I had a comment on my blog the other day where one of my readers mentioned waking up at 4am in order to have some me time before her husband and children wake up. I totally understand this need to have time to oneself. Dave and I do nearly everything together. We wake up at the same time and leave for work together. We share an office even though we each have our own businesses and our desks are next to each other. Until I leave the office sometime during the day, we have been together since he got home from work the night before. I usually work in the office until 12h30 and then I head out to see customers, go to gym and do the shopping. But, that time is still spent with or near people. I totally look forward to 4pm when I am alone, with the dogs and the television. I make myself a cup of coffee, settle down on the couch and spend an hour watching a programme Dave does not watch with me. Dave gets home between 17h30 and 18h30 depending on whether he has gone to gym or not and so I get a nice chunk of time to myself. I use the time from after my potato couch episode to work on recipes. Either writing them up, getting the ingredients I need together, or making them. I like to set aside one day a weekend to make a lot of recipes, but this does not always work out as planned. Especially when we have arrangements. A few weekends ago I had a tea party on the Saturday and a BBQ at friends on the Sunday. I was asked to bring a dessert and chose to make this New York cheesecake. I could prepare the ingredients in between all my arrangements and once in the oven, leave the cheesecake to do its own thing.
New York Cheesecake
Ingredients
for the pastry
- 175 g flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting
- 125 g butter, cubed, plus extra for greasing
- 50 g fructose
- 1 lime, zest only
- 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
for the filling
- 500 g low fat cream cheese
- 250 g smooth cottage cheese
- 315 g fructose
- 1 lime, juice only
- 34 g flour
- 4 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 50 mls cream, whipped
- 170 g fruit concentrate (optional)
- fresh fruit of choice for decorating
Method
for the pastry
- Place the flour into a food processor
- Add the butter and pulse until it resembles fine breadcrumbs
- Add the fructose, zest and egg yolk
- Process until the dough comes together
- Lightly dust your work surface and knead the dough lightly, until soft
- Flatten into a disc and cover with cling film
- Place into the fridge and leave to rest for 30 minutes
- Line the bottom of a spring form tin and butter the sides
- Roll the pastry disc out until it is the same size as the bottom of the tin
- Place the pastry disc into the tin and push out using your fingers until the pastry is lined up completely with the edge
- Place into the fridge
- Preheat the oven to 190° Celsius
- Bake the pastry blind for 10 minutes
- Remove the baking paper and beans
- Set aside to cool while you make the filling
for the filling
- Preheat the oven to 160° Celsius
- Place the cream cheese, cottage cheese, fructose, lime juice and flour into a mixing bowl
- Whisk on a low setting until smooth
- Place the eggs and egg yolks into a small mixing bowl, and whisk to slacken
- Add the eggs slowly to the cream cheese mixture, making sure they are properly mixed in
- Gently whisk in the cream
- Pour the fruit concentrate into the mixture and swirl in to get a ripple effect
- Pour the filling onto the pastry base
- Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 140° Celsius
- Baking for 45 minutes
- Switch the oven off and leave the cheesecake in for 15 minutes
- Remove from the oven and set aside to cool in the tin
- Remove from the tin, place onto a serving plate and decorate with fresh fruit
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
Dave and I are overseas in Scotland. I will be back in my office on the 16th of September and I will start replying to comments then. I won’t be able to read any blogs while we are away so please forgive my lack of visiting back. To follow along with us, click here.
Disclosure: I was sent the book to review by Jillian Penaluna from Gullan and Gullan and this recipe formed part of the review and is published with permission from Penguin Random House South Africa. This post is in line with my blogging policy.
What I blogged September 7:
- three years ago – In My Kitchen
- four years ago – Cinnamon Cake
- five years ago – Lime Poached Hake
Cheesecake is my favourite dessert and New York Cheesecakes are the most decadent of them all. I loved your addition of the fruit puree as I found that the guava puree I made from Teresa’s guavas took my fav 5 ingredient cheesecake to a whole other level. Hope you’re having a blast in Europe xx
The guava made a great difference 🙂
What a beautiful cheesecake! I love some alone time, too, but have also learned to tune everyone out on my train commute home every day 🙂
That is a good time to have me time, even if you are not really alone 🙂
yum! new york cheesecake! I love it! thanks for the recipe!
My pleasure Marcela 🙂
I tend to get up early for that me time:-) Love the look of this cheesecake – Tandy – bet it went down a treat.
It was devoured in no time 🙂
Love cheesecake! This sounds great, Tandy.
Thanks so much Liz 🙂
HI Tandy! I hope you are enjoying your trip! Sounds awesome. I think everyone needs that go-to cheesecake recipe. I need to make this.
Hope you enjoy it Laura 🙂
I LOVE having me time! Definitely couldn’t live without it. 🙂 I also LOVE cheesecake…and wow does this look good!
Thanks Joanne 🙂
I totally understand the need for a little “me” time! I feel like that is very important, especially in any relationship! Anyways, classic New York Cheesecake is always delicious (and a great thing to devour while you are having a little couch potato “me” time)! LOVING yours, and the addition of fruit concentrate sounds wonderful! I will definitely have to try yours out soon! Cheers and thanks for sharing the YUM!
Thanks for the visit, and hope you enjoy the cheesecake 🙂
Me time is great. But, like yourself, I also spend a lot of time with Hoang. I guess we are both lucky enough to enjoy the me time, but also the time with the one we love 🙂
For sure Emanuele 🙂
Tandy, thank you for sharing this recipe of cheesecake with us. It looks and sounds so divine!
It is my pleasure Mary Frances 🙂
Even though I am lactose intolerant, I simply adore a slice of cheesecake! And this looks heavenly, Tandy – thanks for sharing that recipe!
I completely understand needing some me-time – for me, me-time might involve a slice of this cheesecake! 🙂
I am sure this can be adapted to make it lactose free?
Would love it if you brought one of those to my party! I’m a big fan of some alone time – think it grounds me.
I would love to be able to visit you with one 🙂