Prune & Elderflower Cheesecake

I created this for the first time as a winter treat for some of our anglophile neighbours. It was the dessert after my Hungarian Goulash & Dumplings, and was served with hot coffee and brandy. A suitable grand finale to an amusing evening with many stories told and jokes shared.

Prune, elderflower & brandy cheesecake

is a sumptuous finale for a dinner

Apart from the playful, eye-catching swirls on the top, this cake worked on so many levels, I will be making it many more times for sure. The cream cheese was dense and gooey, the base was a crunchy and satisfyingly filling, and the aromas on the nose were wonderfully perfumed which was quite a revelation to us. Looking back I like the fact that this could be varied in many ways (see my notes at the end).

My guests loved the slight crunch of the semolina on the outside, which you invariably get when you line your cake tin with melted butter and scatter semolina or ground rice around the inside. If you have not yet tried this, you are in for a real treat. The semolina or ground rice adds texture and interest and has often been commented on with appreciation. This practice has dispelled the days when cakes would not slide out of the tin properly or get stuck.

The elderflower cordial used in this recipe was made last year one glorious, summery day. The making of it invoked an intense memory, which I felt moved to write about here, including the recipe for it.

I remember that while the blossoms were steeping, they released a sensational perfume in the house, which scented every room with that one particular moment of childhood happiness. I did not, in truth, wish to bottle the angelic liquid because I somehow feared that the scent, and along with the memory, might disappear for good, and that storing it would weaken the flavour, but far from it. Since then I have discovered the joy of this reverie being reliably unleashed every time I consume some of the elderflower cordial, and so it has become a thing of legend to me, ushering in complete, wordless bliss.

Once it had been made and bottled, we enjoyed the cordial on ice cream and in cocktails throughout the summer and beyond, with a particular favourite being equal quantities of peach, mint and elderflower syrups diluted with soda or cold water. Highly recommended over crushed ice with a dash of fresh lime juice. It also makes a stunning Kir.

A hot toddy of elderflower, brandy and lemon, served with dried fruits and dark chocolate

This year we had some cordial left over, and its floral addition to the filling of this cake only enhanced the charm of this rather feminine dessert. Digestives formed the base of the cake, and because I believe in layering flavours to produce surprises, I duly ‘scented’ it with spekuloos spices – cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, mace and allspice - which partnered the prunes very well indeed. Ginger would also be a handsome addition and was added to the prune compote for some winter warmth.

We ate this in December by the fire, and I am pleased to say that just for once, the picture I took does it full justice.

Prep time: 1 hour Cook time: 30-50mins

Ingredients – for the prune compote

1 tin of soft, pitted prunes in their own juice

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 pinch ginger powder

Dash brandy

Ingredients - for the base

1 packet of digestives

125g melted butter

1/2tsp each of ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, mace and allspice

1 pinch salt

1 X 18cm spring form tin Ingredients - for the filling

500gr mascarpone

500gr fromage frais (39% fat, or ‘entier’ as it is sometimes called)

4 tbsp elderflower cordial

4 tbsp. rose water

3 eggs

100g melted butter

75g caster sugar

1 tsp grated lemon rind from an unwaxed lemon or finely chopped organic candied lemon peel. Method

1-Pre-heat the oven to 180C.

2-Meanwhile lbrush the inside of the tin with melted butter and scatter semolina or ground rice around the inside and discard the excess.

3-Next put the biscuits into a plastic bag, tie it off (but NOT too tightly or the bag will break) and bash the biscuits into crumbs with a rolling pin.

4-Place the crumbs into a mixing bowl with the spices, salt and melted sugar, and stir the mixture until blended. Press this into the base of the spring form and put in the fridge for 10 mins to set, or longer if you have the time.

5-Next beat the eggs and blend into the ingredients for the cream filling, which should have a dropping consistency, and spread this over the biscuit base.

6-Finally, place the prunes into a pot with the brandy, sugar and ginger, and heat the mixture, stirring it well until the fruit has softened and disintegrated, and then blend the fruit until it is smooth. Taste it and adjust for flavour balance and texture. The mixture should be like a compote, but not be runny. If it is runny, simmer it for a while until some of the juice has evaporated, but stay with it and stir it, to stop it burning.

7-Pour the compote unevenly on top of the cheesecake, and using a skewer, make pretty whirls in the surface. You know you want to....!

8-Place a bowl of water in the bottom of your oven, and the cheesecake above it, in the centre of the oven, and with some foil on top, and bake for 30-50mins, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Notes

1-The filling of this should be soft, mellow, aromatically sweet and perfumed, redolent of an Indian summer, containing the sisters of rose water and elderflower, and the brotherly tones of prunes and brandy, representing the arrival of autumn.

2-Experiment with different fruit compotes on the top of this cheesecake: apricot and raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, mulberry, mango or in fact any strong fruit flavour would be beautiful with this, as well as providing glamorous colour.

3-My mother always soaked chopped candied fruits in brandy or rum, and added them to the filling for a super-rich cake, but she made the filling lighter by using ricotta and blended cottage cheese, instead of mascarpone, to stop the cake from becoming too rich. Her version is the traditional German cheesecake and it had a pastry base that was pre-baked too. I like both baked and non-baked versions for what they are, although I have not yet made my mother’s version since starting this site. I shall do, however…so become a site member to be notified when I post the recipe.

4-Always flavour the base. Digestives offer a good texture for the base of a cheesecake, but they are not, on the whole, a very flavoursome candidate, so adding spices or flavours like bourbon vanilla could turn the base into a surprise of its own and take the cheesecake to another level. If you've never tried this, I highly recommend it.

5-Each individual oven is different and so if the cooking phase seems to need more time than I have indicated here, keep your cool and put the cake back in the oven, with foil on top, but turn the heat off, and let the oven cool down in its entirety before removing the cake. This will ensure a gentle cook without drying out the cake. I regard this technique as my lifesaver whenever I find the cooking time in a recipe is not sufficient to get the item cooked.

6-Place a flat dish of water in the base of the oven. This will create steam to preserve the moisture content of the cake, and ensure gentle, even baking. Remove this, however, if the cake needs to crisp and turn golden brown. The browning process requires dry heat so steam can hinder this.

7-If the top of the cake splits, do not worry. Simply pour your coulis into it, or press some whipped cream blended with a beaten egg into the cracks to seal them up, and place the cake back in the oven for 5 mins to reset it, or smother the entire cake with whipped cream. This latter will cover up the pretty swirls of course, but if your objective is to produce a perfect cake and impress your guests for a party, the swirls may need to be sacrificed….!

***** bon appetit *****