BANOFFEE CHEESECAKE

Good Morning to you,

I   love   magazines,   I  have   magazines   from  Cyprus,  America, Canada,  India, Australia and England. I can keep a magazine for many a year, then pick it up and enjoy reading it again as if it were the first time..... is that my age,  mmm I wonder?

I was flicking through an old Good Housekeeping magazine and I came across the recipe, which I am going to make today, how could I have missed it first time round.  Well I am certainly going to remedy that situation because take a look, 

doesn't it look scrummy.

So without further ado, it  is  on with  the apron and the music I am playing today, is music I have loved since the first time I heard this lady   sing  on   the radio  in 1975...  Joni Mitchell.  Do you know, I could not choose one song which I love more than  another,  I  love the  whole  album.... yes, I  even  have  the  vinyl  record,   which I cannot bear to part with. I played this album so often when Natasha and Danielle were little girls that they grew up listening to Joni and they both love her music as well.

INGREDIENTS

THE BASE

100g (3 1/2 oz) butter

plus a little more to butter the baking dish

200g (7 oz) digestive biscuits

Butter and line the base of a 9" round spring form tin with
 baking parchment

Finely crush the biscuits in a food processor

Slowly melt the butter in a saucepan

Mix together the butter and crushed biscuits

Place the biscuit mixture into the base of the baking tin
 and press firmly.
 Bake in an 180 C (160 C fan) Gas Mark 4 oven for 15 minutes

set aside until needed

Turn the temperature of the oven down to
170C (150 C fan) Gas Mark 3

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FILLING

2 small very ripe bananas, about 150g (5 oz) peeled

500g (1 lb 2 oz) full fat cream cheese

200g (7 oz) caster sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons of plain flour

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 medium eggs

Place the cream cheese, bananas

and sugar into a food processor

and blitz until smooth.

Add the Vanilla Essence and the yolk of the two eggs

and blitz again until smooth

Add the flour and blitz again until smooth

Place the banana mixture in a large bowl 

and set aside for a moment

Place the 2 egg whites into a large bowl

and whisk until the egg whites form soft peaks,

then

fold the egg whites into the banana mixture

using a large metal spoon

Pour the mixture onto the biscuit base and 
shake gently to level.

Bake for 50 minutes or until the cheesecake is lightly

golden, the filling will be wobbly, but firms up on chilling.

Leave to cool for 15 minutes then run a knife, dipped

into hot water, and dried, around the side of  the cheesecake

to release it from the tin.

Leaving the Banoffee Cheesecake in the tin, 
chill for at least 2 hours or overnight

THE TOPPING

3 tablespoons of caramel sauce

25g (1 oz) plain chocolate grated

Heat the caramel sauce gently in a saucepan,
then when warmed, the caramel will pour
beautifully over the Banoffee cheesecake.

Using a spoon, dip into the warmed caramel sauce
and allow the caramel to drizzle  from the spoon
onto the cheesecake.
The final flourish is 

grated chocolate

In the directions that Good Housekeeping suggested, they said, when the cheesecake was baked and taken out of the oven, "working quickly, remove the cheesecake from the oven and run a small knife around the side of the cheesecake to release it (this should help minimise cracking). Leave to cool for 30 minutes then chill for at least 2 hours or overnight".

I am sorry, I did not have the courage to release the cheesecake from the tin straight after baking, so I waited 15 minutes. As you can see this worked fine.

This Banoffee cheesecake tastes as lovely as it looks.  I have never baked the base of a cheesecake before, but do you know, this is going to be the only way I am making the base from now on, it was a triumph. Baking the base gave it a much lighter texture.

The added bonus is this cheesecake can be frozen after it has been baked.  Leave it to cool whilst still in it's tin, then wrap with clingfilm and freeze for up to a month.  To serve, allow the cheesecake to defrost completely in the fridge, then unwrap and add the caramel and chocolate topping.

So thank you to Good Housekeeping as they have changed my way of making cheesecake bases and I know the same will apply to you once you have baked this Banoffee Cheesecake.  I have to say they are my favourite magazine.

My resident taster, George, was very happy indeed with this Banoffee Cheesecake and he said, if this is what I find in my old magazines, he will never throw another one away again.... do you know, I didn't know he threw any away, I must admit I never missed any of them. When I quizzed him he admitted that if I leave a magazine lying around for a while, he throws it away, he said it is a form of culling, as he knows how hard it is for me to part with magazines..... well I never..... he knows me so well.

Take care and I will see you later in the week.

This week I will be joining,

Yvonne from StoneGable

and

Miz Helen's Country Cottage

and
Robin from Fluster Buster
and
Sherry from No Minimalist Here
and
Alli for Throwback Thursday
and
Mary from The Boondocks for Sweet Inspiration Link Party