Baked banoffee cheesecake
Use the ripest bananas you can find to give this dessert a really full, sweet banana flavour.
1 Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4. Grease a 20.5cm round springform tin and line the base with
These flavours are a match made in heaven
SERVES 8 PREP 25min, plus cooling and (overnight) chilling COOK 1hr 5min
FOR THE BASE
• 100g butter, melted, plus extra to grease
• 200g digestive biscuits, finely crushed FOR THE FILLING
• 2 small, very ripe bananas, about 150g peeled weight
• 500g full-fat cream cheese
• 200g caster sugar
• 11/2tbsp plain flour
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 2 medium eggs, separated TO DECORATE
• 3tbsp caramel sauce
• 25g plain or dark chocolate, shaved into flakes with a vegetable peeler
baking parchment. Mix together the butter and crushed biscuits, then press into the base of the tin. Bake for 15min, then take out of oven and set aside. Turn oven down to 170°C (150°C fan) mark 3.
2 To make the filling, whizz the bananas in a food processor until smooth. Add the cream cheese, sugar, flour, vanilla and egg yolks to the processor and whizz again until smooth. Tip mixture into a large bowl. In a separate clean bowl, whisk egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Carefully fold egg whites into the banana mixture using a large metal spoon.
3 Pour mixture into the tin and shake gently to level. Bake for 50min or until the cheesecake is lightly golden – the filling will be wobbly, but firms up on chilling. Working quickly, remove cheesecake from the oven and run a small knife around the side of the
cheesecake to release it (this should help to minimise cracking). Leave to cool for 30min (don’t worry if a few cracks start to appear; these will be covered with the topping) and chill for a minimum of 2hr, or overnight.
4 Take cheesecake out of tin, peel off baking parchment and transfer to a serving plate. Allow to come up to room temperature (about 1hr). In a small bowl, whisk the caramel briefly to loosen it, then drizzle it over the top of the cheesecake. Scatter over the chocolate flakes and serve in slices.
TO FREEZE Prepare cheesecake to the end of step 3. Wrap cooled cheesecake (still in its tin) well with clingfilm and freeze for up to a month. To serve, allow to defrost completely in fridge, then unwrap and complete recipe.