This Chocolate & Pistachio Cheesecake Recipe is from Feasts from the Middle East Cookbook. Impress your friends with this irresistible dessert!
Serves: 12
Ingredients:
Base
– 150g digestive biscuits
– 50g pistachio nuts, toasted
– 125g butter, plus a little extra for greasing
Topping
– 250g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
– 25g butter
– 250ml double cream – 50g runny honey
– 100g tahina
– 75g icing sugar
– zest of 1 orange
– 600g mascarpone cheese
– 1 tbsp vanilla extract – 250g cream cheese
To serve
– 25g pistachio nuts, chopped halva, crumbled toasted sesame seeds
Method:
1. Grease and line a circular 20–24cm springform tin with some baking parchment.
2. Whizz the biscuits and pistachios in a food processor until the biscuits have become crumbs and the pistachios are finely chopped.
3. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a low heat. Tip the crushed biscuits into the pan, stir together, then tip everything into the prepared tin. Level it with the back of a spoon and chill.
4. Now prepare the marbled topping. Break up the chocolate and put in a large, heatproof bowl. Add the butter, 100ml of the cream, the honey and tahina.
5. Place over a pan of just-simmering water and leave for 5–10 minutes until the chocolate and butter have melted. Take a spoon and very gently stir everything together.
6. Meanwhile, put the rest of the cream, the icing sugar, orange zest, mascarpone, vanilla extract and cream cheese in a large bowl. Fold them together.
7. Take the melted chocolate mixture and drizzle it over the cream mixture, folding everything together until you have a marbled mixture. Spoon into the chilled cake tin, level the top and chill for 4 hours until set.
8. Loosen the tin and take off the paper around the edge. Slide a large fish slice under the cheesecake to loosen it and put it on a serving plate. Scatter the pistachio nuts, halva and toasted sesame seeds over the top and serve.
Feasts from the Middle East is a celebration of authentic Middle Eastern food and is packed with over 100 deliciously fresh, fragrant and flavourful dishes, inspired by the souks of Lebanon.
Whether you’re after breakfast with a twist, a quick-fix lunch, or a sumptuous spread fit for a gathering of your loved ones, this gorgeous cookery book, featuring vibrant food photography throughout, is packed with recipes you can easily make.
