Auntie Lois' Pineapple Cheesecake

This recipe has been a feature of our family gatherings for many years. No one really knows where it came from, but is was usually made by Auntie Lois and so has become known as Lois' cheesecake. There is quite a long and involved story around the acquisition of the recipe; lets just say that some people are more willing to share than others, and its taken a good 10 years for me to get my hands on this one. The original was written in ounces, so I have modified it into metric measures.

Auntie Lois' Pineapple Cheesecake

250g wine biscuits
125g butter 

a 425g can of crushed pineapple divided into 1 cup of drained crushed pineapple and 1/2 cup of pineapple juice
1 x 85g packet of lemon jelly crystals
1 1/4 cups boiling water
250g cream cheese
rind of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup cream

Crush the biscuits in a food processor and combine with the melted butter. 

Press the crumb mixture into the bottom of a couple of loose bottomed dishes.











Dissolve the jelly in the boiling water, add the pineapple juice and leave to cool.













Once the jelly is nearly set, beat together the cream cheese, rind and vanilla until it is light and fluffy. 

Combine half a cup of the jelly with the drained crushed pineapple and set aside. 

Blend the remainder of the jelly mixture with the beaten cream cheese until well mixed. 

Beat the cream then fold it into the cheesecake mixture. 

Pour the mixture over the chilled biscuit base and refrigerate until firm. 

Now gently spoon the reserved crushed pineapple and jelly mixture over the set cheesecake filling and return it to the fridge. 

The cheesecake is best left to set overnight before serving. 

When your ready to serve it, release the cheesecake from the mould by placing the base on an inverted mug and pulling the dish sides down. Place the whole thing base and all onto your serving plate and your ready to serve.

The recipe makes enough for a couple of shallow cheesecakes or one deeper version. This is a lovely light cheesecake that is perfect for serving as part of a more substantial meal. 

Dessert is a big deal for our family at Christmas time. We all contribute to the spread.
Merry Christmas !

Celebration Chocolate Cheesecake

All cultures and creeds from time immemorial have celebrated life's milestones with food. Banquets follow weddings, Christianity celebrates Christmas with a host of tasty treats, birthday's command parties and special teas, and christenings are marked with cups of teas and dainty cakes. This week we celebrated a dear colleagues 29 years of service to the school with a lovely dinner at our house. It was a wonderful informal evening of food, wine and laughter.
The man of the house cooked the main course of lamb, salmon, asparagus hollandaise and salads, and for dessert I made Pavlova and Baked Chocolate Cheesecake served with strawberries, cream and icing sugar.

This is the recipe for the Baked Chocolate Cheesecake:

Base
250g plain sweet biscuits
70g butter, melted
50g dark chocolate, melted


Base Method:
Crush biscuits to a fine crumb and mix in the chocolate and butter.






Press firmly into a well-greased loose bottom tin. Press up the sides of the tin. Chill.

Preheat the oven to 150deg. C

Filling
150g dark chocolate, melted
500g cream cheese
3/4 cups caster sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons cocoa
1 teaspoons vanilla
250g sour cream






Filling Method:
In the mixer or bowl beat the cream cheese and sugar. Add the chocolate and continue to beat to combine. Add eggs, then cocoa, vanilla and sour cream.

Pour into the shell and bake for 1 1/4 hours. Turn the oven off and leave the door slight open until the cheesecake is cold.

Chill until ready to serve.

Put the cheesecake tin on top of a small bowl and pull the sleeve of the tin down to release the cake. Now slide a spatula under the metal base and slip the cheese cake onto its serving plate.

If you can't face the idea of taking it off the base, just put the whole thing onto the plate.
Everyone will be so busy eating you wonderful dessert that they wont notice the base.

This was a great way to top off a lovely evening spent with friends.