Week Thirty Nine – Mary Berry’s Easy Lemon Cheesecake

Posted on Jun 25, 2013 by kimsideas

This week , a pudding was needed for after dinner with my other mum and dad so I happily sat and browsed through Mary Berry’s Baking Bible and found this easy yet delicious sounding cheesecake. The base of the cheesecake was crushed digestive biscuits with melted butter, pressed into a flan tin and left to set. No problem there.

The filling was the grated rind and juice of three lemons, not an issue but you soon know if you have a cut on your finger- or like me, manage to grate your finger with the rind!, to this, Mary asks for some single cream and condensed milk, well as Mary is very fond of the full fat varieties, I substituted the single cream for Elmlea lighter single cream and the condensed milk for the lighter condensed milk, it just cuts down on the amount of calories a little. You put the ingredients in a bowl and whisk together until slightly thickened and then pour it onto the base and allow to set for at least four hours or overnight if possible.

I left mine overnight and then looked at what Mary suggests to finish the cheesecake- double cream whipped, and strawberries…….well I made a Kim executive decision and took out the double cream. I then decided that strawberries were not the best company for a lemon cheesecake so I simply decorated mine with some clementine segments.

We all seemed to enjoy the cheesecake after dinner, and as usual, dad had a second helping. There was about a third of the cheesecake left and we divided that in half so that each household had a little more for supper….or so we thought….our half slipped off the plate…and as you can see, the dogs had a cheesecake feast!

Week Fifteen (eventually) – Mary Berry’s Key Lime Pie

Posted on Dec 5, 2012 by kimsideas

Week fifteen and I have eventually managed to blog about it. It hasn’t been the best of weeks for various reasons ………

Ok, Mary Berry’s Key Lime Pie. Mary makes it in a similar way to her Lemon Meringue Pie and that went well so I made the biscuit base with confidence and put it in the fridge to set. The topping required the juice of four limes mixed with condensed milk and double cream. Well as much as I have been loving Mary’s recipes, they are very much on the rich side and as I have been watching my cholesterol intake and wanted to try some of this, I added the lime juice to “light” condensed milk and half fat creme fraiche and it seemed to work well. This also went into the fridge to set and then I had to remove it from the tin to add the final topping.

Mary asks you to whip the remaining double cream and add it to the pie and sprinkle the rind of a lime over the top. Well, I added the remaining creme fraiche which you can’t whip and mixed the grated lime rind to it. It may not look so spectacular but it’s better for the waistline.

The weekend is approaching fast and the christmas cake recipe is calling, so watch this space…….

Week five – lemon meringue pie

Posted on Sep 23, 2012 by kimsideas

Week five came so quickly, where do the weeks go?

Ok, so I opened Mary Berry’s bible for my weekly inspiration and my mum was also coming up to visit …and the lemon meringue pie recipe just jumped out at me.

A quick trip around my local Morrisons to get some condensed milk and some unwaxed lemons and I was off.

A roast dinner with mum and hubby was planned so that all went in and then I got out my all new, all singing, all dancing Breville mixer on a stand (I don’t just buy things you know- my electric hand mixer only had one speed- despite what it said on it- and that speed was “painfully slow”!

I crushed the digestive biscuits, melted the butter and mixed my base, and pressed it into my flan tin (yes- that was new last week!) and put that in the fridge. Then I mixed together the lemon filling- Mary Berry says mix the tin of condensed milk, the “finely grated” rind and juice of 3 lemons and 3 egg yolks. The Breville made short work of that and that was poured on the base and set to chill.

Lastly, the 3 egg whites and caster sugar were whisked by the trusty Breville until it was forming nice soft peaks. The mix was spread on the lemon topping, swirled around and put into the pre- heated oven for 20 minutes.

This is the final effort and Ieven if I do say so myself, I think it looked ok.