Lemon and Raspberry Cheesecake
Serves: 6 to 8
Ingredients
Coulis
340g frozen raspberries, defrosted
2 tsp lemon juice
40g icing sugar
Base
150g digestive biscuits
30g flaked almonds, lightly toasted
75g unsalted butter, melted
Filling
300g full-fat cream cheese
100g caster sugar
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
142ml carton double cream
142ml carton soured cream
5 sheets leaf gelatine, softened in a bowl of cold water
2 large egg white
Method
- First make the coulis. Purée the raspberries, lemon juice and sugar in a food processor then press through a fine sieve into a bowl. Taste and add more sugar if needed. Cover and chill until needed.
- Grease and line a 20cm-diameter, deep springform tin.
- To make the base, put the biscuits in a plastic bag and crush to crumbs with a rolling pin. Mix the crumbs and toasted almonds into the butter, then tip the mix into the prepared tin, press down to cover the base, then leave in the fridge to firm.
- Make the filling: beat together the cream cheese, sugar and lemon zest. Heat the lemon juice gently in a pan and remove from the heat. Squeeze out the softened gelatine leaves, add to the lemon juice and stir until dissolved. Leave to cool.
- Mix together the double and soured creams, stirring until smooth.
- Beat the cooled lemon juice and gelatine into the cream cheese mixture, then add the mixed creams. Mix well. Whisk the egg whites until they hold stiff peaks. Fold a spoonful into the cheese mixture to loosen it, then fold in the rest.
- Take 50ml of the raspberry coulis and lightly fold into the filling mixture, a little at a time, marbling it through the mix. Pour into the tin and swirl a little more as you spread it over the base - it's best to do most of the marbling in the tin rather than the bowl. Smooth the top as best you can without undoing all the marbling, then drizzle a little more of the coulis on top. Chill for 2 hours to set.
- Remove from the tin and serve with the remaining coulis in a jug.
Variation
If you don't want to use gelatine, turn this into a layered dessert. Leave out the gelatine, adding the lemon juice, unwarmed, directly to the cream cheese mixture. Then arrange the biscuit mix, the creamy filling and the coulis in layers in glass dishes.