Sunday treats

'cause sunday is supposed to be a fun-day... let's just forget about the calories for once and treat ourselves to some home-baked goodness!

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

What you need:
110 g chocolate cookie crumbs
40 g white sugar
55 g butter, melted
250 g frozen raspberries
25 g white sugar
5 g cornstarch
120 ml water
350 g white chocolate chips
120 ml half-and-half cream
650 g cream cheese, softened
100 g white sugar
3 eggs
5 ml vanilla extract

What you do:
1.In a medium bowl, mix together cookie crumbs, 3 tablespoons sugar, and melted butter. Press mixture into the bottom of a 23cm springform pan.
2.In a saucepan, combine raspberries, 2 tablespoons sugar, cornstarch, and water. Bring to boil, and continue boiling 5 minutes, or until sauce is thick. Strain sauce through a mesh strainer to remove seeds.
3.Preheat oven to 165 degrees C. In a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt white chocolate chips with half-and-half, stirring occasionally until smooth.
4.In a large bowl, mix together cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in vanilla and melted white chocolate. Pour half of batter over crust. Spoon 3 tablespoons raspberry sauce over batter. Pour remaining cheesecake batter into pan, and again spoon 3 tablespoons raspberry sauce over the top. Swirl batter with the tip of a knife to create a marbled effect.
5.Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until filling is set. Cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 8 hours before removing from pan. Serve with remaining raspberry sauce.

What you get:

412kcal/serving

Brownies

What you need:

185g unsalted butter
185g best dark chocolate
85g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
50g white chocolate
50g milk chocolate
3 large eggs
275g golden caster sugar

What you do:
1.melt the dark chocolate and butter au bain marie: Cut the butter into smal cubes and tip into a medium bowl. Break the dark chocolate into small pieces and drop into the bowl. Fill a small saucepan about a quarter full with hot water, then sit the bowl on top so it rests on the rim of the pan, not touching the water. Put over a low heat until the butter and chocolate have melted, stirring occasionally to mix them. Now remove the bowl from the pan.
Leave the melted mixture to cool to room temperature.
2.While you wait for the chocolate to cool, position a shelf in the middle of your oven and turn the oven on to 180C. Using a shallow 20cm square tin, cut out a square of non-stick baking parchment to line the base. Now tip the flour and cocoa powder into a sieve held over a medium bowl, and tap and shake the sieve so they run through together and you get rid of any lumps.
3.With a large sharp knife, chop the white and milk chocolate into chunks on a board.
4.Break the eggs into a large bowl and tip in the sugar. With an electric mixer on maximum speed, whisk the eggs and sugar until they look thick and creamy. This can take 3-8 minutes, depending on how powerful your mixer is, so don't lose heart. You'll know it's ready when the mixture becomes really pale and about double its original volume.
5.Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the eggy mousse, then gently fold together with a rubber spatula until the two mixtures are one and the colour is a mottled dark brown. The idea is to marry them without knocking out the air, so be as gentle and slow as you like - you don't want to undo all the work you did in step 4.
6.Hold the sieve over the bowl of eggy chocolate mixture and resift the cocoa and flour mixture, shaking the sieve from side to side, to cover the top evenly. Gently fold in this powder. The mixture will look dry and dusty at first, and a bit unpromising, but if you keep going very gently and patiently, it will end up looking fudgy. Stop just before you feel you should, as you don't want to overdo this mixing. Finally, stir in the white and milk chocolate chunks.
7.Pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Put in the oven and set your timer for 25 minutes. Take out of the oven.
8.Leave the whole thing in the tin until completely cold. Cut into quarters, then cut each quarter into four squares.

they'll keep in an airtight container for a good two weeks and in the freezer for up to a month.

what you get:

288 kcal/serving