Everyone’s got to love a good cheesecake. I’m not sure I’ve met anyone before who doesn’t. I think they live in segregated communities somewhere, somewhere shit. There’s that thing, isn’t there, that Peter Kay does. Cheese…in a cake. But nobody actually believes that, right? I can’t imagine so. Anyway, cheesecakes come in tonnes of ways – baked, set, flavoured, plain – you name it! This one is a baked one – it makes it denser, more luxurious, creamier and heavier. This is not a light dessert. But it is a goodun. The banana through the mix gives it a bit of a warm lightness and the base is fabulous – spiced with ginger, caramel crunch of nut. Mmm. It is a take on a banoffee pie – I was cooking for someone who said they loved cheesecakes and banoffee pie – thought I’d kill two birds with one stone! Based and adapted from a Delia recipe. What a babe.
Serve with PLENTY of the caramel sauce. Serve it on the side in buckets.
Serve with PLENTY of the caramel sauce. Serve it on the side in buckets.
Recipe
Ingredients (serves about 8):
250g ginger nut biscuits
100g pecans, toasted
80g butter, melted
4 bananas
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 eggs
350g cream cheese
200g fromage frais
175g caster sugar
Sauce:
150g caster sugar
150ml water
50g butter
150ml double cream
few drops vanilla essence
Garnish – 2 bananas, sliced. Milk chocolate, melted and drizzled.
Method:
1. Heat an oven to 150 Celsius. Crush the biscuits with a rolling pin in a bag, or process into crumbs. Crush the toasted pecans roughly and combine in a bowl with the biscuits. Add the melted butter and combine. Press into the bottom of a lightly buttered 20-24 cm baking tin with a removable base.
2. Place in the oven and leave for about 10 minutes, until dried and solidified a bit.
3. In a food processor, blend the bananas and the lemon juice until smooth. Add the cream cheese, fromage frais, sugar and eggs and blend until smooth and combined.
4. Pour over the tin with the biscuit base already in. Place in the oven and bake for an hour. Keep an eye on it – if the top is browning, cover with tin foil. Then turn the oven off and leave in the oven until it is completely cool – Delia says that this stops it cracking and I am inclined to agree.
5. To make the sauce: make a caramel with the water and sugar. To do this; place both in a sauce pan and put over medium high heat. Keep your eye on it – watch it like a hawk in fact – until it becomes thicker, starts to bubble, and turns a caramel, toffee color. Basically what is happening here is that the water evaporates, leaving solely a sugar syrup which then evenly starts to rise to very high temperatures, eventually turning from transparent to toffee colour when it ‘turns’. Literally don’t take your eye of it – it’ll burn if you do! And do not at any point stir it with a spoon. If you put a spoon in it the sugar molecules tend to solidify around it and crystalise, turning your caramel into a solid mess. To make it ‘turn’ evenly, when colour starts to show, swirl your pan. Have a peek at the photos below- you’ll see what it looks like just before it starts to turn.
6. Add the butter, swirl to combine and you can stir with a metal spoon at this point. It will bubble up like mad – be brave. Add the cream and vanilla and stir to combine, still over heat.
7. Decorate the top of the cheesecake with the sliced banana. Drizzle the top of your cheesecake with the caramel sauce and then with the melted chocolate. Serve with more sauce on the side.
Ingredients (serves about 8):
250g ginger nut biscuits
100g pecans, toasted
80g butter, melted
4 bananas
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 eggs
350g cream cheese
200g fromage frais
175g caster sugar
Sauce:
150g caster sugar
150ml water
50g butter
150ml double cream
few drops vanilla essence
Garnish – 2 bananas, sliced. Milk chocolate, melted and drizzled.
Method:
1. Heat an oven to 150 Celsius. Crush the biscuits with a rolling pin in a bag, or process into crumbs. Crush the toasted pecans roughly and combine in a bowl with the biscuits. Add the melted butter and combine. Press into the bottom of a lightly buttered 20-24 cm baking tin with a removable base.
2. Place in the oven and leave for about 10 minutes, until dried and solidified a bit.
3. In a food processor, blend the bananas and the lemon juice until smooth. Add the cream cheese, fromage frais, sugar and eggs and blend until smooth and combined.
4. Pour over the tin with the biscuit base already in. Place in the oven and bake for an hour. Keep an eye on it – if the top is browning, cover with tin foil. Then turn the oven off and leave in the oven until it is completely cool – Delia says that this stops it cracking and I am inclined to agree.
5. To make the sauce: make a caramel with the water and sugar. To do this; place both in a sauce pan and put over medium high heat. Keep your eye on it – watch it like a hawk in fact – until it becomes thicker, starts to bubble, and turns a caramel, toffee color. Basically what is happening here is that the water evaporates, leaving solely a sugar syrup which then evenly starts to rise to very high temperatures, eventually turning from transparent to toffee colour when it ‘turns’. Literally don’t take your eye of it – it’ll burn if you do! And do not at any point stir it with a spoon. If you put a spoon in it the sugar molecules tend to solidify around it and crystalise, turning your caramel into a solid mess. To make it ‘turn’ evenly, when colour starts to show, swirl your pan. Have a peek at the photos below- you’ll see what it looks like just before it starts to turn.
6. Add the butter, swirl to combine and you can stir with a metal spoon at this point. It will bubble up like mad – be brave. Add the cream and vanilla and stir to combine, still over heat.
7. Decorate the top of the cheesecake with the sliced banana. Drizzle the top of your cheesecake with the caramel sauce and then with the melted chocolate. Serve with more sauce on the side.
blending bananas
biscuit base
ready to go into the oven
baked and bare
sugar syrup justttt before it turns!
quite an attractive cheesecake, I’d say
mmmm
pretty plating
