Dark chocolate and ginger cheesecake
I always set my alarm to give me a good hour for breakfast before I need to leave the house. It always amazes me when my work colleagues say they get out of bed 5 minutes before they have to leave the house and then have their toast in front of their computer. I’m sorry but that would bring my quality of life down by about 10 points.
I can’t function properly for the rest of the day if my day starts in a rush. Having my eggs with a cup of coffee in bed whilst catching up on last evening’s Bravo is my happy place.
Then I leave plenty of time for my makeup and hair. All sounds very regimented right? Not so much because I never really plan my packed lunch/dinner and have to rush last minute to try and make a mediocre salad to eat later that day. I never make that a priority and end up leaving with a cereal bar or maybe a smoothie for lunch.
Not cool.
This week I prepped like a boss, got a few bits of tuppaware and stacked them with a nice turkey fried rice in the fridge. In the mornings it actually makes me happy to know all I need to do is pop that tuppaware in my bag and head off. Plus I can look forward to feeling nourished whilst working.
Maybe even take a piece of this cheesecake?
The crust is made with leftover gingerbread cookies which I froze after having so many leftovers. You can use any regular cookies, just add extra grated ginger to it.
Dark chocolate and ginger cheesecake
150g gingerbread cookies
30g butter
50g stem ginger in syrup, grated. Don’t discard syrup
70g good quality 70% dark chocolate
280g full fat cream cheese
60g icing sugar
35g good quality cocoa powder
2 eggs
50ml espresso
Topping:
200g dark chocolate
200ml double cream
100g gingerbread cookies, crumbed
1. Melt the chocolate slowly in the microwave, stirring from time to time. Let it cool
2. Preheat oven to 170°C. Butter a 8-inch-diameter springform pan. Blend cookies and 20g of cocoa powder in processor until finely ground. Add melted butter and 2 tbsp of the syrup from the stem ginger and process until well blended. Press crumbs evenly onto bottom (not sides) of prepared pan.
3. Mix the rest of the ingredients either with a electric mixer or food processor. Pour filling over crust and smooth the top. Bake until centre is just set and just appears dry, about 35 minutes. Leave it to cool completely and run knife around sides of cake to loosen. Chill overnight.
4. Prepare the topping by melting cream and chocolate together in the microwave, keep stirring and stop heating it once chocolate starts to melt. The mixture should be shiny.
5. Take cheesecake out of the tin, place it on a cookie rack and pour chocolate mixture evenly over cheesecake. Garnish with crumbed cookies.
