Gingerbread spiced chocolate cheesecake tart
Gingerbread spiced chocolate cheesecake tart
I love spice. A lot. And whether I’m either doing my daily cooking or writing a recipe, I’ll always find a way to use it. Now the question is, why have I proclaimed my love for spice? Well, it’s because I want to show my appreciation for gingerbread. I’ll always find this my go to biscuit, probably due to its snappy texture, brilliant mouthfeel and depth of flavour. You can also make ridiculous structures with the stuff, which as a scientist always fascinates me. However, that's a post for another day. So here I am talking about gingerbread, yet what you see here is a picture of a tart. A few years ago, I had the idea of combining everything I love in a gingerbread biscuit and bringing it into tart form. With this in mind, I thought, why not combine the structure and warmth you get with gingerbread, combined with say, a flavour such as chocolate? And thus, my gingerbread and spiced chocolate cheesecake tart was born. Since writing this recipe, I’ve made a few tweaks to make it more streamlined.
A few notes. You can make this in around 3 hours (plus a few hours of cooling time), although I suggest making the tart the day before to prevent stress. I recommend using a food processor, however, you can make the pastry by hand. You’ll notice that I’ve included rye flour in the recipe. If you cannot get hold of rye flour, wholemeal will work just fine. Finally, I’ve designed the tart around geological fractures, but use this as an opportunity to get imaginative!
Ingredients
For the pastry
160 g plain white flour
60 g dark rye flour
140 g unsalted butter cubed from the fridge
35 g dark muscovado sugar
A pinch of salt
3 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground mixed spice
1 large egg, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the filling
250 g mascarpone cheese at room temperature
200 g soft cheese at room temperature
110 g caster sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature, lightly beaten
60 g melted dark chocolate (70%) cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the chocolate ganache layer
100 g dark chocolate (70%) finely chopped
100 g double cream
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground mixed spice
For the decoration
100 g whole walnuts
1 tsp honey
2 tbsp muscovado sugar
50 g white chocolate finely chopped
Instructions
Combine the flour, sugar, spices, salt and butter into a food processor. Blitz until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Next, add the egg yolk, vanilla extract and 2-3 tbsps ice cold water into the blender and blitz the mixture until just combined. Pour the contents from the blender onto a clean work surface and gently knead until it comes together. Place the pastry between two sheets of parchment paper and roll from the centre, turning it regularly to form a large disc to cover a 25 cm tart tin and to a thickness of around 3 mm (size of a pound coin). Place in the fridge for 10 mins. Take the pastry out of the fridge, ensuring it’s firm but pliable. Using your rolling pin, carefully drape your pastry over the tart tin. Line the tart tin, being careful to not stretch the pastry. Once lined, use scissors to keep a 1 cm excess border of pastry. Place back in the fridge for 25 mins.
Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celcius/170 fan. Take the lined tart tin out of the fridge and use a fork to poke holes in the bottom. Cover the tart with crushed parchment paper and fill the entire tart with baking beans. Place in the oven for 22 mins. Next, remove the beans from the tart and continue to bake for another 5-7 minutes, or until the base has dried out. Use a serrated knife to trim off the excess pastry and brush the baked tart case using the leftover egg white, lightly beaten. Place back into the oven for 2 mins until dry. Remove from the oven to cool and reduce the oven temperature to 150 degrees Celcius/130 fan.
Prepare for your filling. Combine the cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and cooled melted chocolate into a blender and blend until smooth. Pass through a sieve into a large bowl to remove any air bubbles. Next, pour the mixture into your cooled tart case and bake for around 30-35 mins or until it’s mostly set (you can check this using a digital thermometer and the filling registers at between 72-75 degrees Celcius). Take the tart out of the oven and let it cool at room temperature for an hour before letting it fully set in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours.
To make the ganache, place the double cream into a microwave and warm till just about to come to a boil. Pour the hot double cream over the dark chocolate and leave for 15 secs. Afterwards, stir the mixture until smooth. Add your spices to the ganache. Once your tart is fully chilled, pour the ganache over the top to form a shiny layer. Place the entire tart into the fridge to let the ganache set (min couple of hours till overnight).
For the caramelised walnuts, place the muscovado sugar and honey into a saucepan and heat up until it begins to boil. Once boiled, place the walnuts into the sugar mixture and coat. Remove walnuts from the saucepan and place them on some parchment paper to cool. Take the set tart out of the fridge and heat up the white chocolate in the microwave in 10 second intervals. Once liquid, pour into a piping bag and decorate the tart in a personal design. Place the caramelised walnuts over the tart. Serve. The tart will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days.