FYFrom Yiayia's FridgePrivate cookbook
Cookbook image from PDF page 61

Sweets

Cheesecake

Τσεισκέικ

Serves 12 peoplePrep 30 minutesCook 3 hoursPDF p. 61

When Jim was 14, he tried cheesecake for the first time at school. That same day, he went home and asked Yiayia to make one, but there was a glaring issue — Yiayia had never heard of a it. Cheese... in a cake? Determined to enlighten Yiayia, Jim went to the shops and found a cheesecake recipe on the back of a packet of cream cheese. After bringing the recipe home, the two made their very first cheesecake and, over the next few years, Yiayia kept tweaking and perfecting the recipe to form what is now a much-loved dessert.

Main

Ingredients

  • 90g of butter
  • 185g of plain sweet biscuits, Yiayia
  • usually uses Arnott's Teddy Bear biscuits
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 can of crushed pineapple or pineapple
  • pieces
  • 1 packet gelatin
  • 250g packaged cream cheese
  • 125g cottage cheese
  • ½ cup sweetened condensed milk
  • 1.5 cups of cream
  • 5 fresh passionfruit or 1 can of
  • passionfruit pulp

Method

  1. Melt butter in a pan slowly over low heat, or in the microwave
  2. Crush the biscuits finely until they are the same texture as breadcrumbs. Either use a food processor or the good old fashioned way Yiayia favours — putting them in a zip lock bag and smashing them with a rolling pin
  3. In a bowl combine the crushed biscuits, butter and cinnamon and mix together until well incorporated
  4. Scoop the mixture into a tin lined with baking paper or foil. Using your fingers, flatten the biscuit mixture to cover the entire bottom of the tin
  5. Place the tin in the fridge while preparing the filling
  6. From the can of pineapple, separate the syrup and the pineapple pieces into different bowls. From your available passionfruit, do the same with the seeds
  7. Pour the pineapple and passionfruit syrup into a saucepan over a low heat
  8. Sprinkle a packet of gelatin into the liquid and stir until it is fully dissolved
  9. Once the gelatin is fully dissolved, take it off the heat and refrigerate until it is almost set. You don’t want it to turn solid, instead aiming for a thick liquid texture like custard. This will take around 20-30 minutes.
  10. In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese, cottage cheese and condensed milk until soft and creamy
  11. Gradually add in the pineapple syrup mixture while folding in gently
  12. In a separate bowl beat cream until soft peaks form, then fold into the cheese mixture
  13. Pour the combined mixture into the biscuit lined tin and refrigerate until set. Yiayia leaves it overnight but anything more than 3 hours will be okay
  14. Decorate the cake with the pineapple pieces and the passionfruit seeds and serve