The Morning After…

probably not the healthiest of breakfast choices, but whatever…

mkt.

Vanilla, Orange & Lemon Cheesecake

with chunky blueberry coulis.

I’d never made cheesecake before although it being one of my favouite cakes, so I thought I would try it out it.

Serves 8-10
125g digestive biscuits or chocolate chip cookies (about 12)
90g unsalted butter, melted
115g castor sugar
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
finely grated zest and juice of 1/2 orange\
1/2 vanilla bean, split
1tbsp plain flour
pinch of salt
300g cream cheese
100g sour cream
2 1/2 tbsp pouring cream
1tsp vanilla essence
1tsp Cointreau (optional, but it does add a lovely kick to the cake!)
3 free-range eggs

Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease a 20cm loose-based tin and line with baking paper

Process the biscuits in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Transfer to a bowl, add the melted butter and 40g castor sugar and stir until well combined. Press the mixture into the base of the tin and place in the fridge to chill.

Place the lemon and orange zest, vanilla seeds scraped from the pod and the remaining castor sugar in a large food processor and process until combined (alternatively you can combine by hand). Add the flour, salt and cream cheese and process. Add the sour cream, pouring cream, vanilla essence and Cointreau and process until smooth. Add the eggs, lemon and orange juice and process until smooth.

Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the bistuit base and bake for 40 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake to cool in the oven for about an hour.

For the chunky blueberry coulis…

1 punnet blueberries
200ml red wine
100ml water
3tbsp castor sugar

Place blueberries in a small saucepan and heat over low-medium heat. While heating, using the back of a fork, sqwaush the blueberries. Add wine, water and sugar. Simmer for a few minutes, or until sugar disolves. Remove from heat.

Voila! There you have a lovely light cheese cake with a warm, rich berry sauce!

mkt.