Straighten your chef’s hat, celebrate weekend with Strawberry Vanilla Cheesecake

Just because you don’t live near a bakery doesn’t mean you have to go without cheesecake so, straighten your baker’s hat and celebrate the weekend with Strawberry Vanilla Cheesecake. The best part about being an adult is that you can have dessert for breakfast and since it is already time for brunch, here’s a droolworthy recipe of Strawberry Vanilla Cheesecake to start the weekend on a deliciously sweet note.

Ingredients for Graham Cracker Crust:

Digestive biscuits – 120g

Brown sugar- 34g

Unsalted butter – 57g

Ingredients for Cheesecake:

Whipping cream- 150g

Cream cheese – 340g

Sugar- 50g

Icing sugar-8g

Cream- 30g

Lemon juice- 2 tbsp

Vanilla essence/extract – 1 tsp

4 fresh strawberries

Method:

Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk or paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and granulated sugar together on medium speed until perfectly smooth and creamy. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the confectioners’ sugar, cream, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Beat for 2–3 minutes on medium-high speed until smooth and combined. Make sure there are no large lumps of cream cheese. If there are lumps, keep beating until smooth.

Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the cold heavy cream into stiff peaks on medium-high speed, about 4–5 minutes. Set aside. Using your mixer on low speed or a rubber spatula, fold the whipped cream into the cheesecake filling until combined. This takes several turns of your rubber spatula. Combine slowly as you don’t want to deflate all the air in the whipped cream. Take 1/3rd of the cream cheese mix aside and put it in a blender with 4 fresh strawberries and blitz.

Set the crust at the bottom of a glass or any other container you want to set your cheesecake in. Let it chill for 30 minutes. Pour the plain vanilla cheesecake batter in half of the glass and chill for an hour before pouring the strawberry flavoured cheesecake batter on top. Garnish with some fresh strawberries and enjoy the gorgeous strawberry season.

(Recipe: Chef Devika Kumari and Chef Rithvik Anantharaman)

Benefits:

Strawberries are sodium-free, fat-free, cholesterol-free, low-calorie food and are packed with fibres and vitamins. They protect the heart by increasing HDL which is good cholesterol, guard against cancer and lower the blood pressure.

Their strong astringent, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidants properties not only protect skin from harmful UV rays but also treat burns and delay ageing. Strawberries prevent hair loss and the vitamin C in them encourages iron absorption and encourages better hair growth.