Dark Chocolate Cheesecake with Cinder Toffee Dust

After very little deliberation it has been rather easy to come to the conclusion that cheesecake is my favourite type of dessert. It is so dense and smooth, and as Gregg Wallace of Masterchef fame will tell you, there is nothing better than a nice, moist, “buttery biscuit base”. My original plan for this recipe was to incorporate in some way the chocolate bar Crunchie, but I thought that method wouldn’t work all that well and it might end up a little more expensive than hoped. So instead we went out and bought some cinder toffee, which you can get from most supermarkets or health-food shops. We would have made it instead, but didn’t have enough time. For those of you with enough time here is a good cinder toffee recipe.

This was the first time I had ever made a cheesecake that didn’t include some sort of fruit. Indeed, even Nigella, whom this recipe is adapted from, says that for cheesecake purists the idea of a chocolate cheesecake might be a little weird. Yet it was absolutely wonderful and, I think you’ll agree, rather beautiful. In my opinion the inclusion of the cinder toffee, which was not in the original recipe, gives the dessert a very subtle sweetness. This is important because the original recipe, as you will see, has very little sugar. By the way, if you don’t fancy this recipe, although I’m not sure why you wouldn’t, you should check out the other cheesecake on my blog which is equally toothsome.

Dark Chocolate Cheesecake with Cinder Toffee Dust

Serves 10

Ingredients:

• 190g digestive biscuits

• 75g butter

• 300g cream cheese

• 90g caster sugar

• 2 medium eggs

• 2 medium egg yolks

• 105ml sour cream

• half – 1 teaspoon lime juice (to taste)

• 100g dark chocolate, melted

• 80g powdered cinder toffee, plus extra for decoration

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C and boil some water. Line a 20cm springform tin with greaseproof paper and wrap its outer edges tightly in foil. Melt the butter in a thick based pan, crush biscuits and mix with melted butter. Press the mixture into the tin. Add a layer of powdered cinder toffee, leave an inch between the edge of the tin and the toffee.

2. Beat the cream cheese in a fairly large bowl, then mix in the sugar thoroughly. Beat in the egg yolks one by one, followed by the sour cream and lime juice. Melt the chocolate in a bowl suspended over simmering water.

3. Gently fold the chocolate into the cream cheese mixture. Don’t mix too thoroughly; you want a marbled effect, not a uniform one.

4. Pour the mixture on top of the “buttery biscuit base” and place in a deep oven dish. Pour the boiling water into the oven dish until it comes roughly 3cm up the tin. Cook for an hour.

5. Remove cheesecake when wobbly and set. Leave to cool and then cover the top in a layer of powdered cinder toffee. Remove from the tin at room temperature.

Cost: The entire dessert will cost no more than £3.80 to make, which makes each slice 38p. This is a pretty good price considering cheesecakes in supermarkets cost roughly the same but are smaller, far less tasty and a lot worse for you. This dessert is really worth it, and I really hope you try it!