Gin and Tonic Cheesecake

Wow!  I just love Delicious Magazine's recipes... here's one - Gin and Tonic Cheesecake.   I made this for Stour Festival, and it was a real hit.    Top tip - if you don't have a deep enough tin, make the jelly layer separately in another tin the same size and wobble it onto the top later.  It works just as well (as I discovered).   There is no cream in this recipe, it is all cheese.  If I made it again, I might halve the amount of Mascarpone and use half a pint/227ml of double cream.   

You could make this with gluten free biscuits, but the Biscoff ones just give a lovely caramel edge to the pudding, and I think everybody knows what digestive biscuits taste like!  The photo below is terrible - it was taken in a rush before I had finished decorating, but you get the idea.

Gin and Tonic Cheesecake

Gin and Tonic Cheesecake

8.5oz/250g Lotus Biscoff caramelised biscuits, crushed to crumbs

3oz/80g butter

2 x 9oz/280g cream cheese or soft cheese (full fat)

17oz/500g Mascarpone cheese (or just more cream cheese)

3oz/80g icing sugar (the original had caster, but I prefer this)

Juice and grated zest of 1 lemon

Zest of 1 lime, juice of ½ lime

Zest ½ orange

6 sheets gelatine softened in water

2 strips pared zest and juice of 2 lemons

2 strips pared zest and juice 1 orange

Juice of 1 lime

4oz/100g caster sugar

6 juniper berries, bruised

4 tbsp gin

300ml tonic water

Lemon thyme to decorate(or ordinary thyme)

Line a deep 8 or 9” spring clip tin or a loose base cake tin with parchment (minimum height 3”/80mm).   Melt the 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, Mascarpone, icing sugar, cream and lemon/lime juice.  Beat until this thickens up and becomes smooth, then add the zests (I always find they stick to the whisk otherwise!).  Pour the mixture into the tin and level it, making sure that it goes right to the edges.   Allow to chill for at least an hour, preferably two.  Now take the gelatine and soften it in water.   Warm the juices, zest parings, sugar and juniper berries together until the sugar dissolves.   Strain off the zest and berries.   Then squeeze out the soft gelatine and tip it into the mixture, stirring until it disappears.  Now add the gin and tonic, mixing well.  Wait until the gelatine has started to cool and set, then pour it over the cheesecake.   There will be a very thick layer.  

Chill for at least four hours until set.   

To remove from the tin, run a knife or thin spatula around the edge so that, when you remove the clip or push up the base, the jelly layer does not break (nor do you lose a lot of the cheesecake on the sides of the tin, though that’s a cook’s bonus!).  Decorate with lemon thyme sprigs.