What makes a good recipe “good”?
The perfect execution, following line by line all the instructions? The delicious end result? The lingering reminder of something tasty and good making us go back and cook the dish once more? Or shall I stretch the comparison even further, suggesting falling in love with a recipe?
Yes, this Toffee fudge cheese cake is so good, that I have completely fallen in love with it when I have made it for a first time. Since then, it has been engraved in my kitchen repertoire just waiting for the right occasion to be made once more. The beauty of falling in love with a recipe is that once made, it doesn’t belong to the cook book any more. I have tried it, I have tasted it, I have made it my own and now I can apply all the imagination I could master to build upon it, adding a new layer and transforming the base into something spectacular and new. Like this pomegranate jelly toffee cheesecake. The base of the cake follows the original recipe from the Delicious Magazine, but as strawberries and summer fruits fit so well with the sweet richness of the toffee fudge, I have decided to add a pomegranate juice jelly topping and decorate with summer fruit. What a perfect combination and a stunning and delicious end result!
Ingredients
For the cheesecake
- 75g butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
- 250g HobNobs biscuits
- 250g vanilla fudge
- 300g mascarpone
- 400ml double cream, softly whipped
For the topping
- 1 pomegranate
- 50ml water
- 3 gelatine leaves
- 2tbsp of Golden Syrup
- Handfull of strawberries
- 100g blackberries & red cassis
Method
1. Lightly butter a 23cm springform cake tin. Pulse the biscuits to crumbs in a food processor. Add the melted butter and pulse until combined and clumped together. Tip into the base of the tin and press down evenly. Chill.
2. Meanwhile, put 200g of the fudge in a large bowl and melt in a microwave for 1 minute on High, until it forms a soft paste (or alternatively melt in a pan over a very low heat). Cool slightly. Beat the mascarpone in a bowl with a wooden spoon until soft, add to the melted fudge and mix until combined. Gently fold in the whipped cream.
3. Chop the remaining fudge into small chunks and stir into the filling. Spoon over the chilled biscuit base, smoothing the top. Cover and chill for 6 hours or overnight – the fudge will set the cheesecake.
4. Once the cheesecake has set prepare the toping. Seed one pomegranate and squeeze out its juice. Set the juice and the water together with the Golden Syrup in a deep pan and mix over medium heat until the syrup has completely dissolved. In the meantime, fill in a deep soup plate with cold water and set in the gelatine leaves, leaving them to soak for 10 minutes. Once the pomegranate juice has started gently to boil put inside the gelatine leaves, one by one and mix until dissolved. Set the juice aside and let it cool completely. Once it has cooled, pour over the cheesecake and let it stay in the fridge for at least two hours until the jelly has set.
4. When ready to serve, run a knife all around to loosen and remove the springform collar and slide onto a plate. Decorate with fresh fruits and serve.
