Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cheesecake

I have been meaning to make this cheesecake for months and months now, and these days I have been using any opportunity I can to use my new stand mixer.

The recipe is from Tartelettes blog and I thought it looked simply divine. The only amendement I made the original recipe is the crust. Tartelette uses an almond crust using pulverised whole almonds, but as my other half doesn't do nuts in cakes, I swapped the almonds for a traditional biscuit base.

The puree which flavours this cheesecake is made from frozen berries. The freezing and subsequent thawing releases the juice from the berry’s cells which have been ruptured in the freezing process. I used strawberries which I froze when they were in season.

This cheesecake takes a little forward preparation with having to use defrosted frozen strawberries to make the puree, but it is so worth it. The cake has a beautiful mousse-like quality which to me tasted like my favourite Strawberry Ice cream. Enjoy.


Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cheesecake
Strawberry puree:
280g frozen strawberries
3 tsp sugar
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Crust:
200g digestive biscuits
2 tbs caster sugar
75g butter, melted

Strawberry cheesecake:
450g cream cheese, room temp
220g sugar
3 large eggs, room temp
1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
300g sour cream, room temp
2/3 cup strawberry puree

Ganache topping:
110g chocolate (50-55% cacao mass is best), finely chopped
130ml cream
½ large egg (beat 1 egg, weigh it, and use half)

Prepare the strawberries:
Thaw strawberries and strain out the juice completely by squishing the berries through a fine sieve. Place juice in a small saucepan and, at a simmer, cook down to a third of original volume. (you should start with about 150ml, and end with 60ml) Add sugar to reduction and stir to dissolve. Mix juice and pulp together with lemon juice. Blend in food processor or with a stick blender.

Prepare the cheesecake:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Prepare a 24cm springform pan by lining the bottom and sides with baking paper and butter (cut a circle out for the bottom then use strips to line the sides)

Place the biscuits in a food processor and finely crush. Transfer the crushed biscuits into a bowl, add the sugar and melted butter and mix until well combined. Press the mixture into the base of the lined pan.

Beat cream cheese and sugar until very smooth (3 min) in a stand mixer at medium speed using the whisk attachment (it gives the cake a mousse quality). Add eggs, 1 at a time, scraping bowl and beating after each just until smooth. Add vanilla & salt and beat until incorporated. Beat in sour cream. Beat in strawberry puree. Wrap the pan with the crust in a double layer of aluminum foil. Pour batter into crust. Place in water bath (hot water) in a larger oven proof pan
bake 45-55 min.

5-10 min before cheesecake is done, make ganache topping:
Boil cream. Pour over chocolate and let sit a minute. Whisk gently until chocolate is melted and smooth. Gently whisk in egg. Spread over hot cheesecake (careful, and don’t pour it all in one place as cheesecake is fragile). Smooth out the top. Bake 5-10 more minutes until ganache is set along the sides. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack, with a large mixing bowl over the pan (to cool slowly). When it reaches room temp, refrigerate. Chill 8 hours before unmolding. To unmold, run a thin blade knife around the cake pan sides. Remove springform. Gently slide cake onto serving plate. Store covered in refrigerator.

To serve, run a knife under very hot water, dry it and then slice.