Double date
Happy weekend to everyone. Im glad that my weekend is all fully occupied and well-spent. On Saturday morning, two of my friends came over to my place and bake this circular strawberry jelly heart for "someone' special. HAHA, not to mention any of the names :x It was actually 1 person baking and the other just accompanied him over. The week before he came over to my place, he texted me over for a little favour as he wants to bake something for a friend of his but he doesn't has the necessary equipment to bake. So i actually agreed to help him and went to find a good recipe for him to ease his worries. The whole concept was something strawberry so i did some research and managed to get this recipe on hand. A no baked strawberry jelly heart who wins most woman's heart. It took us 1 hour to complete our task. Not to be selfish, I will state down the ingredients and methods below.
Makes 20 to 24 jelly hearts.
Ingredients
For the crust -
300g digestive biscuits
150g melted butter
300g digestive biscuits
150g melted butter
For the cheesecake layer -
500g cream cheese (placed in room temperature for 2 to 3 hours to soften)
1 & 1/2 tablespoons gelatin powder
1 & 1/4 cups boiling water
2/3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
About 10 to 12 strawberries
500g cream cheese (placed in room temperature for 2 to 3 hours to soften)
1 & 1/2 tablespoons gelatin powder
1 & 1/4 cups boiling water
2/3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
About 10 to 12 strawberries
For the jelly layer -
160g strawberry flavoured jelly
1 & 1/2 cups boiling water
1 & 1/2 cups cold water
160g strawberry flavoured jelly
1 & 1/2 cups boiling water
1 & 1/2 cups cold water
Method
- Place 150g of butter in a oven proof bowl. Cover the bowl loosely with cling film wrap or use a microwave oven food cover. Microwave for 30 to 40 seconds at high till butter is melted.
- Dip a brush into the melted butter and butter a large rectangular pan generously. I used a 13 X 10 X 2 inch glass pan Note: You can line the pan with a large piece baking paper. This will make removal of the jelly hearts from the pan alot easier. And you wouldn’t have to worry about the crust sticking to the base of the pan. If you line the pan with baking paper, butter the baking paper all over as well. For photography purpose, I’ve eliminated the baking paper.
- Use digestive biscuits for the base. Place 300g of digestive biscuit in a bag and use a roller to smash it into bits & pieces
- Place the crumbs in a large bowl and add the melted butter. Stir well to combine. Place the biscuits-butter mixture in the pan. Once the crust is made, place the pan in the fridge and chill until ready to use.
- Add 1 & 1/2 tablespoons of gelatin powder in a bowl. Use the right amount of gelatin, else the cheese layer won’t set.
- Add 1 & 1/4 cups of boiling water to the gelatin powder. Stir well till all the gelatin has dissolved. Set aside to cool.
- Place 500g of cream cheese in a large mixing bowl. Add 2/3 cups of sugar. Using an electric whisk, combine the cheese and sugar. The cream cheese must be soft otherwise it will be very hard to mix here. Whisk till the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the cream cheese mixture. The finished mixture should be a runny smooth liquid. Like a milkshake. If there are lumps, run the mixture through a sieve.
- Pour the cream cheese mixture on to the biscuit base.
- In the meantime, cut the strawberries. Cut them first in half. Look for the thicker side and cut lengthwise across it so that each strawberry heart is thick. Then at the top of the strawberries, slice off the white tops with the leaves and cut a deep V in the centre. Press each strawberry half into the cream cheese mixture. Let the strawberry sink in gently. If the strawberries don’t sink in, they will float up in the jelly layer later.
- Place the pan in the fridge. Chill for at least 4 hours or overnight. If the cheese layer is not well chilled, the cheese will disintegrate when the jelly layer is added.
- Place 160g strawberry jelly powder in a bowl. Add 1 & 1/2 cups of boiling water. Whisk well till jelly powder has dissolved. Add 1 & 1/2 cups of COLD water. Mix well.
- Ensure that the jelly-water mixture has cooled. If the mixture is still hot, it will melt the cheese layer and cause bits of cheese to float in the jelly layer. Gently pour the cooled mixture over the cream cheese layer. Pour just enough jelly to cover the strawberries.
- Chill for at least 4 hours.
Right after everything was done, I had a date with my boy. We trained down to Plaza Sing & Orchard and had a small little window shopping spree. HAHA, different shops caught my attention and poor him, without any complaint, he has to wait for me outside the fitting room numerous times. We didn't really have our proper meal on that day, mainly on lots of junk and fried food. Firstly, he brought me over to 4 fingers crispy chicken as he knows that I have not eaten it before. As pricey as it can be, the fried chicken got me drooling. Like seriously, why so tender and nice? Their seasoning added much of the points. But with good quality of food, you got to pay a price. That meal costs $9.90, like a 5 stars hotel chicken please ;X
Secondly, after walking for hours, our legs starts to ache so we wanted to find a place to sit down. Searching for many cafes but everywhere was filled with Human beings. Long queue that we can see in any of the cafeteria. Then, we stopped by Pique Nique and boy without any second thoughts, pulled me to queue up. Partly because it has the shortest queue. Our intention is to sit down and chill and chit-chat so we just ordered 1 item from the menu and stayed there for hours. HAHA, we took our own sweet time to finish up this plate of beef fries. But how nice can the waitress be? They didn't give us a darn stare.
And here start of our double date. Coincidentally, Boy get to know that Boon Kiat and his gf are heading down to Dempsey road and that was our plan for tonight too so boy texted Boon Kiat and discuss about meeting up together to head down to this place. And there it goes, OUR SPECIAL DOUBLE DATE. I guess this is my second double date with him and his friends. The first was triple date with his secondary school mates and sister. Quite excited though :X met up with them and this couple is really sweet enough to treat us Mochi. Embarrassing incidents happened (thanks to my boy) and really could laugh my night off. Sometime I think that I have dated a joker. We dropped by this Ben & Jerry outlet called the ranch home. This Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops can be identified by their cutesy decoration, with cloudscapes, meadows and cow print murals decorating the walls. You would find that this particular Ben & Jerry’s outlet sports a different theme. It resembles an American ranch home rather than a café!
So what we have? We have 5 different scopes of ice-cream (chocolate fudge brownie/strawberry cheesecake/new york super fudge chunk/clusterfluff/maple tree hugger) with a wafer to go with it. Its a BOOMZ. Sugar rush for that night.
Dempsey Hill
8 Dempsey Road #01-14
Singapore 247696
Tel: +65 6473 3231 | Website
Some little photos of ourselves to end off the night.
Till then.
