Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's day to all the wonderful Fathers and Grandfathers in the world, how are you spending the day?

Today i've decided to prepare an Italian inspired 3 course meal for my dad, ( now i say Italian inspired simply because i'm using a few Italian ingredients), what could be better than good food and drink on a relaxing Sunday evening?! 

I woke up at 9am this morning, which is pretty early for me on a Sunday! I debated what dessert to make tonight over a cup of hot milk and espresso ( thanks to the new Nespresso machine in the house, if you don't have it yet it's a must for coffee lovers, i'm wondering how i've gotten by without this gadget for so long already!) It was either a fruity berry crumble or a cheesecake, maybe some pecan pie.

Lorraine Pascale Baking Made Easy

So i finally decided on a 'white chocolate and amaretti cheesecake' from Lorraine Pascal's Baking Made Easy. I love Lorraine Pascale's book, her recipes are simple and easy to follow with ingredients you can find anywhere, it really does make baking easy, the recipes i've tried from this book so far have always turned out beautifully and look just like the pictures in the book!








You can find this cookbook on amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_16?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=baking+made+easy&sprefix=baking+made+easy

I've made this cheesecake a couple of times before and it's fast becoming a family favourite, especially one my dad is crazy about and he doesn't have much of a sweet tooth so that's saying something!. Now instead of using Cream cheese as the main ingredient as you might in other cheesecake recipes, this recipe instead uses mascarpone cheese and whipping cream, combined with some good quality creamy melted white chocolate, a few splashes of amaretto ( the original recipe uses 1 tbsp of amaretto, but i'm a big fan of this liqueur as is my family so i added a good 50ml to my mix, the end result wasn't overpowering, the flavour came through beautifully and was just the right amount for me. However you can add more or less or adjust it to yours or your family's personal tastes. That's the good thing about this recipe you can experiment a little with it and add or adjust the ingredients.)
The filling was lovely white, soft, creamy, very light but full of flavour, and the base is a combination of digestive biscuits and amaretti biscuits crushed together  which makes it crunchy, sweet and buttery, it's a perfect combo. For a finishing touch i like to sprinkle some Cadbury's Flake chocolate on mine, or any other  chocolate you have in the house, you can grate it on. It's easy and quite a quick recipe to prepare, you can make it the day before you want it or a couple of hours before, 1-2 hours in the fridge and it's set.


'White Chocolate & amaretti cheesecake' -  original recipe can be found in Lorraine Pascale's Baking Made Easy.

For the base :
150g digestive biscuits
70g amaretti biscuits
80g of slightly salted butter


For the filling :
250g mascarpone
50ml amaretto liqueur
300ml double cream
300g white chocolate

grated chocolate for the topping

1. Crush the digestive biscuits and the amaretti biscuits together, you can do this in a food processor if you like but i like to put the biscuits in a big zip lock bag and just crush them with a rolling pin so i have a few chunks of biscuit in the crumb mix. Place the biscuit mix in a large mixing bowl.

2. melt the butter in a small saucepan, and add to the biscuit mix, combine all together. 

3. Spread the base on to a pie dish or a round cake tin, i used a small spring form tin for mine, flatten the base well and refrigerate.

4. Melt 300g of white chocolate in a bowl under a small saucepan of simmering water. Once the chocolate has melted, take off the heat and leave to cool completely. 

5. In another bowl mix the 250g of mascarpone with a spoon until smooth, Add 50ml of Amaretto liqueur. I use an amaretto that was picked up on one trip to Italy, you can use any good quality liqueur e.g Disarano.

 6. In a different bowl, whisk 300ml of Double cream until soft peaks start to form, add the mascarpone mix to the whipped cream and gently fold in. Add the 300g of melted white chocolate to the cream and mix in until all the chocolate has been incorporated. 
 

 

7. Remove the base from the fridge and spoon the chocolate and cream mix onto the biscuit base, smooth over evenly and refrigerate for 1 /2 hours or until set.

I hope you enjoy!