Base
200g ground almonds or hazelnuts
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
70g butter, melted
6 medjool dates, stones removed (or 10 normal baking dates softened in hot water for a few minutes)
Filling
400g full fat cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup caster sugar
3 free range eggs
1&1/2 teaspoons vanilla essence or extract
220g good quality dark chocolate (60%+ cocoa is best)
250g full fat sour cream
3/4 cup black cherry jam or conserve (you can also use raspberry, plum or boysenberry if you prefer).
Toppings
Fresh cherries, raspberries, strawberries. Morello cherries from a jar work well too (as in the pic)
white chocolate shaved with a veggie peeler
jam (as used in main recipe) – about 2 tablespoons
Oven at 160 C/320 F (not fan bake). Grease and line the base and sides of a 20cm springform cake tin with baking paper.
- In a food processor, blitz all the base ingredients until well combined. The mixture should be a crumbly consistency and hold together well when pinched. If you don’t have a food processor, you can mash the dates with boiling water until they are very soft and then mix all ingredients together in a large bowl until well combined.
- Tip base mixture into cake tin and press down firmly and evenly with the back of a large wet spoon, ensuring it is neat and flat.
- In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer on low speed, to beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
- Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in a glass bowl over a pot of just simmering water. Stir in the sour cream, mixing gently until smooth.
- Add chocolate mixture to cream cheese mixture and beat (on low speed) until well combined.
- Melt jam in a small saucepan on low heat for 1-2 minutes or in the microwave very briefly.
- Spoon half of the cheesecake filling into the cake tin, and drizzle over half to three quarters of the jam.
- Pour over remaining cheesecake filling, and drizzle over remaining jam. Bake for 1 hour until cheesecake is just set but still has a slight wobble in the middle.
- Remove cheesecake from oven and leave to cool to room temperature before transferring to the fridge for a few hours, or overnight, to set.
When ready to serve, melt cherry jam in a small pot or microwave. Garnish cheesecake with fresh cherries, strawberries, raspberries and white chocolate shavings and drizzle over the jam. Serve with whipped cream.
