Food A tasty festive showstopper
How can it possibly be only a couple of weeks until Christmas? This year the festive season has snuck up while I wasn’t paying attention – thank goodness for this column providing a little focus.
Today’s recipe is a show-stopping dessert that would be perfect for a festive Christmas table – rich (although not as rich as you might think), with dark chocolate, soft blackberries, a cocoa-spiked cream topping, fresh fruit, and a drizzle of chocolate sauce.
It can be prepared up to a day ahead (apart from the cream topping, which is fine made a few hours in advance) then whipped out at the last minute.
Christmas chocolate berry cherry cheesecake
Serves: 8-10 Preparation: 30 minutes Cooking: 55-60 minutes
❚ 200g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
❚ 250g Chocolate Thins biscuits
❚ 1⁄3 cup desiccated coconut
❚ 80g melted butter
❚ 625g cream cheese, at room temperature
❚ 250g sour cream
❚ 1 cup caster sugar
❚ 1⁄3 cup brown sugar
❚ 2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
❚ 3 eggs
❚ 2 egg yolks
❚ 600g tinned blackberries, drained
Topping:
❚ 1 1⁄4 cups cream
❚ 50g dark chocolate, chopped
1⁄ 12cup cup sour icing cream sugar
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❚ 1 tablespoon cocoa
❚ 1 1⁄2 cups fresh blackberries
❚ 1 1⁄2 cups cherries
Line the base and sides of a 23cm removable-base tin with baking paper.
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (don’t let the base of the bowl touch the water), or in 30-second bursts at 70 per cent power in a microwave, stirring in between. Whisk until smooth.
Whizz the biscuits, coconut and melted butter together in a food processor until it has the texture of damp sand, then pour it into the prepared tin. Squash the crumb mixture into the base of the tin using the bottom of a glass to compact the base.
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius and pop the base in the fridge while you make the filling.
Wipe out the food processor and put in the cream cheese (chopped into big chunks), sour cream, caster sugar, brown sugar, cocoa, eggs and yolks and whizz until smooth. With the motor running add the chocolate in a couple of lots until well incorporated. Pour the filling into the chilled base. Drop the blackberries fairly evenly across the surface.
Cook for 55 minutes or until the cheesecake is set, but with just a little bit of wobble still in the middle. Turn the oven off and open the oven door just a little, then allow the cheesecake to cool in the oven to avoid surface cracking. Once cold, refrigerate until half an hour before serving.
For the chocolate sauce, heat 1⁄4 cup of cream in bursts in the microwave until just simmering. Drop in the chocolate and leave to sit for one minute then whisk until smooth. Set aside.
For the cream topping, whip 1 cup of cream to soft peaks. Add the sour cream, icing sugar and cocoa, and whip until well combined. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour before smoothing over the cheesecake. Top with berries and cherries, and drizzle with chocolate sauce to serve.