Rachel's Baked Cheesecake with Blueberries

The day: Bank Holiday Sunday

The event: Sunday lunch round at the in-laws

The challenge: Make something for dessert that will feed 10 people and will be fairly straightforward to make, given my limited talents in the kitchen.

The saviour: Rachel Allen, Bake

The result: Brownie points from the in-laws who can rest assured that I am looking after their only son very well. And a warm glow hearing people very happily munching away and asking for the recipe.

Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to take a photograph of it when it was whole, my boyfriend's family is not to be messed with when it comes to feeding time at the zoo so I had to grab a picture before the last of it was snaffled!

BAKED CHEESECAKE WITH BLUEBERRIES

Ingredients

175g digestive biscuits

75g butter, melted

175g blueberries (plus extra for decorating)

450g cream cheese

150g caster sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs, lightly beaten

Icing sugar, to dust.

24cm diameter spring-form/loose-bottomed tin

Method

Preheat the over to 180c. Butter the sides and base of the cake tin.

Place the biscuits in the food processor and whizz until quite fine. Mix with the melted butter and press down in to the base of the tin so it's nice and even. Spread the blueberries over the base and whack it in the fridge while you make the topping.

Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs together in a large bowl until smooth and creamy. Pour over the top of the blueberries and then bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until it is pale golden and should only wobble very slightly when you gently shake the tin.

Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then run a knife round the edge to loosen it and carefully remove it from the tin. Transfer to a serving plate. Sprinkle over a few blueberries and dust with icing sugar.

This could not have been easier to make. In fact it was made so quickly that I found myself reading through the instructions again and again, absolutely sure that I had missed something vital out along the way.

It tasted amazing and will forever now become my go-to dessert when I need to make something that looks much more impressive than it actually is!

This is the 2nd thing I've made from the Bake book so far and I'm loving it. She explains everything in such a straightforward manner and both the Snickerdoodles and this came out perfectly. Can't wait to make the next thing I have bookmarked!

Rachel's Snickerdoodles

I got the Rachel Allen, Bake, book a while ago. I had a voucher and had seen Maria do a few recipes out of it and they looked right up my street. Of course I got it and then it's sat in my kitchen for god knows how long.

(If I had my way I'd bake something different every night and spend the day eating the fruits of my labours.)

So I pulled it out the other day and had a look at all the pages I so studiously bookmarked the day I got it. The Snickerdoodles won out ecause they looked relatively simple and, well, they're called Snickerdoodles.

And they rule.

They rule the biscuit world.

They are light and fluffy and taste a little bit like Christmas because of the cinnamon and nutmeg.

I seriously might spend all day eating these...

Ingredients

(Rachel reckons this makes 26 but I only got 13 - not sure where I went wrong!)

125g butter, softened

110g caster sugar (plus 1dsp extra for rolling)

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

250g plain flour

Half tsp freshly grated nutmeg (I used ground because I'm lazy)

Three quarters tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 dsp ground cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180c

2. Cream butter in large bowl. Add 110g caster sugar and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract until combined.

3. Sift in flour, nutmeg, baking powder and salt and mix together to form a dough.

4. Mix dsp of sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.

5. Using hands, roll dough into walnut-sized balls then roll in the sugar and cinnamon mixture and place on baking tray (This could be where I went wrong - maybe I thought walnuts were twice the size they actually are!!)

6. Leave about 3cm between each ball (no need to grease or line the tray) and then flatten down with the palm of your hand.

7. Bake in oven for about 15 mins, or until they feel firm around the edges.

8. STUFF THEM IN YOUR FACE!!

Loving these and will be taking them to my Mum's today because my brother is over with his wife and baby and I'm hoping we can all enjoy them with cups of tea. That is if there's any left before I go over there...