Nigella Lawson.  I absolutely love her recipes and really enjoy making them! What I've always loved about her is the fact that she provides some sort of memory or event that ties in with each recipe.  When I first bought one of her books and saw all the print introducing the recipe, I did what a lot of people would do...skip straight to the ingredients.  But I really enjoy reading them now! I feel like i'm watching one of her programme's on the television rather than reading a book.  Each one contains something different and this was no exception.  Being a student I found her introduction very relevant as she talks a lot about the wasting of food and how she can't stand to do so.  Considering the students budget, I think it's safe to say that none of us can really afford to waste food!  I was a little apprehensive about this recipe as it seemed a lot more complicated than the others I've tried so far but I thought why not! And in fact, it wasn't as bad as i thought!  Before she even begins to list the ingredients needed, Nigella mentions a few tips about the mixture which you definitely need to know before you start! For example, she tells you that the cream cheese must be at room temperature as it needs to be left out of the fridge for quite a while for it to warm up slightly. 

Ingredients:

Base.

250g Digestive Biscuits

75g soft unsalted butter.

Cheese Mix:

4 Bananas

60ml Lemon Juice

700g Cream Cheese

6 Eggs

150g Soft Light Brown Sugar

Toffee Sauce:

100g Soft Unsalted Butter

125ml Golden Syrup

75g Soft Light Brown Sugar.

Method.

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees/ gas mark three and put a full kettle to boil.  Wrap the outside of the tin with a layer of clingfilm then wrap that in a layer of tin foil.  This will protect the cheesecake in its water bath.

2.  Process the digestive biscuits with the butter until you have a sandy rubble.  Press this into the bottom of the tin and set in the fridge.

3.  Mash the bananas well with a fork and add the lemon juice.  Set aside.

4.  Process the cream cheese until smooth, then add the eggs and sugar.  Last of all add the mashed bananas and lemon juice.  Process until smooth.

5.  Take the biscuit lined tin from the fridge and sit in the middle of a roasting tin.  Pour the cheese mix onto the top.

6.  Pour the boiled water into the roasting tin until it comes about halfway up the cheesecake tin.  Place the roasting tin into the oven.  Cook for 1 hour and 10 minutes.  

7.  Remove the roasting tin from the oven and take the cheesecake from the roasting tin.  Gently peel away the layers of clingfilm and tin foil and let the cheesecake cool.  Put in the fridge to cool and remove half an hour before serving.

8.  To make the sauce, melt the butter, golden syrup and sugar in a saucepan over a gentle heat until it bubbles.  Let it continue to bubble for 1-2 minutes.  It will be a foamy, amber mixture that should resemble liquid honeycomb.  Let it cool slightly before pouring into a jug.  It will thicken as it cools.

The method itself was very easy and extremely well presented.  It wasn't in a big long paragraph like some recipes are.  Each new thing you had to do had a separate bullet point and was in the exact order in which everything needed doing.  The first thing you are told to do just after the mention of the cheese needing to be at room temperature is to pre-heat the oven, which I would more than likely have forgotten otherwise.  The recipe was so easy to follow that I didn't even need mum this time! Except for when I did....I began mixing everything together as was stated, but when I stopped and had a look, the cheese, lemon juice, bananas, eggs and sugar were looking like a pale lumpy mess.  The biscuit base had worked wonderfully and so I was really hoping the mix would turn out just as well.  But unfortunately I did get a bit stuck.  And this was the point I felt I needed mum.  Luckily she had a very simple solution : put it in the blender which worked perfectly!  One thing that I feel was missing from this recipe was how the mix should look.  I was certain my lumpy mess wasn't right and mum thought exactly the same.  And instead of the usual thick creamy mix, this was really quite like a liquid so I was a little worried that it would leak into the base of the cheesecake, but thankfully as I had remembered to set the base in the fridge previously, it sat nicely on top. 

But all in all i was extremely proud of this cheesecake!  It even resembled the picture provided in the book of the finished product which makes a change for me.  I did feel the need to make a few little changes though.  Instead of using four bananas, which i'm not that keen on, i decided to cut down to two and a half so the flavor wasn't too overpowering and I'm so glad I did.  You could definitely taste the banana but instead of being the only thing you could taste, the base and cheese mix were still there.  I also had to adapt the topping.  As stated before, my mum is a diabetic so instead of smearing the toffee sauce which, lets face it, is basically pure sugar all over the top as suggested, I put it on the side so everyone could decide how much they wanted, or have none in my mums case.   In the recipe Nigella tells you that you can leave some of the sauce on the side "for people to add greedily as they eat" which really made me laugh as it just sums up my brother completely!  I always remember whenever there is dessert on the table, he's the first one to go for it, if there's any left at the end he'll be the one finishing it off!  He does love his food.  And I have to say, that this has definitely topped all of the others so far...definitely one to save for another day!