Strawberry & White Chocolate Cheesecake

My Dad has been visiting this weekend. The last time I made my Dad a cheesecake it was a bit of a disaster (forever to be known as the baked rhubarb omelette incident). I’m happy to say today’s cheesecake was much more a success. This was meant to be a Ferrero Rocher cheesecake from May’s issue of Good Food magazine. Off we went to the brand new Waitrose near us (I am worried by just how excited I was in there – they have a patisserie and you get a free coffee – what more could you want?) to purchase the ingredients. After purchasing most of the ingredients we then went to the local greengrocers where we bought a huge box of strawberries for a pound. It was then decided that perhaps a strawberry cheesecake would be a better use of ingredients. After a quick trawl of the Internet I found this recipe on the Baking Mad website for a white chocolate and strawberry cheesecake.

This recipe will serve 12 and needs a 20cm or 23cm springform tin. It’s easy to make and doesn’t take too long (I managed to make it in about an hour). It does take a while to chill (minimum 4 hours – overnight is ideal) so it will need to be made in advance.

Ingredients 

For the base:

200g digestive biscuits

85g unsalted butter (melted)

For the topping:

150ml double cream

250g white chocolate

3 gelatine leaves

300g full fat cream cheese

250g mascarpone cheese

350g strawberries

2 tablespoons strawberry jam

50g white chocolate

Method:

1) Grease a 20cm or 23cm round springform tin and line the base with baking parchment.

2) Crush the digestive biscuits until they are small crumbs (you can use a food processor or bash them with a rolling pin in a food bag). Add the melted butter and mix well.

3) Place in the tin and press down well until you have a smooth base. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

4) Place the cream and chocolate into a small pan and heat very gently, stirring continuously until the chocolate has melted.

5) Place the gelatine in a bowl of cold water and leave for 5 minutes until it has softened. Remove the gelatine, shaking off any excess water. Add to the cream and white chocolate and stir until dissolved.

6) Whisk the cream cheese and mascarpone until smooth. Then whisk in the chocolate mixture.

7) Hull and roughly chop 200g of the strawberries and mix into the cream cheese mixture. Pour into the cake tin and leave to set for at least 4 hours or overnight.

8) To decorate the cheesecake chop 100g of strawberries and push them through a sieve (this is quite a workout!) into a small saucepan. Add 2 tablespoons of strawberry jam and gently heat until you have a smooth sauce. Allow to cool

9) Run a knife around the outside of the cheesecake and remove from the tin. Top with chopped strawberries, strawberry sauce and curls of white chocolate.

10) Enjoy!