Orange cheesecake with vanilla and Bastogne biscuits
Recipe for cheesecake with orange, vanilla and cinnamon.
Servings 8 servings
Ingredients
Biscuit base
- 220 g Bastogne biscuits Belgian cinnamon-spiced caramelised biscuits – Lotus Biscoff or other speculoos biscuits work too
- 60 g hazelnuts or almonds (optional)
- 100 g butter
Cream cheese filling
- 200 g full-fat cream cheese
- 150 g Greek yogurt (10% fat) - or crème fraîche (18% fat)
- 250 ml whipping cream (38% fat)
- 100 g icing sugar
- 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out
- 150 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 1/2 orange, finely grated zest of
- 5 1/2 leaves gelatine
Decoration
- Crushed Bastogne biscuits
- Chocolate pearls - these are from Special Moments
- Edible gold dust
- Dried orange flowers (optional)
You will also need
- Cake ring or springform tin, approx. 18-20 cm
- Acetate cake collar
Instructions
Biscuit base
- Melt the butter in a saucepan.
- Blitz the Bastogne biscuits and the hazelnuts or almonds to fine crumbs, and mix thoroughly with the melted butter.
- Line the base of a springform tin with baking parchment, then fit an acetate cake collar around the inside of the ring. If you are using a cake ring, stand it on a chopping board with a sheet of baking parchment underneath, and line the inside of the ring with the acetate collar.
- Tip the biscuit mixture into the tin and press it down firmly so the whole base is covered. Place in the fridge and leave it to rest.*You can press it down with a spoon or the base of a glass.
Cream cheese filling - Orange cheesecake
- Soak the gelatine leaves in a large bowl of cold water for approx. 15 minutes.
- Whip the cream to soft peaks, – take care not to over-whip it.
- In another bowl, stir the cream cheese and Greek yogurt together until smooth and free of lumps, then stir in the orange juice.
- Add the icing sugar, ideally through a sieve so there are no lumps, – and stir well until the filling is completely smooth.Keep back 1 tablespoon of the icing sugar and rub the vanilla seeds into it. This separates the seeds so they are distributed more evenly, - then stir them into the filling.
- Melt the soaked gelatine in a small saucepan over the lowest possible heat, – it only takes a few seconds, so keep an eye on it. Don't squeeze the gelatine too dry before melting, – the little water that clings to it makes the melting easier to control. Otherwise add 1 tbsp water if needed.Take the pan off the heat as soon as the gelatine has melted.
- Stir a couple of large spoonfuls of the cheese filling into the pan with the melted gelatine, and stir until it is smooth and the mixture has cooled. Test with your little finger whether it is cool enough to fold into the filling; if not, add another spoonful.*Cooling the gelatine this way ensures it doesn't form lumps when it is folded into the rest of the filling.
- Fold the gelatine mixture into the filling and stir well.
- Then fold the whipped cream into the filling in a couple of additions, - do it gently so you keep as much air in the filling as possible.
- Pour the filling over the biscuit base, and spread it with a spoon if needed. Tap the tin gently on the worktop to knock out any air bubbles and fill the tin evenly.
- Return the cake to the fridge and leave it to set for at least 3 hours, – or preferably overnight.
Orange cheesecake with vanilla and Bastogne base
- Release the cake from the cake ring and acetate collar, - do it carefully so the edges stay neat.
- Just before serving, top the cake with crushed Bastogne biscuits, chocolate pearls, dried orange flowers and/or edible gold dust.