Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake (in a 20cm PushPan^®) from Karen @ www.citrusandcandy.com

Ingredients

• 150g plain chocolate biscuits (such as Arnotts Ripple)
• 50g unsalted butter, melted
• pinch of salt
• 170g dark chocolate, melted and cooled a little
• 500g cream cheese (room temperature)
• 100g sour cream (room temperature)
• 135g caster sugar
• 2 tsps cornflour or custard powder
• 3 eggs (room temperature)
• 2 egg yolks (room temperature)
• 3 Tbl cherry syrup* or cherry jam
• About 1 cup of cherries**

Cherry Compote

• ***200ml water (or juice from a jar of morello cherries)
• 1 Tbl fresh lemon juice
• 120g sugar
• 500g cherries, pitted (frozen, fresh or drained morello cherries)

Method

Preheat oven to 180C and lightly butter a 20cm PushPan^® In a food processor, blitz the biscuits, butter and salt until clumpy then press into the tin so that it’s level-ish and compact. Refrigerate until required then put a full kettle on boil.

Beat the cream cheese and sour cream in a food processor until smooth and free of lumps. Blitz in the sugar and cornflour then the eggs. Mix through the melted chocolate and cherry syrup and leave batter to rest for about 20-30 minutes to release any air bubbles.

With a thin offset spatula, gently run it around the cheesecake to loosen the sides from the PushPan^® (cheesecakes contracts as it cools so this will prevent it from splitting in the middle). Return the cheesecake to the oven with the door ajar to cool down completely then chill in the fridge overnight.

Cherry Compote

Combine water/cherry juice, lemon juice and sugar in a pot and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Cook for about 10-12 minutes or until it has reduced to a light syrup.

Lower the heat and add the cherries and cook until the fruit has just softened a little but not broken down). Cool the compote completely then store in a clean glass jar in the fridge. This makes just over 500ml of compote (you can use the leftover for other recipes or as a topping with yoghurt, ice cream or cake. The syrup itself is excellent for cocktails).

Notes

*From cherry compote recipe

**Feel free to use either fresh halved and pitted cherries, drained morello sour cherries (from the jar) or drained cherries from the cherry compote (recipe at the bottom)

***I made this using jarred morello cherries (replacing the water for the cherry juice from the jar) but you can use fresh or frozen sour cherries instead.

Ingredients

• 6 egg yolks
• 120ml water
• 180g caster sugar
• 180g dark chocolate (around 60% cocoa content), chopped
• 120g smooth peanut butter
• 360ml double cream or thickened cream

Vanilla Parfait

• 3 egg yolks
• 50ml water
• 75g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 150ml double cream or thickened cream
• Note – Because there’s no need to heat cream and therefore no opportunity to steep a vanilla bean, I chose to use extract and paste instead.

Method

Place water in a saucepan and pour the sugar in the middle of the water. Over low heat, stir until sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat and bring to a boil and cook for 7-10 minutes until slightly syrupy or 110C on a sugar thermometer.

Meanwhile, when the sugar and water has boiled, start whipping your egg yolks so it pales and thickens. As soon as the sugar syrup reaches the temperature, take it off the heat, and while continuously whisking, slowly trickle the hot syrup on the side of the bowl so that it runs down slowly into the egg yolks as it is whisking. Be careful not to let any sugar syrup hit the beaters/whisk as it’s whisking otherwise you’ll be hit by molten projectiles of sugar.

When you’ve finished pouring, continue whisking for at least 5 minutes until the bowl is no longer hot and the egg mix is thickened and aerated. Set aside.

In two separate heatproof bowls over pots of gently simmer watering, melt the chocolate and peanut butter separately until melted and smooth. Take off the bain marie and set aside to cool for 5 minutes.

Divide the mousse base between the melted peanut butter and chocolate. Fold each one until combined and place in the fridge to cool.

Whip up the double cream until soft peaks. Divide the cream amongst the two cooled mousse bases and fold until combined. Lightly grease a rectangular Loaf/Terrine PushPan^® with a little cooking oil and pour in the peanut butter parfait, level and freeze for at least a couple of hours. Place the chocolate parfait in the fridge in the meantime.

After it has mostly frozen, layer on the chocolate layer on top of the peanut butter, level and freeze again.

While the PB and chocolate parfaits are freezing, make the vanilla parfait in exactly the same method (adding the vanilla extract and paste to the egg yolks and whisking altogether before adding the sugar syrup, cooling and folding with whipped double cream).

Layer the vanilla on top of the chocolate, level and whack it back in the freezer again.

When ready, gently place the PushPan^® onto a can (I use a tin of Spam as it fits the rectangular shape). Then centralise until it’s steady on the can, push down and slowly release your creation on its metal base. Transfer onto a plate and place back in the freezer. When ready, slice with a hot knife to serve.