Pineapple Cheesecake

Last week I read a piece by Emiko Davies reflecting on baking memories, busy lives and using processed foods in building one amidst the other. Sound intriguing? Well it was.

She talked about her Nana’s signature dessert that she always looked forward to when visiting. We all have a dish in our recollections like that I think. One our grandmother or mother, a favourite aunt or another relative made, that we always looked forward to when we knew it would be offered. Maybe a favourite roast for a family dinner, or apple crumble when someone needs some love but something you know was made with love and offered reliably. In Emiko’s case it’s a custard and pineapple tart her grandmother was always lauded for. You can imagine the golden creamy custard with sweet pineapple encased in short buttery pastry. In fact this was made in a bought pastry case, with custard powder and canned pineapple ingeniously combined and presented to a hungry family anxious for the much loved sweet they knew she’d always present.

I’m ten years older than her but also grew up in Australia in a time of burgeoning freedom for women who’d traditionally been the cooks of the home. It was a time where society’s modernisation extended to the kitchen offering women many products that would give them shortcuts to meals and dishes that had traditionally taken hours to prepare and much skill. Little sachets mixed with a few components magically resulted in casseroles that would otherwise have taken a long list of ingredients and many hours of toil to build. Others could create desserts eliciting oooohhs and ahhs aplenty and smiles all round. This was a time where many women were starting to lead lives very different from their predecessors enjoying jobs outside the home and lives that kept them busy with activities away from housekeeping and cooking. All these little conveniences provided by processed products allowed women who either didn’t enjoy or have time for cooking to still create meals they could enjoy with the family and perhaps even make memories from.

As someone who’s mother was one of these women and my own interest in cooking emerged early I learnt to cook using a lot of these convenient recipe base products. They were actually an excellent way to learn to cook employing lots of basic kitchen skills like knife handling, organisation and cooking techniques. Born with a curious mind and palette these little helpers also inspired inquisitiveness in how such a dish could be made from scratch. What goes around comes around it seems.

As well as these convenient little meal starters cookbooks had a phase of being fast and simple to use, many of which indeed also employing processed items to build a recipe in the form of small pocket sized straight forward volumes. This family favourite started as one employing canned tomato soup for the bulk of its moisture and flavour as did this Bolognaise. Alongside curiosity my motivation to create these much-loved dishes of my childhood was driven somewhat by health concerns. In more recent times processed food has been largely demonised for it’s contribution to global health changes. In pursing these interests a number of the meals I enjoyed growing up faded into the background and from my memory.

Reading Emiko’s piece made me reflect on this. My own grandmother a very accomplished country style cook it seemed also utilised shortcuts. I tried for some time to master her apple pie (and continue to do so however the pastry alludes me) frustratingly so. It was when my father innocently and incidentally mentioned my mistake, she used tinned apple. Never would I have thought she’d reach for a can with my grandfather’s abundant orchard mere steps from the back door. This memory reminded me that processed food isn’t necessarily the devil and indeed has its place in many treasured recipes. As my wandering mind often does, I found myself reaching for one of those small pocket sized fast and easy cookbooks from the early 80’s, my earliest references and inspo. I recalled a cheesecake recipe that was my first taste of homemade cheesecake, Sara Lee New York Cheesecake you were ace but… After a wee giggle at the very retro imagery and a scan of the recipe I decided to modernise it and reached for the canned pineapple, a packet of crunchy digestives and threw in a modern twist with the addition of mascarpone to lighten things up. I hope you enjoy it and enjoy not faffing about making cookies and chopping pineapple to get to the same finish line.

Ingredients:

350 gm sweet store bought biscuits/cookies. Something on the plainer side, I’ve used digestives

2 Tb desiccated coconut

Rind of 1 lime

120 gm unsalted butter melted

250 ml thickened cream

11gm gelatine leaves

250 gm cream cheese at room temp

125 gm mascarpone

1 tsp vanilla extract or paste

125 gm caster sugar

1 tb lime juice

450 gm can crushed pineapple in syrup well drained, ¼ cup syrup reserved. This will result in ¾ c crushed pineapple.

Method:

Line the base of 20 cm springform cake tin with baking paper and spray oil on the walls of the tin.

In a food process or blender process the bickies, coconut and rind to fine crumbs. If you don’t have either device pop the biscuits in a snap lock bag, grab your rolling pin and take out the days frustrations. Tip crumbs into a bowl and pour over melted butter mixing well until the mixture resembles wet sand. Pour this into your prepared tin and press in evenly to form the crust both on the base and up the sides. I use a straight sided flat based measuring cup to do the work here creating a nice evenly flat base and sides. Pop the tin in the fridge to set.

Place gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water to soak and soften until very soft and feels like jelly.

In a stand mixer with paddle attachment start mixing the cream cheese on medium low until it’s smooth, similar to creaming butter. While the cream cheese is mixing pour cream into a small saucepan warm cream to very warm, 55c if you’re using a digital thermometer or what feels very warm to the back of your finger and very fine bubble just emerging on the edge. Don’t let it boil. Pour it into a medium glass or ceramic bowl. Remove the gelatine leaves squeezing well and place in the warm milk stirring well until dissolved, this will happen quickly. Pour through a sieve to remove and lumps and set aside.

Returning to the mixer add the mascarpone and vanilla and increase speed to medium. Mix until very smooth, it will be starting to look well amalgamated and silky. While still mixing rain in the sugar and mix a couple minutes until smooth with no lumps. Stop mixer to scrape down sides, paddle and bottom of bowl. Resume mixing pouring in reserved pineapple juice and lime juice mix until smooth then finally while still mixing on medium pour cream and gelatine mixture in a slow stream and mix until silky smooth and lump free. Remove tin with set crust from fridge and pour mixture into crumb crust, refrigerate for at least six hours or overnight.