Pear and butterscotch cheesecake

  • Portion size: Serves 8-10
  • Hands-on time 20 min, plus at least 1 hour setting time
  • Difficulty: easy
Recipe by: James Rich

Combine perfectly ripe pears with rich cream cheese filling and salty butterscotch sauce to make this incredible pear cheesecake. Recipe from Orchard: Over 70 Sweet and Savoury Recipes from the English Countryside by James Rich (Hardie Grant, £22) Photography ©Laura Edwards.

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Ingredients

  • 250g ginger nut biscuits
  • 70g salted butter, melted
  • 350g cream cheese
  • 3 tbsp icing sugar
  • 275ml double cream

For the sauce

  • 50g salted butter
  • 100g dark brown sugar
  • 125ml double cream
  • 2 conference pears, peeled, cored and cut into chunks

Specialist kit

  • 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin
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Method

  1. Whizz the biscuits in a food processor until they resemble crumbs (or put in a clear plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin). Tip the crumbs into the cake tin, add the melted butter and mix well, then use the back of a metal spoon to press the crumbs firmly into the bottom of the tin. Cover with foil and chill.
  2. To make the sauce, melt the butter, sugar and cream in a saucepan over a low heat. Bring the mixture to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes to thicken. Add the pear pieces, remove from the heat, pour into a jug and leave to cool. Leave any firm pears sitting in the caramel for longer before removing from the heat so they soften slightly.
  3. In a bowl, beat the cream cheese and icing sugar. Initially the cream cheese will  thin, but keep beating and eventually it will start to thicken. In a separate bowl, beat the 275ml cream until stiff peaks form – you want this to be pretty firm. Fold the cream into the cream cheese mixture until well combined. Pick out as many of the pear pieces as you can from the butterscotch sauce and add these to the cheesecake mixture – a bit of sauce will come with them, but try not to bring too much as it will stop the filling from setting.
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  5. Fold the pears into the mixture, then tip this onto the chilled biscuit base, smoothing with a spatula. Cover with cling film and return to the fridge along with the jug of sauce. Leave to set for at least 1 hour, ideally 3-4 hours.
  6. Remove the cheesecake from the tin, slice and share, letting guests pour over the sauce.

Nutrition

  • 558kcals Calories
  • 43.8g (27.8g saturated) Fat
  • 4g Protein
  • 36.2g (27.2g sugars) Carbs
  • 1.4g Fibre
  • 0.8g Salt

Make Ahead

The cheesecake will keep in the fridge for 24 hours. Or wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost thoroughly in the fridge overnight to serve.

Cook smarter

We used James’s scotch bonnet jam he made with Sauce Shop, (Sainsbury’s or online). Find jerk seasoning in supermarkets, Caribbean grocers or online.

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