Crème de Framboise Cheesecake

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. Statistically the 2nd June is the one day of the year were your most likely to have great weather. It was pure chance we booked our wedding on this day and the weather statisticians didn't disappoint in 2007, 2008 & 2009 soaking us with glorious weather each year. We'll ignore the fact that in 1975 snow fell on the 2nd June!

Last year we celebrated by eating our way around York, this year we made a bit more effort than usual with our weekday dinner and made some mini cheesecakes then washed it down with a delicious bottle of champagne. We are celebrating it again this weekend when we go to one of our favourite restaurants.

I always look forward to this time of year when raspberries come into season. Although our local PYO is yet to open I found some luscious Scottish raspberries in the supermarket. Loosely inspired by my Baileys cheesecake, and what I had in the cupboards I decided to come up with individual raspberry cheesecakes. When I've been making desserts like this recently I've been using light cream cheese rather than the full fat version as I find it makes a lighter dessert and I like to think it's a bit healthier. However this does make the mixture looser and is better served in ramekins rather than turned out onto a plate.

Crème de Framboise Cheesecakes
makes 2 individual cheesecakes

2 digestive biscuits
150g pack of cream cheese
40g icing sugar (to taste)
2 tbsp Crème de Framboise
punnet of raspberries

1) Crumble one biscuit into each of the ramekins.

2) In a mixing bowl whip cream cheese until smooth then add icing sugar to taste. Stir in Crème de Framboise. Mash together a handful of raspberries then stir into cheesecake mix.

3) Pour cheesecake mix into ramekins then chill for 3 hours before serving.

Raspberry Beer Brownies

Being married to a man who was brought up close to the UK's heart of brewing, it's not surprising that his interest in beer has rubbed off on me. I could quite happily sup on a half pint of porter, but my ultimate favourite has to be Samuel Smith's fruit beers especially the raspberry one as it tastes of summer. The taste of summer is just what we need as the snow is beginning to settle outside.

After stocking up on some of the beer at Sound Bites in Derby yesterday, I had a brainwave on the drive home. You can make brownies with Guinness, so surely you can do the same with glorious Raspberry beer. I also made them to celebrate having 100,000 hits on my blog since it started. To add some additional colour to the brownies I stirred some raspberries into the batter.

To be honest, I cook with beer just as much as I drink it and like wines different beers go with different dishes. The smell of the brownie batter as I made these was divine and once cooked they tasted like my raspberry truffles in a gooey cake form, can't be bad! Just note, if you do make these it makes quite a sloppy batter, but don't worry they will still bake well.

Raspberry Beer Brownies
Makes 16

4 eggs
140g caster sugar
300g dark chocolatr
70g unsalted butter
110g plain flour
2 tsp cocoa
290ml raspberry beer
100g raspberries
icing sugar

1) Preheat oven to 190oc and line a deep 8 inch square baking pan with baking parchment.

2) Combine eggs and sugar. On a medium heat melt chocolate and butter until smooth. Allow to cool for about 3 mins.

3) Stir chocolate mix into egg mix. Sift in flour and cocoa. Beat until well combined.

4) Whisk in beer then fold in raspberries. Pour batter into the pan pan. Bake for 25 min until a skewer comes out just about clean. It will continue to cook slightly after being taken out of oven.

5) Once cooled, drench in icing sugar and slice.

Scotch Shortbread

Sunday was Burns Night and it is on this night that Scots celebrate the poet Robert Burns. The original intention was to make Cranachan, but instead swapped the traditional oats for another Scottish staple, shortbread. Okay I don't have a Scottish bone in my body. I'm half English and half Welsh so this was really an excuse to eat raspberries out of season. Not something I do very often as no raspberries beat the ones from the PYO farm a few miles down the road. To go with the raspberries and shortbread I whipped together some cream, whisky & honey.

The shortbread came from a vintage cookbook Hubby & I were given for Christmas. I love looking at vintage cookbooks and seeing how food trends have changed or not changed in some instances. Amongst my cookbook collection I also own a 1920's book by Good Housekeeping that instructs me how to be a lady of leisure, my role as a wife and how to organise my servants. Some of the advice in it certainly makes me chortle!

Now I usually post my recipes in grams, but in true 1950's style, and exactly how it is written in my cookbook I'm going to write it in ounces. Incidentally if your ever looking for the best place to do cookery conversions online, consult Delia.

Scotch Shortbread
From Encyclopedia of World Cookery - Elizabeth Campbell

6oz plain flour
4 oz butter
2 oz caster sugar
pinch of salt

1) Preheat oven to 140oc. Mix flour and salt together then rub in butter followed by sugar.

2) Knead into a dough. Resist temptation to add liquid. Keep kneading the dough and it will eventually come together. Form into a round cake prick with a fork and place on a lightly greased baking tray.

3) Bake for 1 hour. Allow to cool, dredge with caster sugar then slice.

Raspberry & Chocolate Muffins

Ok, I promise, I will try and make sure the next post doesn't involve raspberries! The one problem I find about picking tonnes of raspberries is that you have to use them up within a couple of days picking or they begin to go off. Which in turn makes me wonder what on earth do supermarkets put on their raspberries to make them last so long...hmmmm not worth thinking about.

This morning Hubby pointed out that we had half a punnet of raspberries left and was wondering what I was planning to do with them. I initially suggested a smoothie, but I could see the disappointment in his eyes that I had suggested something healthy. Then the idea hit me - raspberry and chocolate muffins. His faith in me had been restored. This also meant I got to try out my new star and heart cake moulds.



The smell of them baking was gorgeous. They didn't turn out with the best texture, I'm not too sure if it was a bit too dense for my liking, but they still tasted nice and were perfect with a cup of tea. I've entered this to Food Blogga as part of Sugar High Friday.

Raspberry & Chocolate Muffins
Makes 16 regular or 8 large

300g plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
150g golden caster sugar
225ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g butter, melted
1 egg
50g chocolate chunks (I used milk chocolate)
250g raspberries

1) Preheat oven to 200oc. In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and sugar.

2) In another bowl whisk together egg, milk, butter and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients, stir until well combined.

3) Carefully stir in the chocolate and raspberries and spoon into cake cases into 2/3 full. Bake for 25-30 min until risen and golden.

Raspberry Truffles

I have a bit of a raspberry obsession. It is my favourite fruit in the world and when raspberry season comes around I go a bit mad. Well, with the local PYO farm charging just £1 per lb, what do you expect! You've probably noticed how raspberries have crept into most sweet things I've made recently - Summer Pudding and decoration on the Gin & Tonic Jelly. I also have some baking in the oven featuring, you've guessed it, raspberries!

A year ago I saw Nicisme's recipe for Raspberry Truffles and knew I HAD to make them. I never got the chance to make them during the raspberry season last year so as soon as raspberry's were avaliable this year I knew what I needed to make.

I think I may have over heated the chocolate slightly as it begun to go claggy and difficult to work with. Although I thought I had ruined the chocolates, they still turned out delicious and not too ugly looking. The dark bitterness of the chocolate & cocoa is matched perfectly with the sweetness of the Crème de Framboise. A very rich and indulgent chocolate. To add some sparkle to the chocolates I sprinkled some dark pink lustre over them at the end, though you can't really see this in the photo. I would be interested to try the recipe with white chocolate.

As there is a fresh raspberry in the middle and they are so rich you can only eat 1 at a time, I've sent Hubby off to work with some of the chocolate for his workmates. I hope they enjoy them as much as I do!

Raspberry Truffles

Summer Pudding

Yet another day of dodging the torrential rain showers. Yesterday after going to the PYO farm and trying to convince myself that yes it is summer (not that the weather wants to make us believe that) I decided to try my hand at Summer Pudding.

The smell of the fruits simmering was glorious. You can't beat summer fruits. Tonight was the tasting and it was delicious. The tartness of the blackcurrants was matched perfectly with the sweetness of the crème de framboise all finished off with a spoonful of extra thick cream from the local dairy.

Incidently, to find your nearest PYO farm pop along to this great website. www.pickyourown.org
I've entered this recipe to Cook Sister's - WTSIM Blog Event

Individual Summer Puddings
Makes 2

250g summer fruits (I used raspberries, blackcurrants and strawberries)
50g vanilla sugar
4 slices of white bread, minus the crusts
2 tbsp crème de framboise

1) In a saucepan gently simmer the fruit and sugar for 3 min. Don't over simmer or the fruit will fall apart. You should have the fruit floating in a nice syrup. Allow to cool. Stir in crème de framboise.

2) Line 2 individual pudding basins with cling film. Cut 2 circles of bread just bigger than the base of the pudding basin and 2 circles the size of the top of the pudding basins.

3) Dunk the smaller bread circles into the syrup. Allow the bread to absorb the syrup then place 1 at the bottom of each pudding basin. Share the fruit out between the two basins.

4) Place the larger circle on top of the fruit then drizzle with the remaining syrup, ensuring all the bread is covered. Fold over the remaining cling film and weigh down with a weight (I used weights from my scales). Chill overnight.

5) Turn out onto a plate and drizzle with a small amount of crème de framboise.

Raspberry Vinegar

Recently H2B & I decided we really needed to make use of the beautiful countryside that surrounds us. Sunday we went to a classic car show and had a picnic by the river, then today we went to a reservior and stumbled across a nature reserve that used to be an old limeworks. We didn't see a single other soul and the views were stunning. First we came accross the last few bluebells and ?whitebells. We also found a huge blanket of wild garlic of which we took some leaves and will try and cook with it tomorrow.

For ages H2B has been craving Raspberry Vinegar. His grandma always used to make it and whenever her used to go around he used to taste it. It does take a month to make, but it worth it.

Raspberry Vinegar

Raspberries

White wine/cider vinegar

sugar

water

1) Add fresh raspberries to white wine or cider vinegar - allow 1kg fruit to 1 litre vinegar. Store in a sealed jar or bottle for a month, shaking the bottle when you remember, so the vinegar takes on the colour and fragrance of the fruit. Then strain and rebottle.

2) To convert the vinegar to an an old-fashioned raspberry cordial, simply sweeten it with sugar syrup, made by dissolving sugar in its own volume of boiling water. Mix two parts vinegar to one part syrup.

3) The cordial makes a refreshing drink when well-iced and diluted with sparkling water or lemonade. Alternatively, take a spoonful neat as a cough syrup.

Raspberry and Vanilla Baked Custard

Although they are not in season yet (these came from Spain), I couldn't resist buying a punnet of raspberries, they are by far my fave fruit. I can't wait for July when the PYO farm down the road opens.

This recipe is in this months Prima and is so stupidly easy, and delicious!

Raspberry and vanilla baked custard

(serves 4)

125g/4oz raspberries

1 vanilla pod

2 eggs

1/2 pt of whole milk

25g/1oz caster sugar (if you have vanilla sugar you can omit the vanilla pod)

4 ramekins, lightly buttered

1. Preheat the over to 170oc (160oc fan) scatter raspberries on base of each ramekin.

2. Scrape out vanilla seeds and whisk into the other ingredients until you have a smooth custard. Divide the mixture between the ramekins, place in a baking tin.

3. Pour 1cm of hot (not boiling) water into baking tin and place in over for 30 min, till just set. Leave to cool and chill before setting.