Recipe of the Week – Banoffee cheesecake with sticky toffee sauce

Banoffee cheesecake with sticky toffee sauce

It’s time for a sweet treat! With the weather picking up and the days getting longer you’re much more likely to have people round for a meal; whether it’s an evening or an afternoon affair. And we couldn’t possibly feed our loved ones without a desert could we now? Any excuse we say! Here’s a cheesecake with a difference; the toffee sauce may be completely indulgent but its well worth it for the ‘wow’ factor and the ‘wow’ taste! Indulge and don’t even feel guilty!

Dish facts

Serves: 6 – 8 depending how generous you’re feeling!
Costs:  £10 (approx)
Prep time: 30 mins (for all 3 parts)
Cooking time: 1 hour 10 mins
Healthy switch: use low fat fromage frais and replace the cheese curd with low fat cream cheese
How fattening is this? (1 low, 3 high): ***
Difficulty (1 low, 3 high): **
WOW factor (1 low, 3 high): ***

You’ll need:  a spring-form cake tin (20cm diameter)

Ingredients

Base:

130g sweet oat biscuits
40g melted butter

Cheesecake filling:

3 medium sized bananas
3 large eggs
200g fromage frais
400g curd cheese (medium fat)
175g caster sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Sticky toffee sauce:

150ml double cream
150g golden syrup
50g butter
50g granulated sugar
100g soft brown sugar

Optional

This cheesecake doesn’t need adapting, it’s a perfect pudding! Feel free to add some sliced bananas to the top before pouring the sauce though.

Method

Base:

1. Put the biscuits in a bag (such a sandwich bag) and roll them flat into coarse crumbs with a rolling pin.
2. Melt the butter in a pan.
3. Add the biscuit crumbs and butter into a bowl and mix.
4. Little grease the spring-form cake tin with butter before covering the bottom with the biscuit base mixture.
5. Pre-bake the base for 10 minutes then remove from the oven.

Cheesecake filling:

1. Use a blender to mix the 3 eggs and lemon juice.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and then blend again until you have a smooth consistency.
3. Pour the mix evenly over the base and bake for 1hr on the middle shelf of the oven.
4. IMPORTANT; after 1 hour turn the oven off but leave the cheesecake INSIDE the oven to cool. This will prevent it from cracking for perfect presentation.

Sticky toffee sauce:

1. Melt the butter, sugars and syrup in a pan on low heat, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes. When you’re happy with the consistency add the cream and stir until smooth.
2. Remove from the heat and pour into a jug. Allow to cool completely before serving.

Slice the cake and drizzle the sauce over; we found the more sauce the better. Don’t be stingy; it’s a real crowd pleaser!

Let us know what your guests thought of this ‘to die for’ sauce…