Red Velvet Cheesecakes

School holidays brings with it extra time for me as a school run is a 40 minute round trip.

So gaining extra time in my day = trying out recipes from my pile of magazine cuttings.

Cheesecakes are easy to convert to gluten free as the conversion just  requires a change to gluten free biscuit crumbs for the base.

I do however find cheesecakes very rich, so this is relegated to a special occasion recipe.

A Donna Hay recipe from a 2013 magazine, I even surprised myself that my cheesecakes almost looked like Donna Hay’s.

Ingredients

Base

350 g plain gluten free biscuits (Donna Hay’s recipe uses plain chocolate biscuits)

1/3 cup almond meal

100 g unsalted butter, melted

Dutch cocoa, for dusting

Filling

250 g cream cheese, chopped

3/4 cup (150g) ricotta

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

100 g dark chocolate melted

1 1/2 tablespoons red food colouring

Method

Place the biscuits and almond meal in the bowl of a food processor and process until coarse crumbs form. Add the butter and process until combined.  Line the base of 4 x 10 cm round lightly greased springform tins with baking paper. (Tins available in Coles for $3.00 and also perfect for making gluten free bread rolls) Using the back of a spoon, press the crumb mixture into the bases and sides of the tins.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes – 1 hour or until cold.

Preheat oven to 140 degrees C.  To make the filling, place the cream cheese, ricotta and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process for 2 – 3 minutes or until smooth.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the eggs and vanilla and process for a further minute.  Add the chocolate and food colouring and process until well combined.  Divide the mixture over the bases and bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until set.  Allow the cakes to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before refrigerating for 2 – 3 hours or until cold.  Dust with cocoa just before serving.  Serves 4 – 6. (from Donna Hay magazine 2013)

I do think you can tell which photo is of Donna Hay’s cheesecake and which photo belongs to mine. Definitely room for improvement.

NB I preferred  to serve with a dollop of cream rather than dusted cocoa. I also found it hard to keep the biscuit crust uniform in the small tins.