Blood Orange and Chocolate Cheesecake

What is life if not to test new puddings on one's friends?   Reader, they ate all of it...

This is a smooth cheesecake, very quick to make and containing no raw eggs.   In fact, it is the absolute antithesis of those solid, stiff, complicated cheesecakes that were the signature pudding of the 1970s!   I adore the combination of orange and dark chocolate, and had a few blood oranges knocking around in a bowl (as you do).   Of course you can make this with ordinary oranges, but the blood oranges just give a better colour.    I have given a quantity of juice, not number of oranges, for this reason.   It works well with gluten free digestive biscuits.

Blood Orange and Dark Chocolate Cheesecake

Blood Orange and Chocolate Cheesecake

8oz/225g digestive biscuits, crushed to crumbs

5oz/125g dark chocolate

1oz/25g butter

8oz/225g cream cheese or soft cheese

8oz/225g Mascarpone cheese

3oz/75g caster sugar

2 sheets gelatine softened in water plus 2 sheets for the topping

12floz/340ml blood orange juice (about 4 or 5) and zest of 1 orange

1 tsp orange essence (not vital)

10floz/280ml double cream

6oz/150g dark chocolate, melted 

½ oz/10g butter

1 tbsp golden syrup

Line a 9” spring clip tin with parchment.   Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl, add the biscuit crumbs, mix well and spread them over the base of the tin.  Chill in the fridge until set. 

In a Magimix, beat together the cream cheese, orange zest, essence, Mascarpone and sugar.   Warm 2 tbsp of orange juice and add the softened gelatine, stirring until the gelatine has disappeared.   Add this, and the cream, to the mixture.  Beat until the cream thickens up.  Scoop this mixture into the tin and level it up (important!).   Allow to chill for at least half an hour.  Now take the remaining sheets of gelatine and soften them in water.   Warm the remaining juice and sieve it into a bowl before melting the gelatine into it.  Wait until the gelatine has started to set again (as otherwise it will find how un-level the cheesecake is and pour off the sides!), then pour it over the cheesecake.

Chill for a couple of hours until set.   

Melt together the chocolate, butter and golden syrup, beating gently until it is shiny, then allow it to cool a little and thicken.  You could either pour this all over the jelly top, or into large stripes.   Serve the cheesecake slightly warm (ie, not straight from the fridge) with the remainder of the chocolate, warmed up.