Sunday 19 August 2012

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.

26 comments:

owleer said...

This looks heavenly, especially on a day like today!

Victory Rolls & Mixing Bowls said...

Oh wow how gorgeous does this look!

Nom!

sensibilia said...

Cool! You are very sensible to keep the oven off today! Mouthwatering to look at.

Alfie said...

This looks so dreamy! The white chocolate dipped cherries just finish it off so beautifully. yummy!!

Caroline said...

It does look deliciously light. Love the look of those dipped cherries too - mmmm, cherries and chocolate.

Cakeyboi said...

I agree with you about the baked cheesecakes - much prefer the set ones! Yours look delicious...

Susie @ Fold in the Flour said...

Oooh, this looks heavenly! Mrs CC you do tempt us so.
Fab tip about the base as well and avoiding the 'greasy seepage' problem. I'm planning on making a cheesecake this week, and had got as far as thinking about processing the biscuits (I'll be using chocolate digestives and last time I made it I bashed them in a bag and ended up with bitty lumps rather than even sand)but hadn't thought about adding the butter as well. Pure genius!

Sarah-Jane - SiliconeMoulds.com said...

Who cares if it's not baked ! I dont think I've ever tried a gelatine set cheesecake - but this looks wonderful. I'll be back to give it a go.

I on the other hand am a hot sticky mess and will shortly be off for a shower before bed. I made an apple cider cake today (for cake club tomorrow) and two strawberry swiss rolls. It's so hot atm, I dont think the fresh cream swiss rolls will survive the journey tomorrow - need to wait and see.....

Jo said...

Oh those chocolate dipped cherries.... I'm with you, it's healthy. It still counts as part of your 5 a day. Thanks for the biscuit base tip, will definitely keep that in mind. I do enjoy a chilled cheesecake :)

Gloria Baker said...

This cheesecake lool really delicious!

Spencer said...

Now that is my idea of cheesecake Heaven! I would so love to try some. It looks amazing.

anon said...

sophisticated, pretty, it looks so good!

Debs Dust Bunny said...

6Oh my giddy aunt... that's looks divine! I have to go back and read that again! Too late to make it tonight, however, Tescos is open 24 hours..... : )

Baking Addict said...

This looks amazing and definitely perfect for the tropical weather. I don't agree that chocolate cancels out the fruit - chocolate has health benefits too ;) Thanks for the tip about the biscuit base - trying that next time.

Maggie said...

I have just come back from the South East and we started to melt! Great cheesecake and I love the chocolate coated cherries too.

Cakelaw said...

Crusader, you cannot do this to me! I adore cheesecake and this one looks devine!

Janine said...

Looks delicious - the cherries really add a wow factor!

Cakefairyblog said...

Chocolate definately doesn't cancel out the fruit. Looks gorgeous and so smooth! As usual fab recipe.

Nickki said...

This looks and sounds wonderful! I love the white chocolate cherries...yes please!

Lucy said...

I love white chocolate so much, this looks incredible! Love the cherries on top - so pretty.

Anonymous said...

Hi! I'm a huge fan of white chocolate and cheese so this sounds right for me! If i'm using gelatin powder, how many teaspoons should I use? How much water should I add to dissolve the powder?

Cheers,
Fiona

The Caked Crusader said...

Hi Fiona

I don't use powdered gelatine - I hate the smell and find it so much harder to use. However, I know that 4 leaves of gelatine equates to 1 tablespoon of powdered. As to the liquid, I would go with the instructions on the packet. For this recipe, maybe reduce the milk accordingly so you don't make it too wet

Hope this helps

Happy baking

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to bother you, but I can't see in the recipe why you actually need to put the oven on? It seems to be a no-bake recipe, so I'm a bit confused by the 'Preheat the oven' instruction. Would you please clarify for me what I'm missing?

Best regards,

Ana

The Caked Crusader said...

Hi Ana

The first stage of the process is to make the biscuit base - and you do this by baking it in the oven.
The topping is no bake

Hope this helps

Happy baking

Anonymous said...

Oh, dear, I feel like so daft! I do apologise, but I had completely missed that bit in your instructions. Don't suppose I could claim blindness, lol. I'm really sorry. Thank you for your prompt and nice reply! Can't wait to try the recipe.

Best,

Ana

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Just wanted to say that I've finally got around to trying this cheesecake, more than one year after I'd bookmarked it, lol. It's very rich, but I love rich. The difference between this and a shop/restaurant bought cheesecake is huge, and it was totally worth making it. Will try to keep that in mind when I weigh myself tomorrow morning, lol. I didn't top it with the cherries, but grated the chocolate I had left over from the cheesecake, and it was still lovely.

Thank you very much for the recipe. It makes a delicious, stunning cheesecake. :)

Best,

Ana