Edited and re-posted from my old blog Where’s My Parade?!
Originally posted June 2012.
Recipe taken from here.
- 250g plain chocolate biscuits
- 125g butter, melted
- 3 teaspoons gelatine
- ½ cup (125ml) water
- 250g packet cream cheese, softened
- ¾ cup (165g) caster sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 300ml thickened cream
- 425g can pitted black cherries
- topping
- 1 tablespoon cornflour
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar
- 1 tablespoon Cointreau or Grand Marnier
Blend or process biscuits until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add butter; process until combined. Press biscuit mixture evenly over base and side of a 20cm spring form tin, place on oven tray; refrigerate for about 30 minutes or until firm.
Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatine over the water in a small heatproof jug; stand jug in small saucepan of simmering water. Stir until gelatine dissolves; cool 5 minutes.
Beat cream cheese, sugar and juice in a small bowl with an electric mixer until smooth; transfer to a large bowl.
Whip cream until soft peaks form, fold into cheese mixture in two batches; fold in gelatine mixture. Drain cherries over a bowl, reserve ¾ cup of the syrup for the topping.
…the next part of the recipe says to pat half the cherries dry on absorbent paper. Don’t bother. I lost the will doing this. The juice might bleed into the cheese mix so perhaps pat them all together between a couple of kitchen roll sheets to take the worst off. I, ridiculously, patted each one dry, one by one…
The original recipe states you will need half the cherries for this recipe but lob as many as you want in. I think you could’ve gotten away with using nearly all of them. You can see I put some on the top, which ruins the smooth glossy effect, but sure, ’tis far from sleek line cheesecakes I was reared.
Spoon 1/3 of cheese mixture into crumb crust, top with half of the reserved cherries; repeat layering, ending with cheese mixture. Refrigerate until just firm.
Topping
Combine the cornflour and sugar with reserved cherry syrup in a small saucepan. Stir over heat until the mixture boils and thickens, stir in Cointreau; cool 10 minutes.
Spread Topping over cheesecake. Refrigerate cheesecake overnight
Do not serve just out of the fridge. It loses all flavour when too cool.
Look at the picture on the link-so smooth, glossy and chic looking. Ahem…mine obviously turned out a bit more down-home style looking….
It’s a handy alternative to the monster Black Forest Gateaux cake, and certainly lighter in weight and taste. Seriously, that cake is mahoosive.
popandglug.com 