Strawberry Cheesecake

A classic. A delicious biscuity base with sweet creamy centre and scrumptious strawberry topping- what more can I say except yum!

This recipe fits a 12 inch tin so there will plenty to go round. It’s easiest to manoeuvre in a tin with a removable base, unless your a gambler and like to live on the edge. Either way it’ll taste great!

Thanks to Linda for requesting this recipe after seeing my post on Instagram. If you’d like to follow on instagram for more regular updates it’s @branches_of_birch.

You will need:

12 inch round tin

Blender

Stand or hand Mixer (you can use a ordinary whisk if you want, but why not take the easy road)

Saucepan

Ingredients:

(For the base)

200g Digestive biscuits

50g Oat Biscuits

100g Butter, melted

(For the creamy middle)

400g Cream cheese

200g Mascarpone cheese

100g Icing sugar

1 tsp Vanilla extract

280ml Double Cream

(For the strawberry topping)

1 punnet of strawberries (repeat after me-one for the cheesecake, one for me, one for the cheesecake one for me. Actually best to make it a large punnet if you do this, as you need around 10 strawberries.)

1 tbsp Water

1/2 tsp Caster sugar

Method:

Blend the biscuits to crumbs. (Rinse the blender out as it's needed for later.)

Tip into a mixing bowl and stir in the melted butter.

Tip into the baking tin and press down firmly.

Beat together the cream cheese, mascarpone, icing sugar and vanilla extract.

Once those are combined, beat in the double cream thoroughly.

Cover the biscuit base with the mixture, smoothing out evenly.

Putting 4 or 5 Strawberries to one side-Hide them from the rest of the house!

Chop up another 4 or 5 (depending on size) and place them in the saucepan with the sugar and water until they soften and the liquid is red.

Tip the strawberry mixture in the blender and blend until smooth. Leave the mixture to cool, then pour over the cheesecake.

Refrigerate over night.

In the morning, carefully remove from the tin and plate up.

Slice the remaining strawberries you hid from your children and place them on top of this.

Enjoy!x

Great Granola

When we think about making our own cereals the first thought is generally-really what’s the point? But I’m going to tell you, we are wrong! Well, if it was something that might require a Nanna to knit it we would be right, but this granola recipe requires the help of zero O.A.P‘s... you read that right, you will not require the help of any elderly relative with this one! This recipe is quick, healthy and for the first time we will know exactly what’s going in it without reading the side of the box. Also it keeps brilliantly, it’s crunchy, tasty...what am I doing? If you’re not sold already after the Nanna bit you’re in the wrong place.

If you use my recipes usually, you know I don’t muck about and always dive right in to the ingredients and help you to create your next culinary delight (unlike some recipe sites which leave you with aching wrists from scrolling to find what you‘re actually looking for). Today is no different, you’ll be relieved to see, however, I just wanted to take a minute to say thanks for being here and for choosing me to help you. I really love it. While you’re here though, if you like what you see, please let me know by clicking the heart or check out some of my other recipes or join the site and drop me a comment- I’d love to hear from you. I’m on Instagram @branches_of_birch is little old me, why not follow for more regular updates. xx

Without further ado...

You will need:

A large Pyrex dish

Grease proof paper/baking paper

A bag of rolled oats

Flaked Almonds

Honey

Optional extras, which would need to go in when the granola is cooled so don’t be to eager!

Sultanas

Chocolate chips

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 C

Line your dish with paper

Pour the oats into the Pyrex dish and cover approx 1/2 inch or 1.5cm thick.

Pour on top approx 150g of flaked almonds- be confident and eye ball this one the packets probably 200g It doesn’t have to be exact.

Then drizzle the honey liberally over the top.

Mix together well with a spoon.

Then add the same amount of honey again and stir, until it looks like this...

To create clumps press down with the back of the spoon at random places.

Cook in the oven until golden brown roughly ten minutes, but stay close as everyone’s oven is a little different in my experience. Stir gently halfway through to allow even cooking.

As you can see mine has toasted nicely without any oil. I let it cool on the side and then stored it in an airtight container. It will last longer if it was thoroughly cooled before storing. This is the point when you could add in any of the optional sultanas or chocolate chips.

I prefer mine served with yogurt and fresh fruit though- It’s delicious! I think I’ll go and make some more. x

Enjoy.xx

Windows and doors, canopy and floors!

The roof was on, the stairs were in. Carl and Ash were laying the floor insulation and screed in the utility and shower room, so we scampered up the scaffolding, taking full advantage of having somewhere safe to stand for another day and got the guttering at roof height done. Needless to say it was not my favourite place to be, or rather the journey up there wasn't fantastic, but once up it's not too bad. I was very happy to get both feet on solid ground though.

With the guttering done up top, the scaffolding came down on Tuesday 18th June. It was just lovely to see the house free from its cage. Obviously it still had windows doors and the canopy to be fitted, but for the first time we could see properly...

...and it was ACES!

We had a few roof caps missing, which the roofer fitted a couple of days later, so no worries there, but we both noticed something wasn't quite right. The corners of the facia over the front bedroom window, didn't quite fall to fit the size of the window.

I called Carl straight away and explained that the scaffolding had obscured our view previously, so we couldn't see it earlier. I asked if there was anyway we could just remove the corners the fascia, as I felt it would look better if it at least met the corners of the window even if it would be at an angle. It is unusual and a gamble, if we were wrong there would be know going back (well, there probably is a way, but it would have cost us to fix- so no way!). Our builders sorted it all out, sighed with relief and we could not have been happier with the end result.

Work then began on the canopy...

Just as we avoided a drop in the roof line, and replaced all the tiles on the front so they matched; we hoped the canopy would tie the old building to the new and make it look seamless too.

Before the builders could completely finish the canopy, the new bow window needed to be in place, so the sofit would fit around it. I had called Eurocell the week before and arranged delivery of the windows, doors and bifold and when they arrived the lovely builders helped to unload them all. I'd asked them specifically to help with the bifold, which was huge! (Though they still helped with all the rest.) It couldn't fit through the house, so there in lied the problem. Carl asked if our neighbours still liked us and thankfully the answer was yes. Our adjoining neighbour doesn't have side access, but their neighbour on the other side does. Luckily once again, our neighbours were brilliant, the 'neighbour but one' said we could use the side access and take out a fence panel to access next doors garden. Then our next door neighbour, said they were happy for us to use theres as a thoroughfare to get it through and even advised, which fence panels would be the best to move for ease of access to both gardens- see they are brilliant aren't they?!? On the day the bifold took four men to move it in to the garden and once it was in, it was going nowhere. Here are all the windows and doors waiting in the utility for Craig to arrive...

Craig, affectionately known as "Ginge", is our window fitter. He was recommended by our fantastic builders and is an absolute star. They really do have a brilliant team around them.

Upon inspecting the windows and doors I found that the bifold doors were configured wrong. They were the right size, thankfully, but the opening was in the wrong place. I immediately called eurocell and explained that there was no way to get it back out, that we needed it fitted on schedule in order for the builders to carry on work and it had to be fitted before we knock the back wall down and screed that room. There was no way we could delay and they agreed that as it was their error, that we could fit the door to continue work and they'd arrange for an engineer to come out in the next few weeks to fix the problem on site.

Over the next two days, Ginge fitted the windows, doors and bifold's while the builders continued with the canopy.

Adam assisted Ginge in getting the bifold in place.

I was so relieved every time Ginge fitted a window. I must have measured and remeasured and asked the builder to measure the openings a dozen times or more. It can be so expensive and to get the measurements wrong would have been heart breaking particularly with the bifold. Huge sigh of relief and a....

huge difference!!

All we needed now to be completely water tight was a garage door, which I wanted the canopy in place for before ordering, then I'd be certain how much space there would be available for the roller.

I have been happy with the whole process, but seeing it come together after years of dreaming is just bloody brilliant!

x