I had a crazy idea whilst having dinner with Anna and Anthony a wee while ago - how about combining cheesecake with beer. We discussed the merits of various brews and decided that Guinness was a must but also something fruity. Anthony suggested heather beer from Scotland but as I haven't been north for a few months I didn't manage to get hold of any. However on my recent trip to Zutphen I picked up some very fruit Rose beer and Sarah and Juul donated a bottle of coriandery Kronenberg blanc. All I needed was a suitable recipe to administer beer to and I was away. Looking through my cookbooks I found Nigella's passionfruit cheesecake - a baked cheesecake that had a substantial volume of liquid added to the mix. So this was the one. Having whisked up the cheesy mix I then separated it in to three and added a little beer, a little taste and then a bit more. Finally into the oven, fingers crossed that they would cook and end up like cheesecakes and not as scrambled eggs. And they did and they taste pretty good too, currently I have the lab tasting them - so far the only comment has been beery!
At the beer adding stage.
The final product!
Beery cheesecakes (with a little help from Nigella)
For the biscuit base
200g digestive biscuits
75g butter
For the filling
600g cream cheese
125g caster sugar
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
200ml double cream
juice of 1/2 lemon
First blitz the biscuits to breadcrumbs and add the butter and whizz again. To make little ones add a dessertspoon of this mix to each mould of a silicone muffin and press down. Put the muffin mould into a baking dish that you can fill with water.
Preheat the oven to 170°C. To make the filling beat the cream cheese in a bowl until smooth then add the sugar and beat in. Add the eggs and yolks mixing them in one at a time. Stir in the cream and lemon juice. Then split the mixture into three. Add 100ml of beer to each - three different beers for a taste challenge. Stir in gently, there will be lots of fizzing. When completely mixed leave to stand for 10min. Put the kettle on. Carefully spoon the mixture over the biscuit base. Pour the water from the recently boiled kettle into the baking dish under the muffin mould. Carefully transfer it all to the oven and bake for 1hour. Carefully take it out of the oven and remove the mould to a cooling rack. Leave to cool and then refrigerate overnight. Unmould by running a palette knife (nothing sharp!) around the individual cheesecakes and then pushing the mould up from the bottom. Enjoy!
3 comments:
Not at all sure about this, but I can see it was good fun to do.
There's a new brewery just started in Henley, fantastic as Brakspear left a couple of years ago and is now a Hotel du Vin. It's called Lovibond - started by an American on the site of the old Lovibond, which I remember from my childhood as an offie, but which apparently used to do its own brewing. Anyway, I bet it would be goodo in cheesecake!
Joanna
I've made guinness brownies and a baileys cheesecake, but never thought about putting beer in a cheesecake!
How did it taste?
Hi Jules
They taste pretty good - I specifically chose quite flavoursome beers - the guinness was voted best by my work colleagues (who were my guinea pigs on the basis that they'll eat anything) though I thought the rose one was good. Everything had just a hint of beer and I think the hops shone through.
Mel
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