White Chocolate Cheesecake with Fruit Coulis

I took part in this masak masak challenge at a forum whereby we had to create a dish with 3 ingredients - cream cheese, chocolate & fruits.

First of all, France doesn't have American style cream cheese - maybe in the big cities like Paris, you can perhaps find specialty stores that sells Philadephia cream cheese. But there are creamy type cheeses that can be substituted depending on what you're doing - most common would be frommage frais, Neufchetel or St Moret cheese. For this challenge, I used St Moret.

There are 2 chocolate elements to this dessert - white chocolate is added to the cheese to make it richer & then I also used chocolate biscuits for the cake base. I was thinking to incorporate the fruit into the cheesecake but since I haven't done it before & didn't have time to experiment, I decided to play it safe & make a coulis to go with it. I made 2 - strawberry coulis with sugar & a kiwi coulis with honey. The tartness of the fruit coulis really balance the richness of the cake.

With cheesecakes, I like to use my muffin tray to make individual portions. It's easier to serve & I think they look prettier too. Best of all, if there are extras, you can just wrap each of them up in foil & freeze.

Note : In the photo, X styled the plate so there is very little coulis but when eating, I actually add a lot more.

White Chocolate Cheesecake with Strawberry & Kiwi Coulis
Source unknown - this is an old recipe
makes 6 individual cheesecakes

150g Chocolate biscuits
75g butter, softened (zap in the microwave till soft)
300g St Moret cheese
100g white chocolate
10cl cream
1 egg
50g sugar

1. Crush biscuits till crumbs & then add butter & mix well.

2. Divide into muffin tray. Chill in the fridge for 15 mins.

3. In the meantime, boil cream then remove from stove.

4. Break the white chocolate into pieces & add into the cream. The heat will melt the chocolate so stir until it's incorporated into the cream. Then add cheese, sugar & eggs. Stir & mix well.

5. Pour the cream/white chocolate mixture into the muffin moulds.

6. Put in the oven 130C for 35 mins.

7. Remove, set aside to cool & then chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours


Strawberry Coulis

Cut strawberries in halves or quarters, add 1 Tbsp of sugar & puree

Kiwi Coulis

Peel kiwi & cut into quarters, add 1 tsp of honey & puree