During the new BBC food show “Best Christmas Food Ever” I served up many sweet and savoury Christmas delights and this was by far one of the most requested recipes via social media and here I share it with you to try out for yourself over Christmas – this delicious mincemeat cheesecake is full of Christmas flavours with a mulled wine sauce. I hope you enjoy it as mush as I enjoyed creating it.
Serves 10 to 12
For the mulled wine (or use leftover mulled wine)
- 200ml red wine
- 100g light brown sugar
- 1 star anise
- 1 cinnamon stick
- ¼ tsp al spice
- 1 orange, sliced
For the mulled wine sauce
- 100ml juice from the cherries
- The mulled wine (per above or leftover mulled wine)
- 1 tbsp arrowroot with 2 tbsp cold mulled wine, to thicken
For the base
- 15 digestive biscuits, crushed finely
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- 1 orange, zest only
- 100g melted butter
For the filling
- 3 tbsp butter
- 75g raisins
- 2 medium apples, peeled and diced
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- Generous pinch of nutmeg
- 60ml soft brown sugar
- 3 tbsp rum
- 400g cream cheese
- 120g caster sugar
- 1 orange, juice only
- 100ml cream
- 2 ½ gelatine leaves, soaked in 120ml cold water
- 200ml cream, lightly whipped
- 200g cherries in syrup, drained and roughly chopped
- Orange zest, to decorate
To prepare the mulled wine, add the red wine, sugar, orange, allspice, cinnamon and star anise to a saucepan and simmer gently until flavours blend. Then remove from heat
To prepare the mulled wine sauce, add the cherry juice to the mulled wine. Dissolve the arrowroot and 2 tbsp cold mulled wine (or water) and add to the saucepan. Return to the heat and stir until the liquid begins to thicken.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. To make the base, line the base and sides of a 20cm springform baking tin with parchment.
Place the crushed biscuits, ground ginger and orange zest into a bowl. Pour enough melted butter over the ingredients and mix well then spoon into the base of the springform tin, flattening with the back of a spoon. Leave in the fridge to set for ½ hour.
To make the cheesecake filling, combine the apple, butter, raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and rum and cook over a low heat until the apple is softened. Leave to cool completely. Heat the 100ml of cream in a saucepan until hot. Squeeze out the excess water from the gelatine leaves and whisk it into the hot cream until smooth and dissolved.
Whisk together the cheese, caster sugar and orange juice together as well as the warm cream with the gelatine and fold in the whipped cream. Stir in the raisin apple mix together with the cherries. Spoon the mixture into the biscuit base and leave in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
To serve, carefully unlock the springform tin, place on a cake stand or pretty platter, drizzle with the mulled wine sauce and finish with the zest of an orange.
