Cheesecakes by Maxine Clark

Cheesecakes are a pudding that many people turn to again and again as they are universally liked, can be prepared in advance and delicious to boot. Maxine Clark starts at the beginning with recipes for biscuit and pastry bases. By simply adding dark brown sugar or toasted nuts, you can give a biscuit base more depth. We prefer to have a less sweet biscuit base and so wouldn't add sugar, rather choosing to bring out the saltiness of the biscuits to contrast with the creaminess of the cheese.

The recipes are split into oven baked and refrigerator varieties. Run the gamut of the traditional New York cheesecake with a sour cream lemon topping or plum for the spectacular goat's cheese and ginger cheesecake, served with rhubarb compote.

On the refrigerated front, we particularly liked coffee ricotta semifreddo cheesecake, a not too sweet mixture of cheese and mascarpone with grated chocolate and ground Italian coffee. The cheesecake is put in the freezer until just frozen. The only downside of this particular recipe is that the finished article looked rather grey and not very appetising. It did taste good though. The answer to this problem is to serve it with plenty of shaved chocolate sprinkled over it and in candlelight.

For all cheesecake lovers, Maxine Clarke's book for Ryland Peters has all the answers.

Publication details:
64 pp. Photography by Martin Brigdale. £8.99
Published by Ryland Peters & Small
ISBN 1841724874
2003

Order directly from for great service and specially discounted prices.