Chocolate cheesecake with orange and Disaronno
Recipe for a wonderfully creamy cheesecake with chocolate, orange and almond liqueur.
Servings 8 servings
Ingredients
Biscuit base
- 225 g digestive biscuits
- 125 g butter
- 80 g dark chocolate (70%), roughly chopped
- 70 g almonds
Chocolate cream cheese filling
- 250 g full-fat cream cheese – not light
- 300 ml whipping cream (38% fat)
- 150 g milk chocolate
- 50 g dark chocolate, 70%
- 100 g icing sugar
- 1 orange, finely grated zest and the juice – about 50 ml orange juice
- 50 ml Disaronno
- 3 1/2 leaves gelatine
You will also need
- Cake ring or springform tin, about 18-20 cm
- Acetate cake collar
- Chocolate shavings
- Chocolate balls – these are from Special Moments
- Edible gold flakes
Instructions
Biscuit base
- Toast the almonds in a dry frying pan until they smell fragrant, then leave them to cool.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan.
- Blitz the biscuits to fine crumbs and add the almonds. Blitz again until the almonds are roughly chopped – not too large and not too small.
- Stir the biscuit and nut mixture into the butter, then stir in the chocolate until it melts and you have an even mixture.
- Line the base of a springform tin with baking parchment, then fit an acetate cake collar around the inside of the ring. If using a cake ring, place it on a chopping board with a sheet of baking parchment underneath and line the inside of the ring with acetate.
- Tip the biscuit mixture in and press it out firmly so the whole base is covered and the mixture is well compacted – that way the base won't crumble when you slice the cake.
- Chill in the fridge and let it rest while you make the cream cheese filling.
Chocolate cream cheese filling
- Soak the gelatine leaves in a large bowl of cold water for about 15 minutes.
- Melt the chocolate in the microwave or over a bain-marie and let it cool slightly – but not so much that it starts to set.
- Whip the cream to soft peaks.
- Stir the cream cheese together with the melted chocolate, orange zest, icing sugar and Disaronno. Stir until the mixture is completely smooth and free of lumps.
- Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, taking care not to knock the air out of it.
- Warm the orange juice in a small saucepan – without letting it boil. Turn off the heat and stir in the soaked, squeezed-out gelatine leaves, one at a time.
- Fold a couple of large spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture into the warm orange and gelatine, and stir until it is free of lumps and has cooled slightly.
- Fold the cooled orange and gelatine mixture into the cream cheese mixture and stir gently until smooth.
- Pour the filling over the biscuit base – spread it out with a spoon if needed – and tap the tin gently on the worktop to knock out any air bubbles.
- Return the cake to the fridge and leave it to set for at least 3 hours – or preferably overnight.
- Before serving, decorate the cake with chocolate shavings, chocolate balls and gold flakes.