KJ’s Lime and Ginger Cheesecake

This was first made for our Ruby-do, five years ago, adapted from my Lemon Cheesecake which was adapted from my Mum’s Lemon Meringue Pie!    I love ginger – and like my Mum before me, am happy to  eat several balls of ginger like sweets!  KJ put some into the cheesecake and it worked!)

Ingredients

2 packets of ginger biscuits about 350g

75g butter

3 balls of stem ginger, chopped roughly into 1cm cubes Because I love ginger, I use 4!

1 tbsp ginger syrup

250g tub mascarpone cheese

200g tub cream cheese

400g can condensed milk

juice and zest of 2 limes, for me, juice of two but zest of 3

Ingredients

How to do it

• Crush the biscuits by putting them into a strong freezer bag and rolling them, or bashing them with a rolling pin. I leave the bag open at the end as it is much less likely to burst if you do that.

• In a large pan melt the butter slowly, then add all the biscuit crumbs and stir thoroughly until the butter and biscuits are well combined and moist.

• The tin you will need for this cheesecake is a high-sided 9 inch loose-bottomed cake tin and I line it with cling film.

Line the loose-bottomed tin with cling film

• Pack the biscuit mixture into the pan, coming up the sides as far as possible.

The tin now lined with the biscuit crumbs

• Drizzle the ginger syrup over the base and scatter the stem ginger pieces on the bottom so they are evenly distributed.

Syrup drizzled and ginger bits scattered over

• Put the base in the freezer to set while you make the filling. Leave it for at least half an hour.

• In a large mixing bowl and add all the cheeses and the condensed milk. Whisk it all together until it is completely smooth.

The cheeses and condensed milk all mixed until smooth

• Then add the lime juice and zest and whisk again until it is fully combined. You can taste the mixture at this stage and add more lime zest to suit. As I said , at this point I usually add the zest from a 3rd lime.

Add the lime juice and zest and mix thoroughly

• When the base is hard (I don’t always wait!) pour the mixture in and smooth it over and put it back into the freezer for a few hours until frozen hard.

The delicious mixture in the tin ready to go into the freezer.

• You can leave this cheesecake (covered) in the freezer for 1 hour to 2 weeks, depending on when you plan to serve it. If your cheesecake has been in the freezer for more than 2 hours, you will need to get it out 1 hour before you want to serve it.

• It’s important to take it carefully out of the tin as soon as you get it out of the freezer. This is when the base will be at its most firm, and therefore the least likely to break. To remove it, gently release the clip holding the bottom of the tin in place,lift it out and carefully peel off the cling film and put it onto its serving plate.

The Ruby-Do Lime and Ginger Cheesecake on a beautiful Jane Hamlyn plate

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