White chocolate ricotta cheesecake

Anyone in the South East of England will know that we are in the midst of a mini heatwave and, with temperatures exceeding 32° this weekend, it is not a time to be standing in the kitchen with the oven firing on all cylinders.  Hence, my gelatine set cheesecake!

This cheesecake has a lot of good things in it...in large quantities.  It is as rich and delicious as the ingredients suggest and probably best to make when you have company as even I could only manage a thin slice.  OK, when I say ‘thin slice’ it’s probably what most people would call a large slice...but it’s all relative. 

I must confess I prefer the chilled or gelatine set cheesecakes to their baked cousins.  I know in many parts of the world a statement like that amounts to heresy but I can’t help it; I just find them lighter and texturally more pleasing. 

A time saving tip I have discovered with making biscuit bases is that if you make them using the food processor, there is no need to melt the butter.  If anything, it’s better not to as you don’t get that greasy/oily seepage as the base sets.  I always put this in the method but, am so pleased at cutting out a stage of the process, that I thought I’d mention it here too!

The cheesecake can be decorated however you wish – chocolate curls or sprinkles, a fruit garnish, or maybe left plain and served with a fruit coulis.  I had some gorgeous English cherries in the fridge, so dipped them in white chocolate – voila, a beautiful and healthy decoration (what do you mean the chocolate cancels out the fruit???  Who makes these rules?)

Ingredients

For the base:

200g digestive biscuits
50g unsalted butter

For the topping:

5 leaves gelatine
200g white chocolate – I used Green & Blacks with a hint of vanilla
6 tablespoons milk
500g ricotta
300ml double cream
50g icing sugar
2 eggs, separated

To decorate – anything you choose!  White chocolate curls, fruit, fruit dipped in chocolate...or nothing at all!  If you make chocolate dipped cherries like me, you’ll need 100g additional white chocolate.

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/390°F/gas mark 6.

Line the sides of a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper.  I used a different shape tin – a rounded rectangle measuring 30cm x 11cm but a standard round tin will work just as well and hold the same amount.

Blitz the biscuits in a food processor until you have crumbs.

Add the butter and blitz again until you have the consistency of wet sand.  If making the base this way, there is no need to melt the butter.

If you make the base by bashing the biscuits into crumbs with a rolling pin, you will need to melt the butter to incorporate it.

Press the crumbs into the prepared tin and bake for 5 minutes.

Put to one side to cool.

Place the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water – the volume of water is irrelevant as it’s not used in the recipe; just make sure that you can submerge the leaves.

Place the chocolate and milk into a dish and cover.  Microwave in 20 second bursts and stir after each go, until you have melted chocolate.  You can place a bowl over a simmering pan of water if you prefer, but I find the microwave perfect for tasks like this (and less washing up!)

Squeeze all the water out of the now soft gelatine and whisk into the hot, melted chocolate.

Put to one side.

Beat together the ricotta, double cream, icing sugar and egg yolks until smooth and creamy.

Pour in the melted chocolate and stir in until fully incorporated.

In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks.

Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mix.

Pour (it will be runny) over the cooled biscuit base.

Cover the tin with clingfilm and refrigerate until set – ideally overnight.

Serve in slices with more chocolate, fruit, coulis etc – the choice is yours!

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.