Frozen Lemon Cheesecake with berries & caramelized pistachios

This is an eggless version of one of my oldest and most favorite desserts, the frozen lemon cheesecake. I actually made it as a dessert for New Year’s Eve, which we spent in Long Beach with dear friends. I normally make it with raw eggs at home since Swedish eggs don’t have salmonella. I’m sure most Californian eggs are perfectly safe to use but to be on the very safe side, I decided to make version without eggs. Instead of eggs - and sugar - it uses sweetened condensed milk. I’m going to say that the end result is very, very close.

And very, very good. Also quite a bit easier to make.

You can top this with whatever you’d like of course, and whatever berries are in season where you are. We found some super tasty strawberries that I macerated with lime and a little brown sugar, and then I quickly caramelized some pistachios that tasted much better than they look in the photo, I promise. (And all that there’s too this is melting sugar in a small pan, non stick unless you love to clean up, add the nuts, and let them be well coated, turn out on a non-stick surface and cool. Add a very light sprinkling of salt if desired)

Everything can and should be made well in advance. Just remember to bring out the cheesecake a little while before you want to eat - maybe half an hour or so - so that it’s not frozen solid.

Frozen Lemon Cheesecake with berries & caramelized pistachios

Crust:
about 220 g graham crackers
3/4 stick butter, melted (about 85 g

Process crackers into crumbs. Add butter. Press hot crumbs into a springform pan. Place in freezer while you make the filling.

Filling:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 small package cream cheese (about 8 oz)
Whipping cream, about 450 ml
Zest from 1 lemon
Dash of vanilla

Stir together cream cheese, vanilla and lemon zest and stir until smooth. Add condensed milk and stir again.

Whip the cream and fold it all together. Pour the filling on top of the crust, freeze overnight or at least for a few hours.

Thaw for a little while before serving and top with whatever berries you’d like.

Frozen Orange Cheesecake

Here's one to save for the holidays - it's good all year round, but I'd particularly recommend this to end a heavy holiday meal. Frozen cheesecake is always good (I have two other versions, here and here) but this one is really quite something. Orange compound might sound fiddly but can be prepared well in advance, and it's not at all difficult.


Frozen Orange Cheesecake

200 gram cream cheese
3 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
200 ml sugar
300 ml heavy cream
1 tbsp vanilla sugar

150 g digestive biscuits
50 g butter, melted

to decorate: Pomegranate seeds


Orange compound:
oranges - ideally seed-free
sugar

Start with the oranges. Scrub as many as you'd like to use - I used two, and have about twice the amount of compound I needed. Place the oranges in boiling water for one minute. Drain, and repeat twice - basically you're boiling the oranges three times, each time for one minute, in fresh water each time.

Let the oranges cool a little, then weight them. Add half as much sugar as the weight of the oranges. (Mine were 460 grams, so I added 230 grams of sugar.) Mix until completely smooth in a food processor. Let the compound drain a little if it's very runny.


Place 200 g in a bowl and let it cool completely.

Next, for the crust:
Use a springform pan. Blitz the digestive biscuits in a food processor. Add in the melted butter. Press this firmly into the base of your pan.

Cream the cheese, egg yolks and the sugar. Beat the cream until it forms stiff peaks. Carefully blend with the cheese cream. Beat the egg whites until stiff, and fold those in too. Stir in the orange compound.

Pour carefully on top of the crust in the pan. Put in the freezer for at least six hours or overnight. Take out about twenty minutes before you want to eat, and decorate with pomegranate seeds. This keeps well in the freezer.

Our Fourth of July

We had a pretty small Fourth of July party this year, but didn't want to ruin our tradition of eating glorious American food. True to form, everyone brought dessert, which meant we were absolutely stuffed at the end of the night. Here are some photos for you to enjoy - I missed photographing the loaded potato skins, and a wonderful Mac & Cheese with bacon.



Onion strings (recipe to come)



Pulled pork sandwiches (recipe to come)



Cilantro Jalapeno Cole Slaw



Lena's Key Lime Pie



Thin Mint Cake Balls



Dagmar's individual cheesecakes. Half of them are Snickers/banana, half are white chocolate with berries.



When you dine with food bloggers, cameras are everywhere. Of course. :)