Cheesecake recipe!

[Mrs Trellis]

I couldn't decide where to post, as this doesn't come under French food and wine.

I want to make a lemon cheesecake to have a choice alongside Christmas pudding.

.

Every recipe I look at requires double cream and/or condensed milk - neither of which I can buy here. We have evap. I think we've seen condensed milk in a supermarket, but not locally. And I don't use gelatine. It's getting a bit late to come up with another easy dessert.....

[Department71]

I have seen and brought condensed milk in France at the supermarkets. It wasn't cheap but obtainable.

[Gluestick]

[quote user="Mrs Trellis"]I couldn't decide where to post, as this doesn't come under French food and wine.

I want to make a lemon cheesecake to have a choice alongside Christmas pudding.

.

Every recipe I look at requires double cream and/or condensed milk - neither of which I can buy here. We have evap. I think we've seen condensed milk in a supermarket, but not locally. And I don't use gelatine. It's getting a bit late to come up with another easy dessert.....[/quote]

Apparently, Mrs T, it is a traditional Askenazi Jewish dairy dish for the feast of Passover.

Mrs Gluey is interestingly, making one at this moment! Pastry base made and "Blind Baked" this morning and filling this afternoon.

For Curd Cheese, substitute say, crème crue, or St. Môret, Neufchatel or even, at a pinch, Ricotta or even Mascarpone.

See here:

[Chancer]

St Moret for the cheese or the Lidl equivalent, crème fraîche entière for the cream, really dont know how you are going to make it without gelatine or a substitute, Spéculoos biscuits make a great different tasting base and are easy to find.

When I make one I seperate the egg whites and whip them then fold them carefully in to the mix with a metal spoon followed by the cream which makes a voluminous and very light mixture.

[idun]

Condensed milk is dead easy to buy. It comes in little tubes, it comes in flavoured tubes for kids for their gouter and it comes in tins. Always there and in all the supermarkets I use, near the milk and long life creme. Loads of manufacturers make it.

https://fr.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AiRWnpX3DjqhJVBDQk7iYwVNhJp4?fr=yfp-t-905-s&toggle=1&fp=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&p=lait%20concentr%C3%A9%20sucr%C3%A9

http://www.domicourses.fr/products/lait-concentre-sucre-aromatise-fraise-et-vanille-en-tube-regilait-4-x-60g/

For all I generally do not like cannelle, I love speculoos, an expresso and a speculoo, lovely.

[Mrs Trellis]

I must have a look, I was looking for tins like the evap.

I love baked cheesecake and will try it some time but I was looking for the lazy no-bake version today!

[Patf]

I use the thick cream cheese they sell loose on the cheese stall in the market. And also add a small carton of creme fraiche.

Other ingredients: eggs, sugar, cornflour, lemon juice and grated rind.

I start with a thin sponge base (made first) as we don't like it too greasy, the topping is rich enough. Then bake in a very low oven until the centre "wobbles" when you shake it.

[idun]

You'll see Mrs Trellis that there is lait concentré sucre.

[soupagirl]

Hi Mrs Trellis. This is a late reply, I'm sorry but it may be useful for another time. This recipe is so simple and always impresses, I found it somewhere on t'internet ages ago. For the cream cheese I use plain Philadelphia which is widely available, for double cream I use 'crème entière de Normandie'. Plonk any fruit on the top- the recipe says strawberries but obviously any fruit will do. Sorry it's come out as all one paragraph, I cut and pasted the whole of the original and I can't seem to be able to edit it to look right.

"Cheesecake in a glass:

This is the perfect end to a midweek dinner party, the kind you didn't know you were giving until presented with a guest list mid-afternoon. You simply chop strawberries, crush digestive biscuits and whip cream cheese and cream, then layer up quickly in some waiting glasses. Like this, they can stand for about an hour, so you can make them up just before you sit down for supper. If you want to make this in advance – and it's a versatile recipe that doesn't need to be made last minute – simply leave the glasses in the fridge, layered up with the digestive crumbs and cream cheese mixture and covered with clingfilm. Top with strawberries on serving. Serves four.

200g strawberries(or 1 big punnet)

1 tsp caster sugar

4 digestive biscuits

100g cream cheese, at room temperature

2 tbsp icing sugar

125ml double cream

1 tbsp lemon juice

½ tsp vanilla extract

4 small glasses (of about 150ml capacity; I find a small martini glass looks prettiest)

Quarter the strawberries, then cut in half again, to give pretty small dice. Put into a bowl, sprinkle with caster sugar, cover with clingfilm and shake the bowl once or twice.

Leave the berries to macerate while you put the biscuits into a freezer bag and bash with a rolling pin until you have a sandy bag of crumbs.

Measure the cream cheese and icing sugar into a bowl and whisk by hand. Add the cream, lemon juice and vanilla, and whisk gently to combine.

Divide the biscuit crumbs equally between your four glasses, and arrange in the bottom of each one. Spoon the cream cheese mix on top, dividing it equally between the glasses and covering the biscuits.

Divide the sugar-shiny strawberries between the glasses, to give a glossy, red-berried layer on each glass."

[idun]

Can you really buy digestive biscuits easily in France these days? I know nearly everyone else loves cheesecake, but IF I had found digestives, [:D] I wouldn't have wasted them on cheese cake![Www]

And last time I was in France, there was no obvious philidelphia cheese either.

[Gluestick]

Well, our cheesecake was and is utterly divine.

Made on a proper pastry base.

[:D]

[Mrs Trellis]

Good! Mine was nice (used mascarpone as crème fraiche is a bit sour). but I'm sure your baked one was better.

Thanks for the recipes! What would you say is curd cheese in French>

[mint]

[quote user="idun"]Can you really buy digestive biscuits easily in France these days? I know nearly everyone else loves cheesecake, but IF I had found digestives, [:D] I wouldn't have wasted them on cheese cake![Www]

And last time I was in France, there was no obvious philidelphia cheese either.

[/quote]

No problems with digestive biscuits.  Aldi and Lidl both sell them (if you aren't fussy which brand) and Intermarché and Leclerc sell McVities digestives.

 

All the supermarkets sell cream cheese like philly so no problems there either.

BTW, our French teacher informed me last week that Aldi, Netto, Lidl etc are not called supermarkets but they are superettes and only the biggies like Leclerc, Inter, Auchan are classed as supermarkets.  If they are really big supermarkets, then you can call them hypermarchés.

That was a new one on me so I thought I'd share it...............[I]

[Gluestick]

Not sure there is a precise equivalent in France, Mrs T.

Perhaps this is a good starting point:

And Here:

Here is how to make it:

[idun]

I put lemon juice in milk to make my curds and whey, or just let the milk get old and separate, but the curds are always 'lumpy' and that photo of curd, looked smooth, odd. I seem to remember cottage cheese being 'lumpy' too.

Incidentally Gluestick, the rest of your recipe is similar to the way I make a yorkshire curd tart, only no cream and currents instead and a pinch of nutmeg, but the curd has to be 'lumpy' though[:D]

mint, I shall ask my son about digestives and where he would get them, as he loves his treats from time to time, I am fussy about my digestives, and prefer McVities.

[soupagirl]

McVities digestives (plain or chocolate) and Philadelphia from Carrefour, Intermarché, LeClerc.

Just in the ordinary biscuit and cheese aisles, not the one set aside for 'strange foreign stuff'.

[idun]

After a chat with my son today he said that he has been able to buy McVities Digestive this year, and that there are ads on the tv now. So where he lives, it is quite recent.

No idea why the french would want philidelphia though, it isn't nice, I find something cloying about the texture? As you can gather I am not a fan of this sort of stuff, but I don't mind St Moret,  usually with some smoked salmon on it, because it is sort of 'creamier'. And hasn't France got enough 'cheese' anyway?