Mandarin Orange Cheesecake

Some recipes on here come from friends.  Like Dorene’s amazing custard slices or Erika’s butter cookies.  Some are recipes which I have tweaked and made my own.  This one I made up entirely and, if I say so myself it’s pretty darn awesome.  You can make the ginger biscuits for the base from first principles or you can buy a packet.  I bought egg free ones from the supermarket so that my egg allergic son can eat the cheesecake.  I’m not mad about raw egg in a fridge cheesecake anyway, so prefer to only use egg in baked cheesecake.

INGREDIENTS

BISCUIT BASE

200 g ginger biscuits

65 g softened butter

3 ml finely grated orange rind

FILLING

250 g smooth cottage cheese (or cream cheese)

1 x 397 g can of condensed milk

50 ml lemon juice

250 ml sour cream

55 g orange jelly (jello) mixed with 80ml boiling water then when dissolved add 100ml cold water

15 ml van der hum or orange liqueur (optional)

METHOD

1. Combine base ingredients in a food processor until relatively fine.  Press into a 23 cm pie dish
2. Mix the orange jelly and set aside to reach room temp.
3. Whisk together cottage cheese, condensed milk, lemon juice and sour cream.
4. When the jelly mix and the cheese mix are at the same temperature, combine them slowly.  If the jelly is much warmer and the cheese mix cooler, the gelatine will form horrible strings and the cheesecake will not set.
5. Add liqueur and mix
6. Pour over the crumbed base and refrigerate.

Refrigerate until set.  Ideally all cheesecakes should only be eaten the day after being made, not only to ensure that they are properly set but the flavour is so much better.