A very last minute festive post for you, the ultimate Christmas cheesecake.
Cheesecake isn’t necessarily everyone’s go to cheesecake dessert but this one really is a good’un! the white chocolate and frosted berries both taste delicious and make it completely appropriate for this time of year (although it can definitely be made and eaten all year round!
We can never quite decide whether we prefer baked or set cheesecakes, but somehow it felt more christmassy to bake it (yeah we don’t really follow our own thought process there either…) but the glorious thing about a baked cheesecake is just how damn quick they come together. Pop the biscuits in a food processor, whiz them up with the butter, pop it in a tin then mix all the cheesecake ingredients together and bake! The long wait come afterwards as you need to let this fully chill, ideally left in a fridge overnight. But it does make a great dessert for when you’re hosting as it can be done ahead of time and forgotten about!
If you bake the cheesecake till just right hopefully you won’t end up with any cracks but if you do then fear not! We topped this with some white chocolate ganache and then piled on the frosted cranberries, so any cracks will be completely hidden.
- 400g cream cheese
- 150g sour cream
- 2 eggs
- 100g caster sugar
- 100g white chocolate
- 2 tbsp butter, melted
- 200g digestive biscuits
- 300ml water
- 300g sugar, plus an extra 100-200g for coating
- 300g fresh cranberries
- 100g white chocolate
- 50ml double cream
- Grease a 8″ springform tin
- In a food processor blitz the biscuits to a fine crumb & combine the melted butter, press the mix into the bottom of the tin – refrigerate to set
- Combine the cream cheese, sour cream & sugar in a stand mixer till smooth. Now mix in the eggs
- In the microwave melt the chocolate & stir into the cheesecake mixture
- Pour the mixture over the set biscuit base and bake in the oven at 160C for 45 minutes to an hour, or until there is a slight wobble. Cover it with foil or turn the heat down if the top begins to crack or goes too brown
- Turn the oven off and leave to cool inside before refrigerating over night
- Whilst the cheesecake is refrigerating, boil the sugar and water in a saucepan until it begins to simmer (5-10mins)
- Add the cranberries and remove from the heat, leave the cranberries in the sugar syrup to soak over night
- Drain the cranberries from the sugar syrup, leave to drain for about 20mins to remove all excess liquid
- Spread cranberries on a baking tray and cover in caster sugar, giving the tray a little shake to cover all the cranberries in sugar.
- To make the ganache, heat the cream in a saucepan on medium heat until it begins to scald (tiny bubbles appear around the edge) then remove from the heat and pour over the white chocolate in a bowl.
- Allow the hot cream to melt the chocolate and then stir until you have a smooth mixture.
- Pour the ganache over the top of the cheesecake and arrange the cranberries on top.
