Carrot and almond cheesecake

A friend recommended this Paul Hollywood recipe. It is good, she said. Frankly, I slightly disagree.

At first sight, this recipe has all the ingredients to make it a delightful experience. The amount of trouble and troubleshooting it took me to make it, shrank my enjoyment of eating it by half.

It started with something that seems trivial but it is quite important. Paul asks for a 20cm (8in) round springform cake tin. I only have a 25cm (10in). Problem number one: the amount of the ingredients needs to be adjusted. It is not like I haven't adjusted quantities before but this time it was a lot more difficult!!

The bottom of the cake was fine. Quantities adjusted and it came out alright.

The top of the cake, the cheesy half, was a near nightmare to make. Funny enough, the last time I had such a nightmare, it also involved ground almonds... for an ingredient I love so much, it is quite jinxed...

Anyway, I ploughed through it and managed to achieve something edible and in one piece which was the highlight of my day. Taste wise, it is not extraordinary and I won't go through the trouble of doing it again.

I leave the list of ingredients for a 20cm springform at the end. If you have the correct sized tin, give it a go. My friend swears by it!

Serves: 8 persons.

Ingredients:

63g butter, softened
63g sugar
75g plain flour, sifted
1¼ tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
For the filing:

300g cottage cheese (or cream cheese)
3 eggs, separated
⅛ tsp almond extract
125g sugar
13 tbsp ground almonds
6 tbsp orange juice
215g carrots, peeled and finely grated
150ml double cream

Method:

Butter a 25cm (10in) round springform cake tin.
Beat the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, egg and almond extract together until light and creamy.
Spread evenly on the bottom of the cake tin and bake at 180°C for 10 min until lightly coloured and just firm. Set aside to cool.
Turn the oven down to 150°C.
I made the ground almonds from scratch: boiled the almonds for 1 min, drained, poured cold water, squeezed the almond from the peel and oven dried them before grinding them.
To make the filling, beat the cheese with the egg yolks, almond extract, half the sugar, the ground almonds, orange juice, grated carrots and cream.

Problem #2: Paul advised using cream cheese or sieved cottage cheese. I took the cottage cheese out of the pot and it had no liquid, it was quite thick and there really was no difference of consistency between it and cream cheese. I decided to ignore him and did not sieve the cottage cheese. Was this the problem and should I have?
Problem #3: I added all the sugar instead of just half of it. There is something with my brain that, sometimes, decides to read just part of the recipe. Was this the problem?
Problem #4 and major issue: the mixture was too runny. It was milk like consistency. I wasn't sure whether the bottom half of the cake would withstand such a runny mixture on top. I first decided that I was going to bake it in another 25cm tin and then tilt it on the bottom of the cake once cooked. I buttered and floured another tin. Thankfully that gave me some precious minutes to realise how stupid my idea was! There is a reason cheesecakes are cooked in springform tins: they can't be handled much as they are very airy! So I dumped the other tin. Perhaps I could make it thicker? The original recipe (for a smaller tin) asked for 4 tbsp ground almonds. I ended up adding 13 tbsp of ground almonds. Above and beyond what would be a 'quantity adjustment' for a slightly bigger tin. By the end of the 13 tbsp, I had no more ground almonds and decided that it was already a ridiculous amount and surely I would loose the airy feel of the cheesecake. Enough was enough!

Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gradually whisk in the remaining sugar until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Lightly fold into the cheese mixture.
Pour the filling onto the cooked base in the tin. At this point I decided to brave up and pour the mixture into the cake tin and onto the bottom layer of the cake and pray for the best. Miraculously, it actually held up on top of the bottom layer of the cake. Alleluia!
Bake for 1.5 hours or until golden brown, well risen and firm: it should be spongy to the touch. Turn of the oven, leave the door ajar and let the cheesecake cool slowly inside for 1 hour.
Carefully release the sides of the tin and lift up the cheesecake. Leave to cool completely.