INCREDIBLE Lemon Cheesecake Slice!

Who is in the mood for a slice today? This lemon cheesecake slice is a wonderful mixture of light and fluffy cheesecake and my famous vanilla slice! With a glorious lemony centre using lemon curd and fresh lemons and buttery puff pastry on the top and bottom this is what slice dreams are made of. If you love light, creamy lemon desserts then this is a pushy recipe Dear Reader!

Do you ever remember foods from a years back? While I have a terrible memory for names, foods remain imprinted in my memory. Once upon a time I had a wonderful banana cheesecake at an afternoon tea. It wasn't a light Japanese cheesecake, nor was it a baked cheesecake. It was like a cheesecake mousse and I've been meaning to make something just like it ever since. And this Dear Reader is my first step and a lemon version thereof.

This mixture is an unbaked cheesecake folded with stabilised whipped cream. It's actually quite simple and you can have it either as a slice between two sheets of puff pastry or just spoon it into a bowl and set as the most delicious lemon cheesecake mousse. The texture of this slice is its best feature. If you've made my light and fluffy vanilla slice this is similar although it has a distinct cheesecake flavour courtesy of the cream cheese used.

This makes a huge amount of lemon cheesecake slice. Enough to share with friends or neighbours or anyone that needs a pick me up. I gave half to my neighbour and we brought some up to the Central Coast for our holiday. It was such a nice reprieve from the horrors of 2020 and 2021 (and let's be honest the first few weeks of 2022 were just as bad, actually worse). Mr NQN and I laid low for the week prior to our holiday as we didn't want anything to jeopardise this much desired holiday. We also didn't want to get sick while on holiday because we would be moving house just after we got back so we brought a lot of food along.

Perhaps we sound paranoid but as the house was fully booked every day before our arrival when we arrived at the house, we donned our masks, opened all the windows and doors, slid on gloves and disinfected every surface and touch point we could find once, sometimes twice. It was only then that we started to unwind and unfurl our tense bodies, some muscles atrophied from lack of use. There were no visible neighbours, no shared stairwells or doors and just the sound of bellbirds tolling their high one-note tunes.

We had nine wonderful nights at a house on Macmasters Beach. It cost us a small fortune - usually we would book 4-5 nights but by night 3 I mentally start packing things up and getting ready to head back. But by night 4 I was wallowing in the pleasure of doing nothing. I picked up a book from the well supplied book selection at the house -the owner had a predilection for mystery and crime novels which suited me perfectly.

For the first time in a year and curled up on the couch to read a book - they say that reading makes for great writing and in 2021 I could feel my vocabulary retracting in front of my eyes while books went unread, the pile by my bed increasing in size with every month. By December I felt such guilt when seeing these books that I swept this enormous pile of books up and gave them away. If I couldn't enjoy these books then someone else would.

Mr NQN challenged himself with a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and Teddy would snooze all day long positioning himself halfway between the two of us. Every morning we went for a walk on Copacabana and Macmasters Beach as it's a gorgeous dog friendly beach so that tired him out. The trip did start off on a rocky note - the first night involved a trip to the 24 hour emergency vet. The expansive grounds on the property was also home to plenty of ticks and Teddy let us know that something wasn't right when he ran away away from us and went into another room to chew on his paw. Upon closer examination we saw countless ticks, far too many for Mr NQN to manage so we rang the nearby animal hospital who looked after him well. We fell into bed at 2am hoping that it was just a one off. Thankfully it was and the rest of the holiday went smoothly. By day 9 we were ready to come home, emails piling up as people waited politely for us to come back from holidays. And now begins our week of moving!

So tell me Dear Reader, did you have a holiday over the Christmas break and how was it? Do you like lemon cheesecake?

Lemon Cheesecake Slice

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 35 minutes plus 3 hours setting time

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 9

• 2 sheets frozen butter puff pastry
• 500g/1.1lbs cream cheese
• 300g/10.6ozs lemon curd (see recipe)
• Finely grated zest of 1.5 lemons
• 30g/1oz gelatine powder
• 125ml/4ozs. water
• 600ml/20flozs. cream
• 1.5 cups/225g/7.9ozs. icing or powdered sugar plus 2 tablespoons extra to sift on top

Important note: keep your mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the fridge so that it is chilled when you whip the cream.

Step 1 - Line a 20x20cm or 8x8 inch square tin and set aside. Preheat the oven to 220C/440F and line two baking trays with parchment. Place a sheet of puff pastry on each and use a fork to dock the pastry while it is thawing. Bake for 13 minutes each. Take one and trim to fit the square tin and place in the base.

Step 2 - Add the water to a shallow bowl and sprinkle the gelatine powder on top. Allow to solidify for 2-3 minutes and then heat in the microwave for 20 seconds or until it becomes clear. Cool for 5 minutes.

Step 3 - In a food processor blend the cream cheese, lemon curd and lemon zest until smooth and set aside. Place the cream in the chilled bowl and affix the whisk attachment. Whip until you get soft peaks. Add a couple of tablespoons of this cream into the gelatine mixture and whisk until smooth to temper it. Add the icing sugar into the main bowl and whip the cream until you get firm peaks. Then add the gelatine mixture into the cream and whip. It will become thick quickly. Spoon this into the cream cheese curd mixture in 3-4 lots making sure to fold gently so that you don't deflate the mixture. Spoon on top of the pastry layer and place in the fridge-it will start to set within an hour.

Step 4 - Trim the other square of puff pastry and cut into the number of pieces that you want (I cut it into 9 squares). Place on top of the setting custard. Leave to set for at least 3 hours in the fridge. Dust with icing sugar and serve.