Blueberry Ricotta Cheesecake

Last summer days... Who could have thought that it will pass by that quickly?! While looking back on all that we managed to do this summer and trying to catch the last moment I realized that one recipe is still waiting to be posted. Because it is a pure summer delight and also my childhood memories. Since I come from a little green town on the river Uzh in the western part of Ukraine, I am used from my very childhood to be close to the nature. My father likes going to the forest and gathering fresh mushrooms after the rain. My mom is always creative thinking of what to cook with fresh regional treats. My grandparents having a nice garden always provided us with berries, fruit and vegetables. I remember my sister saying that I am very lucky to have all that when she moved abroad. But back those time I did not fully realize her point. Only when I moved to Germany I understood how important is to know where does the product come from because it is much healthier to eat regional and local. Yes, there is such a great variety of everything you want here. But there are some products you will hardly find here. Blueberries! No, of course, you may buy blueberries here. But these are totally different spices. They are actually huckleberry, much bigger than what I am talking about. And your tongue is not getting violet after eating those. How?!?! How happy I was when I saw these wonderful wild blueberries in one of the big supermarkets here!!!!! After two and a half years of searching I already gave up. 

And here I am with a wonderful magic recipe specially for you - Blueberry Ricotta Cheesecake. Of course, you may follow this fluffy cheesecake recipe or my very first low-fat recipe and sprinkle blueberries on top of those but today I propose you a combination of ricotta and cream cheese. 

Ingredients:

for the crust
1 1/2 cup wholewheat flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup softened butter

for the filling:
250g ricotta
500g cottage cheese
3 large eggs
2 bananas
2 tbsp sugar
lemon zest from 1 lemon
vanilla seeds (from 1/2 vanilla pod)
1 tbsp cornstarch or pudding powder *(optional)

for topping:
150g fresh wild blueberries

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 18-20 cm round ovenproof form with baking paper. 

In a food processor mix all the ingredients for the crust until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Press mixture over base and side of prepared baking form. Bake it for 15 minutes until golden brown. You can also use wholegrain biscuits for the crust just blending them with butter.

In a bowl mash bananas with sugar and using an electric mixer beat them with ricotta, adding cottage cheese. Add some flavors by putting lemon zest and vanilla seeds into the cheesy mixture. At this point add cornstarch or pudding powder to make the mixture set. This step is optional as you see from the ingredient list. It is recommended if the cheese you are using is very creamy. Otherwise you can skip it without concerns. One by one add the eggs and mix well. Do not overbeat. Pour the filling over the baked crust in the form. Spread the blueberries evenly over the top of the cake.

Baking time - 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 160° C and bake 20-30 minutes more. It depends on the height of the cake. The higher - the longer baking time. The cheesecake is done when the borders are a bit puffed and the center almost set but still moves a bit when the form is shaken.

After that let it cool down until room temperature. I know this might be a challenge in some sense. Proper cooling is very important to create a proper texture and avoid cracks. Make sure to cool cheesecake completely on a wire rack on the counter before refrigerating for at least 4 hours before serving.

Here you go - colorful cheesecake SUMMER EDITION :)

 

 

Strawberry Cheesecake: made with LOVE

Tomorrow is Valentine's day and you are probably willing to make this day sweet. Almond cake was my last year's creation. I clearly remember a nice nutty flavor spreading around. Perfect rasprerries were like little hearts all around the cake. And it seemed that love was in the air... everywhere I looked around! So why not to make this Valentine's day even better?!

 I decided to review my posts I find for each wish a separate one. For the ones who prefer classical recipes with minimum preparation time and complexity level, I would highly recommend chocolate souffle. You will have two in one - healthy and romantic dessert. Maybe some of you want to make a perfect cake for this occassion and here it is. Just a pinch of patience ;) 

Of course, you can make the sweet treat really simple and clever. Like chocolate hearts with marzipan. I think everything with a heart shape is acceptable on St.Valentine's Day. Having no heart forms does not mean you are not able to do anything. Just check this one. All you need is a kitchen blender and your hands. What I decided was a perfect strawberry cheesecake. The basic recipe you will find here. I decided to make it LOVE-ly adding strawberries on top.

Ingredients:

for 28 cm round baking form

100 g wholewheat cookies

40 g butter

3 tbsp cold water

1 kg low fat cottage-cheese

200 g creme fraiche

2 bananas

3 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 vanilla pod, seeds scraped

5 eggs

zest from 1 lemon

1 pack of vanilla pudding powder

250 g fresh strawberries

1 tsp cinnamon

1 pinch of salt

2 tbsp strawberry jelly (for glazing)

Preheat the oven to 180° C.

For the crust blend the cookies into dust and mix with butter and water. The powder should get sticky enough to form a nice bottom for our cheesecake. As soon as it is well mixed put a sheet of baking paper into the form and using your hands or a spoon make a nice thin layer on the bottom of the form. Bake it for 10 minutes. If it raises a bit do not worry. The filling will press it back down.

And here is the filling. 

Separate egg whites from yolks in different bowls. Put the egg whites into fridge. Meanwhile mix yolks with 2 tbsp of sugar and mashed bananas. Add vanilla seeds, mix well. As for cottage cheese I usually take low-fat cheese. If you prefer 20% or even 40%, go for it. Put cheese of your choice, pudding powder and lemon zest into yolk-banana-sugar mixture. Mix thoroughly.

Now leave it all aside and get the egg whites out of the fridge.

Beat egg whites as explained in a tip here. Fold the carefully into cheese mixture and get your baking form with a crust inside. Pour the ready cheesecake mixture into the form. Cover the bottom of the form with foil and place it in a bath. In other words, take a bigger form and pour 1-2 glasses of water into it. That would be a bath for our form with cheesecake. If you have no bigger form you can use just any heat resistant folder with water as a bath. Put it then on the bottom of your oven. This trick will insure you a velvety structure of the cake. And believe me, that is something worth to reach.

Baking time - 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 140° C and bake 20-30 minutes more. It depends on the height of the cake. The higher - the longer baking time.

After that let it cool down until room temperature. Meanwhile wash the strawberries and melt strawberry jelly. Then mix it with the berries in order to reach glossy skin. Then decorate the top of cheesecake with strawberries and put it into the frigde for about 2 hours.

Here it is: a nice glossy strawberry cheesecake, tender, smooth and sooo tasty!!!

Have a SWEET Valentine's Day! Love and be loved! Catch every moment and enjoy it as much as you can!

Made with LOVE! By #GourmetBalance

Cheesecake with apple almond topping

"If happiness were a cake"... An article with that title couldn't stay without attention. Because I'm pretty sure a tasty cake is our happiness. Especially a cake that will follow in this post. I have to admit that free magazines are sometimes even more useful than you think. One of those, as you already understood, enclosed a precious recipe of my favorite C-H-E-E-S-E-C-A-K-E ;)

As a naughty girl I can't cook strictly following the recipe. So I grabbed all I needed and was ready to bake my own interpretation. A good thing is that you can always add what you like or reduce the quantity of harmful ingredients and meanwhile create a new recipe. That means being creative. And it keeps you always full of ideas.

Ingredients:

1 kg low fat cottage-cheese

200 g creme fraiche
2 bananas
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
5 eggs
zest from 1 lemon
1 pack of vanilla pudding powder
2 middle-sized apples
2 tbsp almond leaves
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180° C.

Separate egg whites from yolks in different bowls. Put the egg whites into fridge. Meanwhile mix yolks with 2 tbsp of sugar and mashed bananas. Add vanilla seeds, mix well. Now its turn of cheese. I usually take low-fat cheese. If you prefer any other, go ahead. We're here to make baking interesting and personal. Put cheese of your choice, pudding powder and lemon zest into yolk-banana-sugar mixture. Mix thoroughly.

Now leave it all aside and get the egg whites out of the fringe.

Tip!
A perfection of majority desserts is achieved through the structure. It is main advantage of using egg whites. Light, melting in your mouth, a piece of heaven... Yes. All you need is to beat the whites until stiff peaks. For that important task use better a copper, stainless-steel, or glass bowl. Make sure there are no traces of yolk, water or fat. They might be the reason of a bad result. Add a pinch of salt. Start beating at small speed and then increase it. Beat whites until you have stiff peaks. You can easily check the right condition if you title the bowl. The mixture should not slide around. When adding beaten egg whites to another mixture, immediately fold them gently into it. That way a volume will not be destroyed.

Middle-step overview: choose any topping you prefer and leave some place for fantasy ;)

Beat egg whites as explained in a tip below. Fold the carefully into cheese mixture and get a big baking form of 28 cm in diameter. Pour the ready cheesecake mixture into the form. Cover the bottom of the form with foil and place it in a bath. In other words, take a bigger form and pour 1-2 glasses of water into it. That would be a bath for our form with cheesecake. If you have no bigger form you can use just any heat resistant folder with water as a bath. Put it then on the bottom of your oven. This trick will insure you a velvety structure of the cake. And believe me, that is something worth to reach.

 
Baking time - 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 140° C and bake 20-30 minutes more. It depends on the height of the cake. The higher - the longer baking time.

After that let it cool down until room temperature. I know this might be a challenge in some sense. But I have another task for you meanwhile - topping. It consists of 2 main parts. For the first one heat some butter in a pan and add 1 tsp of sugar. As the mixture is warm, put in apple slices and cinnamon. Caramelize from all sides until a bit softer. For second part heat the rest of sugar in a saucepan, add butter and almond leaves. For 2-3 minutes let them get golden color and sweet flavor. That's it.

Last and final step - decorate the cheese basis with apple slices and almond leaves.

Voilà - happy cheesecake is ready to surprise you with a range of flavors.

Just be careful not to get addicted ;)

Pumpkin sugarfree three-layer-cheesecake

Of course autumn is about pumpkin. As a main symbol of Halloween it makes a definite mood and brings us good autumn memories. So I strongly believe that if we have a chance to buy a good pumpkin it's worth to do because I have a special recipe for you. A cheesecake. Not just a simple one but pumpkin cheesecake. According to statistics my first recipe had a big success. But sometimes you are fed up with the taste of the cheese and want something really special. Then just try!!! That makes a difference.

Even my strict critic scored this cheesecake as the best of all I've recently baked. Just imagine...Smooth, tender taste of cheese with added orange notes and a pleasant pumpkin layer...a perfect combination for cold autumn evenings with a big warm blanket;)

The amount of the ingredients is perfect for a round form 18-20 cm in diameter.

Ingredients :
80g old-fashioned oat flakes
80g pitted dates
4 eggs
350g low-fat creamy cottage cheese
350g pumpkin puree (baked)
2 tbsp vanilla pudding powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp orange zest
250 ml orange juice
2 tbsp corn flour
1 tsp pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, cloves...)

Tip!
To get a smooth creamy pumpkin puree wash a pumpkin, cut it into two halves, take out the seeds using a spoon and put the halves onto a baking sheet (cut edges faced down). Then bake the pumpkin in the oven for about 40 minutes at 180°C. A spoon will help you to get a ready-to-use puree out of the pumpkin's halves.

Heat the oven to 180°C.
For a crust blend oat flakes into dust, add pitted dates and one egg. Blend again. Put the mass into a form and using your fingertips mold the first layer. Put aside.

The middle layer will be cheesy with a bit of pumpkin smoothness and orange taste. Mix cream cheese, 2 eggs, 50g of pumpkin puree, cinnamon, vanilla pudding powder and 50 ml of orange juice. Make sure the texture is smooth. Pour it all into the form and make the middle layer. Put into the oven for 40 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the upper layer using the rest of the pumpkin (about 300g), 200 ml of orange juice, corn flour, 1 egg and pumpkin pie spices.

When your two-layer cheesecake is ready to be taken out of the oven pour the upper layer into the form and flatten it nicely. The next baking step including the upper layer will last another 20 minutes.

Tip!
Let the cheesecake cool down until it reaches room temperature. Only after that remove it out of the form to minimize damaging risks.

To add some extra flavor I served this tasty colorful beauty with orange zest and some chopped pistachios. Enjoy every piece ;)

Cheesecake with pear slices - low-fat and sugarfree

I barely know a person who hates cheesecakes. And the one who adores them is me:) As I'm crazy about healthy lifestyle I've practiced a lot to make a perfect healthy cheesecake: delicious, low-fat, high-protein and just perfect.

Here it is: the queen recipe of cheesecake.
The ingredients are quite simple:

3 middle-sized bananas
100 g almonds
30 g butter
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
1 vanilla pudding powder
1/3 cup raisins
1000 g low-fat cottage cheese
3 eggs
1 sweet pear

Tip! Most of the recipes are full with an enormous amount of sugar and empty calories. Therefore I've searched for healthy substitutes to make pies and other bakery a part of my healthy lifestyle. More information about the substitutes you will find in one of my following articles.

Before we start we have to preheat the oven to 180°C. Then take a 20-cm spring form and brush its bottom and sides with melted butter. For the crust make almond flour. Place almonds inside a food processor, coffee bean grinder or blender. Pulse until you get a fine, grainy consistency. In a bowl mix almond flour, butter and 1 mashed banana. If you want to have a sweet crust you can add some extra sugar of honey. Press the mixture into the bottom of your form. Bake it 10 minutes until the color is golden-brown.

In another bowl beat the cheese with 2 mashed bananas. Add vanilla pudding powder to ensure the smooth texture. Then add into the mixture raisins (previously soaked in the hot water), honey, cinnamon, vanilla seeds. If you want to check if it's enough sweet for you this is the moment to do it;) Add 3 whole eggs and mix it all thoroughly. Pour the filling onto the base. Peel the pear and cut it into slices. Decorate the cheesecake with pear slices. Cover the form with aluminium foil and bake in the preheat oven 15 minutes. Then decrease the heat to 150°C and bake another 50-60 minutes. 10 minutes before the end take the foil off and let the cheese become golden-brown.

Let the cheesecake cool down (I know its hard, cause it smells so good:) and take it out of the form.

Make a break and enjoy. A perfect combination with a home-made hot chocolate or a latte macchiato.