Catherine Fulvio's Baked Irish Coffee Cheese Cake with Cherry Sauce.
Ingredients
Makes: 1 x 23cm
For the base
- 300g digestive biscuits
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- 150g butter, melted
For the filling
- 300g soft cream cheese
- 100g crème fraiche
- 50g soft dark brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3 tbsp espresso coffee
- 3 tbsp Irish whiskey
For the cherry sauce
- 1 tbsp arrowroot
- 4 tbsp water
- 350g jar pitted morello cherries (retaining juice too)
- 3 tsp caster sugar
- 2 star anise
To finish
- 150g cherries with stems attached, to decorate
- Small sprigs of lemon balm or mint, to decorate
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170°C/fan 150°C/gas 3. To prepare the tin, generously brush a 26cm loose base tart tin with melted butter.
- To make the base, place the biscuits in a food processor and crush until fine crumbs form.
- Transfer the biscuit crumbs to a bowl, add the ginger then pour over the melted butter and mix thoroughly until the crumbs are completely coated.
- Tip them into the prepared tin and press firmly down into the base and up the sides. Set in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- To make the filling, mix the cream cheese, crème fraiche, dark brown sugar, eggs, es-presso coffee and whiskey together in a large jug.
- Pour the mixture into the biscuit base and smooth evenly. Place in the oven to bake for about 30 to 35 minutes or until just set.
- Carefully remove from the oven and cool completely before removing from the tin.
- For the cherry sauce, drain the cherries (reserving the juice) and mix the arrowroot and the water together in a small bowl.
- Add the reserved juice, sugar, arrowroot mix and star anise in a saucepan over medium heat for 5 minutes or until the mixture boils and thickens. Stir in the cherries and set aside to cool slightly. Remove the star anise before serving.
- To decorate, arrange the cherries with stems attached as well as some sprigs of lemon balm or mint in a quarter moon shape on the one side and serve with the cherry sauce.
