I never really appreciated this recipe as a child. What I now recognise as a wonderful firm, velvet texture was chalky and bland to me then (and part of a general dislike of anything ‘creamy’). The genius of the recipe is that it uses good old jelly in place of faffing about with gelatin – hence the ‘filthy’ epithet.
The recipe I wrote down on my last trip home was specifically for an orange version of this, complete with tinned mandarins on top. Yes, I am a child of the 70s. After fiddling around with it, it’s become lime instead.
Ingredients
- 225g digestive biscuits
- 170g melted butter
- 1 packet lime jelly
- juice and zest of 2 limes and 1 orange (to make up 150ml of liquid)
- 225g philadelphia cheese
- 55g caster sugar
- small carton vanilla yoghurt
- 300ml cream (a standard 284ml carton would be fine)
- Dark chocolate for grating
Method
- Batter the digestives into submission inside a sturdy Ziploc bag, using a rolling pin. Empty into a bowl and pour over the melted butter, mix evenly. Press this into the bottom of a springform tin and put into the fridge to chill.
- Heat up the lemon and orange juice in a small saucepan, then add the block of jelly and melt over gentle heat.
- Using a food processor, whizz together the cheese, sugar, yoghurt and melted jelly.
- Whip the cream lightly and fold it into the mixture. Pour it into the prepped tin.
- Allow to set in the fridge. Before serving, remove it from the fridge for 30 minutes. Run a knife around the inside edge to loosen it before removing the springform collar. Grate dark chocolate over the top.
If you’d like a sharper taste, use only lime juice for the 1/4 pint of liquid needed to make up the jelly.
Also I notice in many cheese cake recipes a suggestion to use softened, rather than melted butter, and to pulverise it together with the crumbed biscuits in a food processor. I’ll be trying that next time. I’ve made a thicker base, you could easily reduce the amounts by a third which might be better balanced. But when it comes to cheesecake, it’s hardly about balance, right?