Rose Water Cheesecake with Baklava Biscuits and Ginger Cardamom Poached Plums – A Daring Bakers Challenge
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.
I have to admit that I was initially a bit disappointed that my first Daring Bakers Challenge would be cheesecake. I thought that it was a bit boring, too easy and not really a challenge at all. But then I thought some more, and realised that because it was really a clean slate, I could challenge myself to come up with something creative, novel and interesting. Daring, even. Happily I proved my initial reaction wrong, and after a little test run for flavours it all became clear. This recipe is amazing.
I’ve made lots of cheesecakes before and I think I can safely say that this recipe is the best I have ever used. I reduced it to 1/3, put different flavours in, cooked it in little souffle dishes, metal pans with no biscuit base, and non-springform pans and never once did it split or crack, even when I didn’t follow the cooling directions. It always stayed creamy and delicious.
There were two directions I wanted to go with this, but my first tests proved that middle-eastern inspired was the winner. Rose water flavoured cake, paired with ginger and cardamom poached plums and baklava inspired biscuits. The perfect dessert for a dinner party (except when you forget all about the biscuits come dessert time).
Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake – Rose Water Cheesecake with Baklava Biscuits and Ginger Cardamom Poached Plums
crust:
180 g marie biscuits, crushed to crumbs
115g butter, melted
24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
50g walnuts, finely chopped
cheesecake:
680g cream cheese, room temperature
210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp. lime juice
2 tbsp. rose water
Preheat oven to 180C.
Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. I used a rectangular loaf pan, 12cm x 24 cm, buttered and lined with baking paper. Refrigerate crust.
Combine cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, lime juice, and rose water and blend until smooth and creamy.
Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If your cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.
Baklava Biscuits
I made this recipe up myself, so use with caution and intelligence 
1/2 packet filo pastry, store bought.
180g butter
65g almonds (i used flaked)
50g walnuts
1t cinnamon
50g brown sugar.
Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Once melted, cook a little longer until browned and nutty smelling, strain and set aside.
In a food processor or blender, whiz nuts until finely chopped, then add cinnamon and sugar and blitz until mixed.
Take your first sheet of filo pastry, place flat on bench and brush with butter. Top with another sheet of filo and brush with butter. Repeat one more time and then sprinkle over a layer of the nut mixture. Place the next sheet of filo over the top, brush with butter, then top with one more sheet, brush with butter. Cover with the remaining nut mixture. Repeat filo process so you have another two or three layers of pastry on top. This is not an exact science, you just want a bit of a pastry base, then a few layers of sweet nuts, then a few pastry layers on top. Cut into strips about 3 cms wide, and bake 180C until pastry is crisp and the bottoms are browned, and the whole kitchen smells like baklava.
Remove biscuits and cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.
Ginger Cardamom Poached Plums
Experimental and delicious
1/4 c sugar
5 cardamom pods, crushed
thumb sized piece ginger
1/4 cup lime juice
6 blood plums
dates, sliced, to serve.
Make a caramel: In a small saucepan heat the sugar with a little water, brushing down the sides with a wet pastry brush to stop crystallisation. When caramelised, add 1 cup of water – be careful, this will spit and splatter. Dissolve caramel in water, add cardamom and ginger and boil for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, cut the plums in half and remove the seed. Cut each half into wedges, and place in a container with a lid.
When syrup is ready, pour over plums, cover and refrigerate. Leave for a few hours or overnight for the flavours to seep into the plums.
The next day, pour the liquid off into a small pan and reduce to a thick syrup over medium heat. Discard the ginger and cardamom.
To serve, drizzle the cooled syrup over the plums and slivered dates.
This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
21 Comments
OH MY…looks fantastic.
I’ll have to give this one a try!
Over from twitter……
Michelle’s last blog post..I think I nailed it **The perfect Chocolate Cookie
What gorgeous presentation. Rosewater, plum, cardamom and ginger sound like great flavour combinations.
Cakelaw’s last blog post..Daring Bakers – Say Cheese! Ginger Lime Baked Cheesecake
What a fabulous interpretation of the challenge! I love how you’ve transformed it into a complete plated dessert with the plums and biscuits. It’s like a journey around the Mediterranean in a dessert
ok, now you have totally captured my heart! This sounds so wonderful, and what a gorgeous use of those middle eastern flavours! Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!
Reemski’s last blog post..Coco Cubano, Kings Cross
Any of these things alone would be beautiful, but in combination it’s a really special dessert.
Arwen from Hoglet K’s last blog post..Food Gardening
What a work of art! Your cheesecake is perfect, and the biscuits look like the perfect accompaniment.
Natashya’s last blog post..Ellie’s Sweet and Spicy Peanut Soup
Oh my god, a baker after my heart!
I love anything rose flavoured and baklava is to die for! Well done!
Lol this is my first DB challenge as well and I had the same reaction as you though mine was based on the fact that I’m not much of a cheesecake person. But I’d love to try yours!
Karen’s last blog post..St. Patrick’s Day: Steak and Guinness Pot Pie
Ahh I love the look of this dessert! Rose water is a great idea and those plums are such a beautiful colour!
I’m going to try your baklava recipe. Never made my own before and I reckon it’ll be better if its thin likes yours! The thick ones can get waaaay too sweet.
Howard’s last blog post..Sunday Lunchinner
I just bought a huge bottle of rose water for a batch of baklava last weekend, and this cheesecake looks like an excellent way to use it in other desserts (and the baklava biscuits sound sooo much easier to make than regular baklava!)
Michelle: Thank you, it was! The cheesecake is pretty easy to make, and so delicious!
Cakelaw: Thanks
I just love plums, and the spices are quite subtle, it was a hit, even after a few glasses of wine!
Angela @ A Spoonful of Sugar: Oh, thank you! I served it for a dinner party, and didn’t want to go only half way.
Reemski: Thank you! It did taste pretty damn good too
Arwen from Hoglet K: Haha special yes, though a little over the top – I figured it was necessary for my first Daring Bakers Challenge
Natashya: Thank you! The cheesecake recipe is foolproof, I’m pretty sure
Karen: Oh we are both Daring Bakers newbs together! I think we both did a fine job
Steph: Thank you!
Howard: Yeah, those thick soaked in sugar syrup traditional baklavas are too sweet for me too. This baklava can get a little messy – the top layers can flake off, but I find it so much nicer to eat than the cloying sweetness of the traditional kind. Good luck!
Kirstin: Oh, enough rosewater for everything! Yeah, the biscuits are great, though I did make the recipe up, so use your intuition
Congratulations on your first challenge! The presentation is spectacular!
Ivonne’s last blog post..Le Cheesecake
Just the cake is amazing but the whole thing… I can’t believe it, it looks like… well eating this must be a delicious sin.
morgana’s last blog post..Chess cheese cake para las Daring Bakers. ¿Dulce o salado?
wow, looks fantastic! I don’t think I’ve ever come across cheese cake with rose water before. Sounds intriguing!
Yas’s last blog post..Sunday night in.
What a perfectly cut slice of cheesecake! It looks great! I like the sound of the baklava biscuits!
I love the addition of rose water!
Alison’s last blog post..Happy Birthday to……
Yay for joining the Daring Bakers! I love the flavour combination you’ve used here and the presentation is lovely
Lisa’s last blog post..Higher Calling
Ivonne: Thank you, I really enjoyed the challenge.
Morgana: What a great compliment, thank you
Yas: The rose water is actually really fragrant when paired with the creaminess, lovely!
Kevin: Thank you, they were an experiment that ended up working really well.
Alison: Thank you
Lisa: Thanks!
A thousand welcomes to the Daring Bakers. I really love the direction you took your blank slate, and the plums alone would bring me to your table. Thanks for participating in this challenge. I know I’m late in responding but I’m trying to get through all the posts – over 1k!
Jenny of JennyBakes
JennyBakes’s last blog post..Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream
JennyBakes: Oh thank you so much! Good on you for viewing all those post, and thanks for the recipe – it is so tasty
Congratulations! I’d much rather have the cheesecake, as I’m not a huge fan of baklava, but it looks yummy too. Ah, and the plums
Irina´s last [type] ..baklava