Banana Cheesecake

Dec 19, 2019

Here’s a great festive contender. I’d normally gird my loins to make cheesecake. Cheesecake prep is is synonymous with faff and fuss in my mind, and yet there’s no denying it’s a crowd pleaser. This little beaut doesn’t take that long to prepare at all though. Especially if you pop it in a freezer to cool and set.  The stars of the show are the bananas and yacon syrup. They are such a sexy combination of flavours.

There’s one challenge to making this cheesecake though, and that’s finding the self-will not to scoff all the gorgeous, moreish topping, straight from the mixing bowl, before you get to spread it over the rich, chocolatey base.

The carob used for the base is the golden Peruvian carob (sometimes called algarroba) - not the more commonly used dark carob that looks like cocoa. Unlike the dark carob, Peruvian carob is sweet. It’s got a warm caramel flavour and combined with ground nuts, is dead good at replicating the buttery mashed digestive biscuit base used in conventional cheesecakes.

For the base:
75g walnuts
2 ½ tsp Peruvian carob (algarroba)
3tbsp cocoa powder
Pinch salt
1 Medjool date chopped up small (optional).
2 ½ tbsp. coconut oil melted

For the top layer:
2 ½ sheets gelatin
2 bananas
250g cream cheese
2 tbsp yacon

Grind the nuts in a food processor until they’re a crumb consistency.
Empty the ground nuts into a bowl and mix in the carob, cocoa powder, salt (and chopped date if included).
Melt the coconut oil in a saucepan and mix with the dry ingredients well.
Pour into a lined 6” cake tin and press down firmly and evenly with the back of a spoon.
Pop in the freezer for 10-15minutes to cool and set

Meanwhile blend the bananas in a food processor. Add to the cream cheese and stir in the yacon syrup.
Leave the strips of gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes and then pop in a pan over a low heat with a few spoonfuls of the topping. Taking care not to let the mixture come to the boil.
Stir thoroughly until its blended.
Take off the heat and mix in the rest of the topping.
Spread over the cheesecake base and leave in the freezer for 20-30 minutes until it has set.
Store in the fridge.