Passion fruit cheesecake bites - Gluten Free

Baked New York cheese cake is my favourite dessert. I have made so many different variations and this is my latest creation! Passion fruit is one of my favourite fruits so it is absolutely perfect to swirl through a cheesecake. I love the texture of baked cheesecakes as they are so delicate and fluffy they always make a perfect dessert and they are a lot easier to make than they seem. I prefer baked over non-baked as they have such a different texture and flavour where the a non-baked cheesecake is more like a semifreddo or ice cream where as this is actually a cake. I made a white chocolate ganache to drizzle over the top which made it look gorgeous and added to the light and fluffy flavour. ENJOY 

Crust: 
2 cups (200 grams) of gluten free ginger nuts in crumbs 
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted 
1/4 cup threaded coconut 

Filling: 
500g cream cheese, room temperature (use full fat, not reduced or fat free cream cheese) 
1/2 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar 
1 1/2 tablespoons gluten free flour (healtheries baking mix is what i use) 
3 eggs, room temperature 
3 tablesppons cream 
1 tablespoon lemon zest 
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
1/3 cup Passion fruit pulp / sryup 

For Crust: In a medium sized bowl combine the crumbs, coconut, and melted butter. Pour into a square cake tin and refrigerate while you make the filling. 

For Filling: Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. In bowl of your electric mixer place the cream cheese, sugar, and flour. Beat on medium speed until smooth (about 2 minutes), scraping down the bowl as needed. 

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well (about 30 seconds) after each addition.Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the whipping cream, lemon zest, vanilla extract and beat until incorporated. 

Remove the crust from the refrigerator and pour in the filling. Spoon passion fruit in swirls on the top of the filling and run a knife around to swirl. 

Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce oven to 120'c and bake for another 40mins or until firm but the centre of the cheesecakes firm yet may still wobble a little in the centre. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack. 

Let cool completely before covering with plastic wrap. Refrigerate several hours,preferably overnight. Once the cheesecake has been refridgerated, cut into bite size squares and ENJOY

Optional: Make a white chocolate ganache to drizzle over the top!
250grams Whittakers White Chocolate, roughly chopped
150mls cream
To make the ganache put the white chocolate and cream in a glass bowl, place bowl over a pot of simmering water, stirring occasionally until the chocolate is melting and cream is hot (but not boiling).

Remove from the heat and stir to combine into a smooth consistency. Refrigerate to cool and thicken, this will take at least an hour or two so is best done ahead of time. 

Beat the ganache with an electric mixer until it becomes pale and fluffy so that you can pipe it. Drizzle over cheesecake squares.

Rocky Road Crunch Bars - Gluten Free

I used to make rocky road slice all the time before i became gluten free. It was my absolute favourite with vanilla wine biscuits but unfortunately i cannot eat them any more so this was my take with gluten free biscuits. There wasn't much choice at my local supermarket on what biscuits i could use as they only has choc oragne, gingernuts and shortbread in stock so i decided to choose the shortbread and came up with this. My recipe originated from Nigella but i have made a few changes a long the way to make it gluten and adding the nuts and coconut, which i personally thinks makes the best rocky road. ENJOY

Ingredients 
125 grams soft butter 
300 grams best-quality dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids) broken into pieces 
3 tablespoons golden syrup 
200 grams gluten free tea biscuits, broken into crumbs 
100 grams mini marshmallows
1/2 cup chopped nuts (i used fry roasted hazelnuts and chopped peanuts)
1/4 cup threaded coconut 

Method:
Melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a heavy-based saucepan. Scoop out about 125ml / ½ cup of this melted mixture and put to one side. 

Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and then bash them with a rolling pin. You are aiming for both crumbs and pieces of biscuits. 

Fold the biscuit pieces and crumbs into the melted chocolate mixture in the saucepan, and then add the marshmallows, nuts and coconut.

Tip into a foil tray (24cm / 9 inch square); flatten as best you can with a spatula. Pour the reserved 125ml / ½ cup of melted chocolate mixture over the marshmallow mixture and smooth the top. Sprinkle with an remaining chopped nuts or coconut is desired. 

Refrigerate for about 2 hours or overnight. Cut into 24 fingers and ENJOY

100 Calorie Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Glaze - Gluten Free

I came across this website on the topped with cinnamon website and thought i just had to try make them with gluten free flour. They were very moist and you couldn't even tell they had carrot in them, very light and fluffy too. Such a nice healthier alternative to other chocolate cupcake recipes, highly recommend! The cream cheese glaze was a bit running and drizzled down a few of the cupcakes but other than that was really nice. The original recipe didn't have the milk which i added, which made it lighter but more running so don't add the milk if you want a thicker icing. ENJOY

For the cupcakes:

1/2 cup (125 ml) finely grated carrot

2 tbsp coconut oil, melted

1 egg

1/2 cup (125 ml) low fat plain yogurt or low fat buttermilk

1 cup  (110g) all purpose gluten free flour 

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup (100g) sugar

1/2 cup (50 g) cocoa powder

1/2 cup (125 ml) hot water

For the chocolate cream cheese frosting:

1/2 cup (50g) powdered sugar

1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 1/2 tbsp light cream cheese

1 tbsp light milk

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

Put the finely grated carrot into a fine mesh strainer. Hold the strainer over a sink and squeeze the grated carrot to remove as much liquid as possible. Place into a medium bowl.

To the bowl, add the melted oil, egg and yogurt/buttermilk and stir in. Add the next 6 ingredients (flour through to cocoa powder) and stir in. Lastly, stir in the hot water until just combined.

Divide the batter between 12 lined muffin cups. Bake for 14-15 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean). Cool on a wire rack.

For the frosting, combine all the ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Use about 2 tsp to frost each cupcake.

1 cupcake (wi1thout frosting): 103 kcal, 3.3 g fat, 17.5 g carbohydrates (1.1 g fiber, 9.4 g sugars), 2.5 g protein

1 cupcake (with frosting): 128 kcal, 3.7 g fat, 23.0 g carbohydrate (1.3 g fiber, 14.4 g sugars), 2.8 g protien

Recipe from: http://www.topwithcinnamon.com/2012/12/100-calorie-chocolate-cupcakes-with-chocolate-cream-cheese-icing.html