Healthy Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

Photo by Zsolt Sándor / MothershipUK

If you’re a regular reader you’ll know that we don’t  guilt-trip about food. ‘Eat the right amount for the amount you move around’ is our philosophy in a nutshell. Given this, we like a bit of healthy indulgence as much as the next sane person and we’re partial to a slice of cheesecake – ‘course we are! However, in a traditional cheesecake there’s a lot of sugar and lot of saturated fat. It’s just not good for you so it’s not something we cook or eat often.

But when the nice people from Total Greek yoghurt and The Blue Agave Company sent us samples, we got to thinking. Surely, we thought, there must be a way to make cheesecake that tastes great but isn’t artery-cloggingly unhealthy. And here it is: our ‘cut the cream, calories and most of the crap’, Triple Chocolate Cheesecake.

It’s still an indulgent dessert and not for everyday consumption. That said, there’s a healthy dose of protein from the Greek yoghurt and ricotta compared to the miniscule amount you’ll find in a regular cheesecake. As if that wasn’t enough, the use of low glycemic organic agave sweetens the cheesecake without adding loads of empty sugar calories.

Oh, and did we mention that it’s rich, grown-up and sophisticated, rather like ourselves. (Er, we’re not…) Between squeals of ‘um’, ‘yum’ and ‘that’s amazing!’ our selfless taste testers, Liz and Jo, said you’d never guess in a million years that it’s a ‘healthy’ option. Hurrah!

Healthy Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

Makes 12 portions

Ingredients
For the base:
150g chocolate digestives / Graham crackers (or any crisp, sweet biscuit or cooky)
75g unsalted butter

For the filling:
200g dark chocolate
500g Total Greek yoghurt
250g soft ricotta cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 dessertspoons agave syrup
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
3 eggs

For the topping:
120g dark chocolate
80ml half-fat creme fraiche
1 teaspoon butter, melted

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 180C / 170 Fan / 350F / Gas mark 4.

2 For the base:
– Very lightly grease and line the base of a 10inch spring form cake tin.
– Crumb the biscuits with a food processor or hand blender.
– Melt the butter and stir in to the biscuit crumbs.
– Spread the mix over the base of the cake tin and put in the fridge to chill.

3 For the filling:
– Melt the chocolate over a pan of hot water and set aside to cool slightly.
– Place all of the ingredients except the chocolate and the eggs in a large mixing bowl and mix together carefully. Don’t beat the mix – your cheesecake will crack in the oven if there’s too much air in it.
–  Stir in the chocolate.
– Add the eggs one by one.
– Pour into the chilled tin and place on a baking tray (important – some of the butter in the base will melt and you don’t want it all over the floor of your oven).
– Bake in the centre of the oven for 50-55 minutes. The centre will still look wobbly but don’t worry – it will set as the cheesecake cools down.
– Remove from the oven and run a knife around the edge of the cheesecake to stop it sticking to the tin when you take it out.
– Cool in the pan for a few hours then place in the fridge to chill.

4 For the topping:
– Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of water.
– Place the creme fraiche in a bowl and add the melted chocolate and melted butter.
– Mix well then spread over the top of the cheesecake.
– Return to the fridge to chill.

This cheesecake is one of those fabulous foods that tastes better and better each day (if you can keep it long enough, that is!) It’s great with berries and creme fraiche. It freezes well too.