Week 4 was dessert week - one of my favourite weeks when it comes to The Bake Off - I love dessert. I usually choose my dessert before I have chosen my main to ensure that I choose appropriately - after all I would not want to be too full for a dessert. Also if a restaurant offers a shoddy list of desserts - you can be sure that I will not be going back. This is how important desserts are to me.
The three challenges this week were Creme Brulee's, a Spanische Windtorte and a 3 Tiered Baked Cheesecake.
Gav could not possibly allow the opportunity of having 3 baked cheesecakes, so this was my challenge.
Week 4 - Dessert Week!
The Challenge
Three Tier Baked Cheesecake - different fillings, different sizes.
I've made baked cheesecakes before, I wanted to add a little flair to this challenge and try something a little different.
The Idea
Bottom Tier - Blueberry Cheesecake
Middle Tier - Mint Swirl Cheesecake
Top Tier - Malteaser Cheesecake
The Ingredients
For the Bases:
12oz Butter
24oz Plain Flour
2 tablespoons Cocoa
For the Fillings:
9 x 300g Cream Cheese
750g Caster Sugar
9 tablespoons Plain Flour
3 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
4 1/2 teaspoons Lemon Juice
9 Eggs plus 3 Yolks
600ml Soured Cream
1 shareable pack of Malteasers
1 1/2 teaspoons Pepermint Extract
300g Blueberries
3 drops of Green Food Colouring Paste
I started off by making the pastry for the bases of the three cheesecakes. I decided for pastry as I thought they would have a better structure on the bottom to be able to stack them than a biscuit base. I rubbed together the butter and flour and added small amounts of water to bring it together. I separated off a third of the pastry and added the Cocoa. I then rolled it all out and blind baked each base.
The Chocolate base looked like this
Whilst the bases were baking and then cooling, I started on the fillings. I placed all of the cream cheese in my mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, whisked on low and added the sugar gradually. I then threw in the flour and continued mixing on low. Next to go in was the soured cream, which is added until blended, but should not be over whisked.
I separated the mixture out into 3 bowls, adding a little more for the bottom tier cheesecake and a little less for the top tier cheesecake.
In the largest mix, I added the blueberries, then poured the mixture into the tin lined with the blind baked base.
In the smallest mix, I added the Malteasers, then poured the mixture into the tin lined with the blind baked base.
For the middle cheesecake, I divided the cheesecake mixture in two, placed the vanilla to one side and added the peppermint flavouring and the green colour paste to the other mixture. I then spooned a mixture of each alternately into the tin with the blind baked base to create the swirly effect.
I baked all three cheesecakes at 200C, The Blueberry went in first, to bake for 20 minutes, then I added the Mint cheesecake 5 minutes later to bake for 15 minutes, then the Malteaser cheesecake 5 minutes after that to bake for 10 minutes. I turned the oven down and continued to bake all three cheesecakes at 100C. I took the Malteaser Cheesecake out at 20 minutes, the Mint out at 25 minutes and the Blueberry out at 35 minutes.
All cheesecakes had a gentle wobble when they are ready and should ideally be left in the oven for a few hours to cool. However I could not leave my smaller tiers in whilst the bigger tier was still baking. Which is possibly the reason for the cracks in the Malteaser one
The Mint cheesecake came out pretty much the same as it went in, I was delighted with the results and could not wait to cut into it.
4 out of 5 for this hefty challenge. I was tired after this challenge, I have no idea how the contestants bake 3 times over one weekend.
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