Dark Chocolate Cheesecake with Wine Macerated Strawberries is really as good as it sounds and looks, and tastes even better. The cheesecake is a chocolate lovers delight – deep, dark, rich, sensuous, indulgent, sinful. With so many superlatives, I might well throw another in. It’s dead S I M P L E too! Make it ASAP and you’ll know just what I mean.It’s a recipe I’ve minimally adapted from Ruchira @ Cookaroo. She’s quite the best ‘chef’ I know. Her recipes are always quick, simple and foolproof. I’ve made this Dark Chocolate Cheesecake before and it was SO GOOD that I couldn’t wait to make it again.The recipe now lives in my head. I go about tweaking it here and there depending on what I have on hand. It’s a keeper! Minimal fuss, maximum taste! I throw it together in my Thermomix and it takes under 20 minutes to come together. I used digestive biscuits the last time. Didn’t have digestives on hand this time, so I threw in Hobnobs instead. Just as good! I do a lot of chocolate desserts, simple ones mostly. Simple recipes like these leave you a lot of time to think about what more you can do. I could have just gone naked {ahem} with the cheesecake, but a luscious rich chocolate ganache takes this beautiful Dark Chocolate Cheesecake to a delicious new level. How could I skip it. The cake was for a birthday, so now something had to be celebratory, I mean a little more celebratory. Also, so much time on hand makes me fidgety. I just have to do something more!
I thought maybe salter butter caramel and had visions of gooey goodness dripping off the edges. Yet when I opened the fridge, I saw a box of juicy fresh strawberries and I knew I had to have them on some way. Maybe do strawberries in balsamic vinegar? No, no, strawberries in red wine screamed the bottle of Shiraz at me.You might remember these Lamb Chops with Red Wine I made recently, best I’ve ever made. Rosemary, garlic, and a limited edition Shiraz came together ever so beautifully to create this dish with so much character and loads of depth. There was some wine left over, so red wine macerated strawberries it was going to be.Anything on my kitchen counter becomes an ingredient in my recipes. Loads of fresh oranges and star anise sitting pretty on the counter could only mean one thing. They would help flavour my macerated strawberries. In went the zest of an orange and a few star anise. They created delightful undertones as you can well imagine.The result was a flavoursome, beautifully coloured red wine topping which tastes as good as it looks. Here you go, the recipe is a must try. For me, it’s the only chocolate cheesecake recipe I’ll ever need! Thank you Ruchira ♥!
Dark Chocolate Cheesecake Red wine macerated strawberries
Dark, divine, sinful, creamy, chocolaty and above all, as simple as can be, this Dark Chocolate
Cheesecake will leave you wanting for more. Recipe minimally adapted from Ruchira @
thegreatcookaroo.com. You won’t need another recipe ever! Can be made 2-3 days ahead of time.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 1 hourhour
Total Time 13 hourshours10 minutesminutes
Servings 8people
Ingredients
Biscuit base
150gHobnobs or digestive biscuits
30gcocoa powder
20gorganic jaggery granules
50gbutter
Dark Chocolate Filling
200gdark couverture chocolate melted
300gcream cheese
200mlsingle cream
30gcup cocoa
3eggs
1tsppure vanilla extract
90gorganic jaggery granules
Ganache
100g52% couverture
100mlsingle cream
Red wine macerated strawberries
250gstrawberrieschopped
50-75gbrown sugar
2-3star anise
zest of one orange
100mlred wine
40mlorange juice
Instructions
Biscuit base
Whiz the biscuits, brown sugar and cocoa in food processor until you get a fine meal. Add butter, whiz again to mix. Press into 8″ loose bottom tin. Chill in the freezer while you get the filling ready, and the oven preheats.
Dark Chocolate Filling
Preheat oven to 160C.
Place all ingredients of the filling in bowl of food processor, and blend well to mix, 1-2 minutes on medium speed.
Pour into crust, and bake for an hour. Leave to cool in the oven, then cover and chill for 4-6 hours, better overnight.
Red Wine Macerated Strawberries
in a non reactive bowl, put in the strawberries, star anise, orange zest and brown sugar. Stir to mix, then pour in the wine. Stand covered in the fridge overnight.
Discard the star anise, and strain the strawberries. Reserve in a bowl. Place wine in a small saucepan with a quarter cup orange juice, and simmer until thick and syrupy. taste and adjust sweetness if required. Cool slightly, then pour over the strawberries.
Ladle the strawberries over the ganache. If the syrup is thin, reduce it further until nice and thick. Cool and pour over strawberries.
Ganache
Place chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl. Heat in microwave for 1 minute. Whisk with a balloon whisk until smooth. Cool about 30 minutes, then whisk again. Chill until a little firm. Whisk once again till glossy and smooth, and holds peaks. Spread over chilled cheesecake.
Red Wine Strawberry Jelly with orange whipped cream
Light, fun, easy to make, and a visual delight, the Red Wine Strawberry Jelly with orange whipped cream is a great make ahead dessert. Visually exciting and flavours that pop, berries work really well in this recipe!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 5 minutesminutes
Cook Time 10 minutesminutes
Total Time 4 hourshours15 minutesminutes
Servings 6people
Ingredients
Jelly
650mlcranberry juice {550ml+100ml}
100mlred wine
50gbrown sugar
3-4star anise
2tspgelatin
250gstrawberrieschopped
Cream topping
200mlwhipping creamchilled
2-3tbspboora/powdered sugar
Zest of 1 orange/keenu
1/2tspstrawberry essence
Instructions
Jelly
Warm 100ml juice and pour over the gelatin in a small bowl. Stand for 5 minutes for gelatin to soften.
Put the remaining juice and star anise in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Take off heat, and stir in the wine, followed by the softened gelatin.
Divide the strawberries between the serving glasses/bowls. Strain the jelly mixture and pour into the glasses over the strawberries. Refrigerate for 4-5 hours until set and chilled.
Cream topping
Whip the cream, sugar and orange zest at high speed {with sugar if desired} until medium peaks form.
Top the set jelly with piped whipped cream.
Garnish with sliced strawberries and chill until ready to serve.
“While there is tea, there is hope.”
Arthur Wing Pinero
Tea Rose Chocolate Truffles, simple chocolate goodness with a few of my favourite things. Chocolate, single cream and Mountain Rose Tea from Teabox. The tea is a fragrant blend of jasmine-infused winter flush black tea with rose and cardamom, and you can well imagine the lilting flavours it added to the truffles. Just right for the festive season. It’s also an extremely pretty tea. Take a look!Teabox is a brand I greatly admire, a brand I have been associated it since it was rebranded by Pentagram in 2015. Teabox, Kaushal Dugar’s brainchild for online tea retailing, aims to revolutionise the tea industry by selling products directly, days after it has been picked. It’s a model that works and works well, growing from strength to strength!Teabox is an experience, a tea experience which is crisp, simple, neat, offers great quality and above all, warmth. I’ve been styling the tea shoots for Teabox the past few years, and loved the very first lot I styled. In particular this banner below shot by the very talented photographer Mallikarjun Katakolin Bangalore is one of my favourites, a reflection of all things I love. The last lot I styled was for the Diwali shoot, and those are now up on Teabox. Here’s a few of those…With so much tea styling of late, it was but natural I develop an affinity to these leaves the world loves so much, even though I’m a ‘coffee person‘. I might not sip a cup of hot tea everyday, yet I’m happy to dive into iced tea, and of course play with the leaves!!Also happy to do recipes using tea leaves/blends which is something I increasingly enjoy. You might remember a batch of Mountain Rose Tea Cookies {below} that I baked a short while ago. I had such fun doing these cookies and shooting the images, the latter which is now quite addictive, that there’s been no looking back. From tea leaves are boring, to tea leaves are so happening, my world has come a long way. Teabox is leading in many ways, the latest it’s innovative concept called Teapac.TeaPacs are the first individually packaged tea bags sealed at the source using a natural Nitrogen flush that keeps the tea as fresh as the day it was picked. With them doing all the hard work, it leaves me a lot of time to get creative.Making chocolate truffles is probably the easiest thing ever. No rocket science here. Needless to say, make sure you use the best quality ingredients. The flavours really shine through, teasing the palette gently, making these the most delectable little bites ever. It’s great to involve kids in making these. Then sit back and see them disappear!Just right for the festive season, Tea Rose Chocolate Truffles are as simple as can be. They are also one of the best and most loved gifts ever. Vegetarian, eggless, gluten free, healthy, make ahead too, and indulgent in a guilt free way, can things get better? You could make these vegan using almond milk or coconut cream/milk. Feel free to experiment.As usual, I had a great time styling and shooting these. Served two ways, with a cup of brewed hot tea after dinner, or chilled Mountain Rose Iced Tea, my way, these make for great eye candy. They’ll be a great addition to your festive platter.Else make a batch, buy some tea and gift them to make someone happy something to remember! My next batch of truffles is going to be using the Kashmiri Kahwa Chaifrom Teabox. A blend of smoked green tea, spices and saffron from the valley, that tea has me smitten! Tempted to join in?
Tea Rose Chocolate Truffles, simple chocolate goodness with a few of my favourite things. Chocolate, single cream and Mountain Rose Tea from Teabox, so you can well imagine the lilting flavours it added to the truffles. Just right for the festive season and the recipe as simple as can be. Vegetarian, eggless, glutenfree, healthy, make ahead too, get indulgent in a guilt free way! You can make these vegan using almond milk or coconut cream/milk. Feel free to experiment.
Course Dessert
Cuisine French
Prep Time 5 minutesminutes
Cook Time 10 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours15 minutesminutes
Servings 16truffles
Ingredients
Truffles
250g52% dark couverture chocolateroom temperature
100gsingle/low fat creamroom temperature
2tbspor 2 teabags Teabox Mountain Rose Tea
Topping
20ggood quality cocoa powder to toss the truffles in
Instructions
Place the cream and tea leaves or teabags in a heavy bottom saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes.
In the meantime, finely chop the chocolate, or run it in the processor until almost ground. {I ran it in the Thermomix for 20 seconds, Speed 10}
Place in a large bowl.
If using tea leaves, strain the simmering cream over the ground chocolate. If using teabags, gently squeeze the teabags, and dispose, then pour the hot cream over the chocolate.
Whisk with a spatula or balloon whisk continuously until the chocolate melts and is smooth.
Cover the bowl with cling-wrap, and chill for 2-3 hours or until firm to touch.
Using a cookie scoop or round measuring spoon, portion out approx 16 bits. With very clean hands, roll into balls, then toss in the cocoa powder. You could toss a few in tea leaves as well, pressing gently to fix for a je ne sais quoi feel!
“When you select the right kind of chocolate it is like giving your insides a hug. Everyone needs a chocolate hug”
Jean Kelsey
Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart for times when you need a little more chocolate in your life. I know I just shared a chocolate cheesecake a few days ago, yet while doing that, I remembered this tart. How could I not have shared this too? So much chocolate, so little time!! This is a particular favourite since it has two things that I use most while baking. Yes indeed, oats and walnuts! Add to it brown sugar and ghee/clarified butter, and magic is guaranteed!It’s another simple fuss free recipe but delivers a sinful punch. I use a cookie dough for the biscuit base. Feel free to bake mini pies like those above, or cookies as below, with the dough instead if you like, maybe top them with a ganache. I really enjoyed making the Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart. I love that recipes are so easily interchangeable, such fun to play around with, It’s not a lot to do actually because the biscuit base/cookie dough is a two step procedure, basically from the jar of one food processor into the bowl of the stand mixer. I use the basic recipe quite often.
It works well each time. This Mascarpone Lime Curd Walnut Oat Tart is testimony. The same cookie dough biscuit base again, topped in a spoon licking good mascarpone & lime curd topping! Hopefully I’ve got you convinced to give the Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart a try. If not this one, then maybe do a variation on it!
Dark, divine, delicious is how this tart turned out to be topped with dark chocolate ganache! A healthy biscuit base makes the Dark Chocolate Walnut Oat Tart even better. You can make cookies with the same dough, as also use different fillings to top the tart.
Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 20 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours30 minutesminutes
Servings 2tarts {7" each}
Ingredients
Oat Walnut Cookie Base
100goats
85gwalnuts
85gbrown sugar
1/4tspbaking soda
40gclarified butter/ghee chilled
1small egg cold
1tspvanilla extract
Dark Chocolate Filling
300g70% dark couverture chocolate
175gsingle cream
30mlfull fat milk
Instructions
Oat Walnut Cookie Base
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Place oats, walnut halves, brown sugar and baking soda in jar of chopper. Blend in short bursts until you get a uniform brown sugar like consistency, just until it feels like moist breadcrumbs.
Don't overwork the blender or the walnuts will release oil.
Transfer to bowl of stand mixer, flat mixer attachment, add the clarified butter/ghee, egg and vanilla extract and mix at speed 4 until it comes together like cookie dough.
Line the base of the tart tins with parchment paper. Divide the cookie dough between the two. Work up t the edges, and then flatten the base.
Bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes, then cool completely on cookie rack.
Dark Chocolate Filling
Warm the chocolate with the cream in the microwave, agitate it with a balloon whisk, added a splash of milk, agitate it a bit more. {Agitate means to whisk briskly until smooth & glossy}
Once it chilled in the fridge for 30 minutes turned it into the baked shell, and let it set for about 2-3 hours.
Top with dark chocolate shavings and dust with cocoa before serving.
“Dreams are only dreams until you wake up and make them real.”
Ned Vizzini
Dark Chocolate Cheesecake … life’s guilty pleasures simply served up, or life’s simple pleasures maybe with a little guilt. Whichever way you choose to look at it, this recipe is a winner. The recipe isn’t mine. It’s a recipe created by the super talented Ruchira @ Cookaroo, on the go as she said. She did make everything sound so simple, so matter of fact, that of course I didn’t believe her!
That changed very soon. In fact as soon as I put in the cheesecake to bake, I realised that it was really very S I M P L E. Absolutely fuss free. I changed a few minor things. The base for one as hers has Oreos and I prefer Digestives. No big deal there. Both packaged cookies so no work at all. I threw in some cocoa to make mine a chocolate base. Barely any other change other than using brown sugar for white!
The other guilty indulgence I added was topping the chilled cheesecake with a dark chocolate ganache as we had folk over for dinner. I wanted it to look special. the ganache and the dusting of cocoa gave it the ‘bells & whistles‘, and some more yumminess of course.
The beautiful thing about the Dark Chocolate Cheesecake, other than the ease of putting it together of course, is that you can bake it a couple of days before you need to serve it. Keep it covered in the fridge in the tin for a day or two. Demold it the day you intend to serve it, top with ganache and you’re good to go. Do remember to thank the Cookaroo if you make this. I’ve thanked her, and so has a reader of my blog, Tania Fothergill, from Tasmania who I shared the recipe with over 3 weeks week ago. It was Tania’s birthday and she really wanted to bake it. Here’s what she said about the cake.
Dark, divine, sinful, creamy, chocolaty and above all, as simple as can be, this Dark Chocolate Cheesecake will leave you wanting for more. Recipe minimally adapted from Ruchira @ thegreatcookaroo.com. You won't need another recipe ever! Can be made 2-3 days ahead of time.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 15 minutesminutes
Cook Time 1 hourhour
Total Time 9 hourshours15 minutesminutes
Servings 8
Ingredients
Biscuit base
150gdigestives biscuits
30gcocoa powder
20gbrown sugar
50gbutter
Dark Chocolate Filling
200gdark couverture chocolatemelted
400gcream cheese
200mlsingle cream
1/3cupcocoa
3eggs
1tsppure vanilla extract
3/4cupbrown sugar
Ganache
100g52% couverture
100mlsingle cream
Instructions
Biscuit base
Whiz the biscuits, brown sugar and cocoa in food processor until you get a fine meal. Add butter, whiz again to mix.
Press into 7-8" loose bottom tin. Chill in the freezer while you get the filling ready, and the oven preheats.
Dark Chocolate Filling
Preheat oven to 160C.
Place all ingredients in bowl of food processor, and blend well to mix, 1-2 minutes on medium speed.
Pour into crust, and bake for an hour.
Cool completely in the oven, then chill covered in the fridge, preferably overnight.
Ganache
Place chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl. Heat in microwave for 1 minute. Whisk with a balloon whisk until smooth. Cool about 30 minutes, then whisk again. Chill until a little firm. Whisk once again till glossy and smooth, and holds peaks. Spread over chilled cheesecake. Dust with cocoa.
“Don’t sit at home and wait for mango tree to bring mangoes to you wherever you are. It won’t happen. If you are truly hungry for change, go out of your comfort zone and change the world.” Israelmore Ayivor
Mango Almond Roulade with almond whipped cream. Light. Fresh. Delicious. Part wholegrain. To make it even better, filled with fresh mangoes swathed in beautifully whipped almond cream. Some things are just better with mango!
So here’s another last minute mango based dessert to add to the last few mango desserts I shared, while we hang on to the end of the mango season. Just another clutch of days, maybe a week or so, and they’ll be gone.
However don’t panic if you can’t find some juicy mangoes. I’ve made this to great deliciousness with tinned peaches, fresh strawberries, a coffee whipped cream too {skip the almond maybe go with chopped walnuts}.
Mango Almond Roulade with almond whipped cream. Light. Fresh. Delicious. Part wholegrain. To make it even better, filled with fresh mangoes swathed in beautifully whipped almond cream. Some things are just better with mango!
Course Dessert
Cuisine French
Prep Time 15 minutesminutes
Cook Time 40 minutesminutes
Total Time 55 minutesminutes
Servings 6people
Ingredients
Almond Sponge
3eggs
1/2cup+ 1 tbsp almond meal
1/2cup+ 1 tbsp plain flour
1tspbaking powder
pinchsalt
1/2cupCastor sugar
2-3drops almond extract
1/2tsppure vanilla extract
Whipped Almond Cream
300mllow fat creamchilled
25mlclarified butter/ghee
4-5drops almond extract
50gicing sugar {adjust as per taste}
1large mangopeeled , diced
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C and line a Swiss roll tin with baking parchment.
Sift together the almond meal, plain flour, baking powder and salt 2-3 times. Reserve.
In a bowl of the stand mixer, whip the egg with sugar on high speed to stiff peaks.
Add the vanilla extract and almond extract and beat again.
Sift the flour over the beaten mixture and gently fold in.
Pour batter into prepared pan, level out.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes until light golden brown and firm to touch. {tent the top with aluminum foil if you think it’s getting too brown}
While this is baking, lay out a clean kitchen towel, bigger than the size of the tray, and sift sugar evenly over it.
Once the roll is baked, overturn immediately {very carefully} onto the sugar sifted towel, and gently peel parchment off. Trim the edges if required.
Place a parchment sheet on top, and roll with the towel lengthwise, and leave to cool completely. {The longer side will be the length of the roll}
Whipped Almond Cream
Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Whip with an electric hand blender on the highest speed until thick.
Assembling
Unroll the cooled cake, place on a sheet of parchment. Spread the almond cream filling over it with an offset spatula, leaving a little border right around to avoid the filling oozing out.
Sprinkle over with chopped mangoes.
Now with the help of the parchment paper, roll it right back into a roll, pulling the paper slightly to make a tight roll. Place seam down on cling wrap and chill for a couple of hours. Unwrap gently and lay seam side down on your serving platter.
Sift over with powdered sugar, scatter almond slivers over it.
