As soon as the family announces their next weekend visit, I naturally aim to make something very special for them, considering the fact that both my parents and sisters are already regaled with my continuous baking creations. But obviously I want to give them a good reason to come back again soon, hence my challenge for a previous Sunday with the family was: creating a cheesecake high as a mountain.

   Cheesecake-Collage

The cake was made in a water bath which made me slightly nervous at the beginning. However, it turnt out that the cake can easily be made by beginners, too. In fact, the combination of a cantuccini crust underneath a nougat cheese filling, topped with a nougat espresso ganache seems to even cry out for being baked – no matter if by beginners or baking pros.

Cheesecake

I discovered the original recipe for the nougat cantuccini cheesecake with espresso ganache in the first issues 2015 of „Lecker Bakery“, but amended some measurements and ingredients.
In case you plan to bake the cake yourself, please note that the recipe requires an 18 cm baking tin. If you, however, only have a 26 cm tin at your disposal, simply double the measurements, I recommend.

Cheesecake-1

For one cake (18 cm Ø):
Butter or oil to grease the tin
150 g Cantuccini
60 g + 25 g butter
3 eggs (small)
100 g sugar
250 g mascarpone
250 g fat-free curd cheese (0,3 %)
15 g corn starch
60 g + 90 g hazelnut spread (e.g. Nutella)
50 g whipping cream
1,5 table spoons Espresso
plus: rolling pin (optionally: an empty glass bottle), freezer bag, aluminium foil

Grease the bottom of a baking tin. Fill Cantuccini to the freezer bag, seal it and, with the help of the rolling pin, crush the Cantuccini until they become cookie crumbles.
Melt 60 g butter and mix with the Cantuccini flour. Add dough to the baking tin, press it against the bottom and set aside in the fridge for 30 minutes.

For the filling, melt 25 g butter and allow to cool for a couple of minutes. Separate one egg and beat the egg white. Beat egg yolk, eggs and sugar until frothy. Stir in mascarpone, curd cheese, butter and corn starch. Carefully fold in egg white.

Preheat the oven to 150 °C (electric kitchen stove, air circulation: 125 °C).

Arrange two lines of aluminium foil cross-wise, place the baking tin in the middle of it and clench the foil up the outside of the tin, folding it on the top. This will waterproof the tin when baking the cake in a water bath.

Spread the cheese filling to the Cantuccini crumble bottom. In a small pot, heat 60 g hazelnut spread. With the help of a spoon, add little splodges tot he cheese fiiling and swirl them into the cheese filling, just like you do whe baking a marble cake.

Place the baking tin to an oven-safe dish or the dripping pan of your oven, fill in enough water to allow the baking tin to stand 2 cm deep.
Bake the cake for about 1,5 hours. It is ready when the cheesecake filling only moves a little bit when nudging the tin. Remove the foil and allow cake to cool.

For the Espresso Ganache, heat 90 g hazelnut spread, cream and espresso in a small pot. Allow to cool for 3 minutes, spread it on the cake. Chill the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving it.

Cheesecake-3

Author

Hey, ich bin Lea Lou, Food-Fotografin, Content-Kreateurin, Mama und Yoga-Lehrerin.

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