Blood Orange Cheesecake

After having no luck in the supermarekts for the Blood Oranges I was worried that I wound have to change the recipe to the Strawberry and Cream cheesecake and wait until next week when the oranges might have made it to season. My mother asvised there was a local green grocers down the road and so it would do no harm to have a quick check in there too. As it turns out, they had plenty in stock, it does pay to support your local community.

Started this recipe around midday so the cheesecake was as fresh as possible and so it had enough time to chill in the fridge before it was required as our Sunday Roast dessert.

It was as I was blitzing the biscuits that I realised we were lacking in the eggs needed for the cheesecake filling. Made up the base with the butter and biscuits and squished it into the tin and into the fridge to set..then realised I hadn't added the grated orange zest into it. Decided to just grate it onto the top rather than disturb the nicely compacted base. Can't seem to get through a recipes without some sort of hitch, guess it makes for interesting reading though.

Once that was back in the fridge I nipped down the road again for eggs and a few other bits needed for the family dinner. Eggs sorted I got to work on the cheesecake filling. Have not used Ricotta cheese in baking or generally eaten it and was surprised by the texture of it, a lot lighter than the philedelphia also used in the recipe. Added the zest and then juiced the oranges for the juice needed in the gelatine topping. Into the oven that went and this time I did not submerge it in the water bath but on the shelf above it.

Once cooked it came out perfectly, only had one small crack in the top of the cheesecake byt the side, not as big as the previous cheesecake that was submerged in the bath, and this crack would be covered by the gelatine later on. Left it to cool slightly on the side before popping into the fridge.

Just before the main meal I made the jelly up and  covered the top of the cheesecake with it before it went back in to chill for the final hour. I then settled down to a lovely sunday roast with the family whilst the fridge did the rest of the hard work.

The tasting came along with the Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pie and the family. The gelatine on top had not set evenly as the cake must have been slopping slightly on the fridge shelf but still looked okay. This was my first choice as dessert and it was zingy, lighter and the base was much more solid than the previous cheesecake that suffered the water flood from being submerged. The other family members that tasted it also agreed it was lovely and light, the ricotta cancels out some of the strong philedelphia taste and lets the orange come through. Prefer this cheesecake over the Summer Fruits one, much more my tastes.