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Apricot Brandy Cheesecake.
Ingredients:
3 tbs unsalted butter
225g chocolate ripple biscuits
1/4 cup brandied apricots
approx 50 ml brandy
1 tbs cornflour
2 eggs
500g cream cheese
3/4 cup castor sugar
200 ml apricot yoghurt
whipped cream
Method.
Melt the butter and crush the biscuits. Combine them and press onto the base of a 20 cmspringform pan. Refrigerate.
Set the oven to 150 C.
Drain the apricots (reserving the brandy) and chop them roughly. Measure the reserved brandy, add enough extra brandy to make 1/4 cup and blend the cornflour into it.
Separate the eggs.
Beat the cream cheese with 1/2 a cup of the sugar until smooth. Add the egg yolks and beat thoroughly. Stir in the brandy mixture, apricots and yoghurt.
Beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar until stiff peaks form. Gently fold them into the cheese mixture.
Pour the final mixture into the prepared crust and bake for 45 minutes. Turn the oven off and leave it undisturbed for a further hour. Chill the cheesecake thoroughly and decorate with whipped cream and apricots.
Chill the cheesecake thoroughly (for best results, make the cheesecake 3 days before you want to eat it) and decorate with whipped cream and apricots shortly before serving.
R.E. Warfe is the author of First Term For Ziggy, a spiffing schoolgirl wheeze - available now from Hodder, at all good book stores.