Hi about 2 weeks ago (Mon 23 Aug) Sheri Slattery posted a terrific recipe
for cheesecake. Being a cheesecake lover and thinking that it was worth I
try a managed to persuade my partner to buy all the ingredients for me.
We made it that Saturday evening and took it to a party with us as a
birthday cake. Everyone LOVED it. It tasted so much like the cheesecake
I used to do almost anything to get. And SO much better than the
supermarket frozen fatfree kind.
Following that success I bragged to my friends that it is almost
impossible to get wrong - such a simple recipe. Well David - who lives at
home and has his parents cook for him - said he could mess it up. So he
came over last night and made it for us, with me offering a hint every now
and then. It began to set before he got it out of the food processor but
that didn't cause any problems and it tasted terrific. I was justified it
is a hard recipe to get wrong.
Anyway... as one does I improvised as I made it and have the following
suggestions.
For the rest of us Aussies who don't know what grape nuts cereal
is, use Corn Flakes and process them in the food processor with the apple
juice. This produces a wonderfully moist and biscuit-mixed-with-liquid
type mixture. Baking probably isn't necessary but it didn't hurt either.
Vanilla soymilk can of course be substituted with normal soymilk
and a dash of vanilla. Becareful not to use too much of a dash though.
If Agar is hard to get (and you don't live near a Chinese grocery store)
so you decide to use gelatine, heat the milk a little in a bowl in the
micro-oven. This will help the gelatine to not all clump up. Agar seems
to set faster than gelatine so beware.
My partner didn't originally buy enough firm tofu so I mixed in
some silken. It still worked beautifully. So I'm not sure about that
requirement.
Hint: Make and spread the glaze at least 10 minutes after you've
put the cheesecake in the fridge. If you don't wait long enough the glaze
will mix with the cheesecake mixture and it won't look as good.
Thanks again Sheri, this is a recipe I will treasure for ever.
Jacinta Richardson