Tallulah’s Kitchen… Chocolate and Lime Cheesecake
Hello my fellow foodies and welcome to May’s edition of The Listing. This month I would like to share with you a little creation of mine which came into being after thinking about those chocolate and lime sweets, which I must confess, I spent a large amount of my pocket money on in my youth! I have endeavoured to bring the flavours to a more mature palate – I hope you enjoy it.
Chocolate and lime cheesecake
250g dark chocolate digestive biscuits
80g Butter
2 tbsp cocoa powder
420g cream cheese
250g Mascarpone cheese
200g castor sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
3 eggs from happy free running chickens
Finely grated zest of two limes
150ml lime juice
Let’s begin by preparing the tin. We will be baking the cheesecake in a 20cms round, loose bottomed tin which will be sat in a roasting tin containing water, so first we must make sure to prevent water leaking in and spoiling the cheesecake. I find a tightly wrapped, double layer of foil wrapped around the outside of the tin does the job. Then grease well the inside of the cake tin and we are good to begin cooking.
While the butter is melting in a saucepan, pop the digestive biscuits in a bag and “bash“ to fine sand texture, then stir in the cocoa powder and finally mix in the melted butter. Pour this into the bottom of the 20cms tin and press down to an even layer. Pop this into the fridge to harden up for half an hour or so.
Pop on the oven to heat up to 150°C. Now in a large bowl or your mixer, beat together the cream cheese, mascarpone, sugar, cornflour, zest, eggs and juice. When everything is combined, pour over the biscuit base and smooth to a level finish.
Place into the roasting tin and place both into the oven, carefully pour freshly boiled water from the kettle 3 to 4 cms deep into the roasting tin. Now cook for approximately one hour but check on it regularly. You are aiming for the cheesecake to be set but with just the smallest hint of a wobble in its centre. Carefully remove from the oven, peel off the foil but leave in the loose bottomed tin, before leaving to cool completely. Once cool, place into a fridge and leave to chill, preferably overnight.
All that remains to do is to decorate to your own personal choice and enjoy. As you may see in the photo I chose a goodly dollop of whipped cream and slice of fresh lime. In the past I have added chocolate to the cream and grated lime zest over the top. You could experiment with home made chocolate shapes, or drizzle melted chocolate over the top too, the choice, as always dear reader, is all yours.
