Chocolate & Orange Cheesecake
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Time and Servings
Serves: 4
Preparation Time: 2 hours + setting/chilling time
Cooking Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
Chocolate Orange Cheesecake
200g dark chocolate biscuits
45g butter
200g dark chocolate (70%-85%)
¾ cup cream
380g cream cheese
¼ cup icing sugar
1 Tbsp fresh orange juice
Zest of ½ an orange
Vanilla Orange Ice Cream
1 ½ cup sugar
1 cup fresh orange juice
1 ½ cups full cream milk
2 cups whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
Dark Chocolate Soil
70g dark chocolate (recommend 80%+)
100g castor sugar
Orange Curd
½cup sugar
Zest of 1 orange
3 egg yolk
¼ cup fresh orange juice
¼ cup butter, cut into small cubes
Gold edible glitter
1 strelitzia flower
Method
Chocolate Orange Cheesecake
Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper and give a light spray with baking spray.
Crush the biscuits to a fine crumb. Melt the butter and pour it into a bowl with the crushed biscuit. Mix until well combined. Tip the mixture into the lined baking tray and press it down firmly and evenly to create the base for the cheesecake. Allow to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Chop up the chocolate into small pieces and place it in a microwave safe bowl. Melt in 20 second intervals in the microwave until smooth, alternatively, melt over a double boiler.
Whisk the cream until you have medium peaks, and put aside.
Add the cream cheese, icing sugar, orange juice and zest to a mixing bowl, and beat until smooth and creamy.
Fold the melted chocolate into the cream cheese mixture.
Then gently fold in the whisked cream, ensuring to not beat down all the air bubbles in the cream.
Scoop the mixture into the tin with the set base. Smooth it out evenly. Place in the fridge to set for 5+ hours.
Once set. Cut out 4 even circles using a cookie cutter. Leave in the fridge until plating.
Vanilla Orange Ice Cream
Put all the ingredients into a pot. Put the pot over a medium heat. Stir while it gently heats up, ensuring it does not come to a boil. Once all the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat. Allow to chill.
Dark Chocolate Soil
Chop the chocolate into small pieces and set aside.
Put two tablespoons of water into a sauce pan. Tip in the sugar. Put the pan over a medium-high heat. Allow the sugar to start melting. You may swirl the pan, but do not stir.
When you start to see some of the sugar starting to brown, add your chopped chocolate and whisk until it resembles a crumb like texture.
Tip onto a baking tray and allow to cool.
Orange Curd
Mix all of the ingredients together until well combined and place in a saucepan.
Put over a medium-low heat. Allow to cook while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or spatula. Cook for about 15 minutes until thickened and coats the back of a spoon. Be sure to be patient otherwise the egg yolks could scramble.
Once thickened remove from the heat and whisk in the cubed butter until it has melted and incorporated completely.
Strain the curd through a fine sieve and place in the fridge until plating.
Plating
Splatter and dot some of the orange curd off centre of the plate.
Spoon chocolate soil all over the top of each cut out cheesecake, and sprinkle on gold edible glitter. Place the cheesecake on top of the curd.
Spoon some of the chocolate soil into a side dish.
Using a rocher spoon, or use two dessert spoons if you don’t have one, make a beautiful rocher with the ice cream and place it on top of the chocolate soil in the side dish.
Lay some strelitzia petals on top of the cheesecake.
