Cheesecake Ice Cream

         I love cheese (well, this is pretty obvious when you look at the name of my blog!): I love to cook savoury things with it and, needless to say, sweet treats. No wonder, one of the most popular desserts in the world – classic cheesecake – is one of my favourite dishes as well. Whenever I yield to temptation to cook one, I try to restrict myself to having only one or two pieces and the rest of it – in case I don’t have a proper help for consuming it – usually goes into the freezer (luckily, it’s a type of a cake that can be easily frozen for up to one month). The only disadvantage is, if you suddenly have an urge to indulge into a piece of a velvety goody, you will have to wait for quite a while till it defrosts properly.

            Last year, however, I came across a cheesecake ice cream recipe. Wow! I’m actually a big fan of frozen desserts and the perspective of having my favourite cheesecake in the form of an ice cream was very appealing! It was a recipe by the British celebrity chef Nigella Lawson. Actually all her recipes are trust-worthy but since I had already tried her Margarita ice cream I was absolutely convinced that this woman is an expert in frozen yummy treats! As I don’t have a special machine at home, I couldn’t make this ice cream in a big container – it would have lost the creaminess in this case; setting it in small ramekins, with a crunchy base (just like a real cheesecake!) saved the situation. Now I can go for a cheesecake any time I want – just restricting myself to having only one piece…or two!

“Manqué” with Bailey’s Crème au Beurre

          There is a French gateau called “manqué” (“failure”). It was created by a pastry chef who made a mistake while whipping egg whites for his sponge and decided to add almond flour and butter to save the mixture - which ultimately resulted in creating a new cake.

            Once I’ve cooked my “manqué” as well. However, it was not an almond cake. I just decided to name it so because initially I was planning to make another type of gateau as well but, because of some flops, ended up having a completely different dessert on a serving plate.

            It all started with the idea of making a soufflé-stuffed cake. And, as my sponge was already cooling down on the wire rack and my custard was cooked almost to perfection, I was about to proceed to my next step: dissolving gelatin for the cream and – oops! I discovered that there was no gelatin left! Actually it’s not very typical of me to run out of ingredients as I tend to keep an eye on my home pantry and to refill it when it is necessary. Anyway, after rummaging twice through all the cupboards and kitchen shelves I had to admit that I should change my cooking plans.

Chocolate Ice Cream with Baileys

             There is something about home-made ice-cream that makes you prefer it over a bought one. It’s not only because you are in charge of the ingredients you put in it (you can control the amount of sugar, change the fat content, balance the flavours according to your taste, nothing to say of choosing only high-quality products) but also because you generally add your love and care to that custard before putting it into the freezer. Indeed, this desert is not so easy to make (since you have to bother with cooking it in a double boiler for a while, with a heavy mixer in your hands) but it has a great advantage over other custard-based desserts: once you make it, you can keep it in the freezer for as long as three months (in fact, it keeps that long only if you don’t tell anyone about it), so you can enjoy it anytime and, besides, it will serve as a great “saving dish” in case of unexpected guests.