Wednesday 7 September 2016

Individual No-Bake Ginger Peach Cheesecake . . . and a tomato harvest in full swing

Halfway between cheesecake and parfait, these are easy to do and a handy way to use fresh fruit. Mascarpone fills out a bed of buttered cookie crumbs. After a nice refreshing in the fridge, the whole lot gets decorated with the juiciest, sweetest, and ripest fruit. 

Gingernut biscuits/cookies formed the base while peaches & strawberries the garnish

After an absence of a harvest for several years because of incessant insect infestations, our tree gave a small but precious one this season so it was only fitting to showcase their splendour in this dessert. 

Careful winter & early-spring sprayings with the right dosage of the correct chemical worked!

For each serving, crush one to three cookies depending on their size and the desired base depth. Either crumb in a mixer or place the cookies inside a plastic bag and grind with a rolling pin which is what I did. Other choices than gingernut could be vanilla wafers or digestives. Mix in about a tablespoon of melted butter to get a malleable consistency. You may need more or less butter depending on the amount of cookies used.


Fill the bottom of a jar or glass with the crumbs and press down either with your fingertips or with an appropriately sized lid.

A finger-printed base!

If subbing for the mascarpone, follow the directions here. Candied ginger could be folded in at this time for even more of a gingery boost. Or if you are going with a vanilla theme, vanilla extract can be blended to taste now. Carefully spoon around ten heaping tablespoons of the filling over the base. Refrigerate covered for at least an hour. The more time in the fridge the more it will firm.


Slice a whole peach thinly and scatter over the cheese. Add a few berries for colour like raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. I used strawberries from our potager. If your fruit is not that sweet, then a dusting of powdered sugar may be in order.


The crunchy base awaiting under the plump fruit and smooth cheese makes a pleasing contrast.


In the potager, tomatoes are being harvested at a rapid pace. 


Liguria, an Italian beef-heart variety, is just fabulous with little seed and juice.


Their substantial fleshiness are perfect for stuffed tomatoes, whether cooked or raw. They also make excellent concentrate and paste which will raise the deliciousness quotient of many a dish.

A pot of basil provided fresh leaves which go so well with tomatoes

À la prochaine!

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Raw tomatoes stuffed with tuna/shrimp/chicken

RELATED LINKS

How to make estratto (tomato paste) which not only uses an excess of tomatoes, it is also so much better than store-bought.