I made this cake recently, for a friend’s birthday, and it was a bit hit. We managed to make it stretch to feed 20 people, but we could easily have devoured it between 10 of us. I found the recipe in a Norwegian magazine last year, and have been dying to make it since I saw its photo. It takes a while to make, because of the long baking time it requires, and because it needs to cool down completely before the glazing is added. But it is definitely worth the wait.
Serves 10 to 12
300g biscuits (I used gluten free bourbon biscuits)
70g butter
800g cream cheese
200g sugar
6 eggs
500g dark chocolate
150ml double cream
100g white chocolate (I used Green & Black's)
1 tablespoon butter
chocolate buttons for decoration
Crush the biscuits in a food processor, melt 70g butter and add this to the biscuits. Press the biscuit mixture into a 20cm cake ring, and place it in the freezer for 15 minutes.
In the meantime, mix sugar and cheese until you have a smooth mixture. Whisk in the eggs, but don’t whisk to heavily at this point.
Break up the dark chocolate and melt it slowly with 100ml cream in a thick-bottomed saucepan. When it is fully melted, add it to the cream cheese mixture. Mix well until it is smooth and even, and pour it onto the base which you have retrieved from the freezer.
Bake the cake in the oven on 130oC for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 120oC for 30 minutes, and then finally bake it on 100oC for 90 minutes. Turn the oven off and open the door. Leave the cake to cool in the oven until it is at room temperature.
Break the white chocolate and melt it slowly with 50ml cream and a tablespoon of butter in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Stir until it is even and smooth. Pour it over the cheesecake, and leave the cake somewhere cool for a couple of hours.
Remove the cake ring, and decorate with chocolate buttons.
Hmmm, I need a cake to feed around 12 people at the weekend, and this looks tempting! Just to be sure, were you using single or double cream? (I assume double...)
ReplyDeleteAlso, do you have any advice on which brand of white chocolate? I've had really bad experiences of buying white chocolate that won't melt at all, and just turns into nasty, grainy mess when heated.
LizW/venta - LJ won't verify my credentials, apparently :(
Hi Liz,
ReplyDeleteThis cake went down a treat, I would recommend it, even though it takes a while to make.
I used Green&Black's white chocolate here, but have also used Lindt in the past, and that worked too. Be careful to melt the chocolate slowly, so that you can rescue it before it becomes too runny. White chocolate is ridiculously difficult to work with, because of the low cocoa content. You could potentially skip that bit, as the cake tastes just as nice without it, but it does look good with it.
Sorry for not making clear what sort of cream I used, it was double cream, have added that to the recipe now.
Thank you very much! Just trying to work out how to squeeze the baking time into tomorrow :)
ReplyDeleteLizW
venta recommended I visit, and wow, this looks lovely.
ReplyDeleteI'd not thought of using bourbons in a biscuit base - does the creamy middle not course problems crushing?
(I'd post as lnr.livejournal.com but sadly I cannot be verified either)
Hi, Thank you both for lovely comments.
ReplyDeleteThe bourbons worked quite well, but then the biscuits were gluten free, and they are quite dry, so that may be why it worked. I think you could use any sort of biscuits that you like, just adjust the amount of melted butter you use according to how dry or wet the mixture is after it's been crushed.