An Autumn Dessert - Chocolate Dipped Physalis Vanilla Cheesecake

This is a celebration of autumn.  Just to show that I'm letting go of the summery raspberry pots and embracing the Autumn and it's rusty tones.  Physalis or cape gooseberries are like Chinese lanterns.  A simple and  stunning trick is to pull the paper case off and backwards, dip in melted chocolate you will deliver a dramatic statement.  

This vanilla cheesecake is a real treasure and I thank Nigella for this.  I have copied the recipe from How to be a Domestic Godess.  I have changed the cream cheese to using curd cheese which I think makes for a lighter cheesecake.  You can adorn it with  anything.  Soft summer fruit, but that's so last season.  Figs, caramalised quince, plain, squiggles of melted chocolate, there's no end.

200gms digestive biscuits

75 gms butter melted

600gms Cream cheese (I used Curd Cheese)

3 eggs

3 yolks (save the whites for a round of meringue)

100gms caster sugar

1.5 Tbsp vanilla essence

For the topping

280 ml sour cream

1 Tbsp caster sugar

Few drops of vanilla essence

You need a 20cm springform cake tin and foil

1. Wrap the Springform tin with foil on the outside so that it is sealed.  
2. Blitz the biscuits in a food processor or use the rolling pin and mix with the melted butter. Press into a springform cake tin.
3. Clean out the food processor and blitz the curd cheese, eggs, yolks, sugar, vanilla to a smooth batter.
4. Pour onto  the biscuit base.
5. Place the tin into a roasting tin filled with hot water (bain marie)
6. Cook for about 50 minutes.  So that the batter is just set.
7. Mix the sourcream and sugar with vanilla and  pour on top of cheesecake and bake for 5 minutes.
8. Allow to cool completely before releasing.  
9. Decorate with your choice, or leave plain.

Serve with cream.

Raspberry Pots

I've been meaning to write this post all summer.  Here is my favourite summer dessert, even though I write this in Autumn.  I made these  raspberry pots last week, when it was still summer.  Last attempt to hold on to the summer before it slips away.

I've been enjoying this dessert for years.  The recipe is from the late and outrageously flamboyant Francis Coulson.  "You need a light heart to bake a light cake".  He didn't hold back on the double cream either.  

225gm raspberries

3 Tbsp caster sugar

4 egg yolks 

300ml  double cream

1.5 Tbsp Cointreau

1. Preheat oven ot 140C. 
2. Puree the raspberries in a blender with sugar  and  yolks. Pass through a seive (although I didn't).
3. Stir in the crean and the Cointreau. Mix.
4. Pour into ramekins and cook in a bain marie for about an  hour.  
5. The custard should be just set and slightly wobbly in the centre.
6. Allow to cool and chill thoroughtly for at least 6 hours.
7. Serve with cold double cream poured on top so that each time you take a spoonful, the cream fills up the hole.

The original recipe is with strawberries and Francis recommends raspberries, which I prefer.

A dusting of icing sugar makes for an elegant dessert which matches almost anything.