For the second seasonal recipe, Food Writer and Creator of award-winning food blog Rocket & Squash, Ed Smith has brought us these sweet mini cheesecake bites.
These mini cheesecakes are a low-effort : high-reward party bite or solo snack. In particular, they make great use of our Fig and Spelt crackers — the crunch is perfect, and the subtly sweet-savoury and slightly buttery flavour of the cracker makes an ideal base for vanilla-flecked mascarpone and fragrant, plump fruits. You must try these cheesecake bites this Christmas! It takes just a couple of minutes to prepare the component parts. And then almost no time to assemble – whether that’s to pass round friends, or just for you while standing at the fridge door.
Ingredients
1 vanilla pod
250g mascarpone
1 heaped tablespoon icing sugar
Zest 1 orange, intro wide strips using a speed peeler
50g golden caster sugar
1 stick cinnamon
350g water
1 rooibos tea bag
300g dried fruit (one, or a mix, of figs, prunes, apricot)
1-2 packets Peter’s Yard Fig and Spelt Sourdough Crackers
Method
Split the vanilla pod in half and scrape out the seeds.
Decant the mascarpone into a mixing bowl. Add the icing sugar and use a spatula to beat and slacken the cheese, then stir the vanilla seeds into this. Return the cheese to the mascarpone pot for storage and refrigerate until needed (lasts 1-2 days).
Combine the orange zest, caster sugar, cinnamon and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stir to dissolve the sugar, then add the tea bag and remove from the heat. Let this steep for 4 minutes, then remove and discard the tea bag.
Put the dried fruit in a small, sealable container. Pour the tea and aromatics over the top and leave for 1-24 hours, so that the fruits soak up that flavour.
And then, when ready to snack or party, assemble the cheesecakes, smudging the vanilla mascarpone on to crackers and topping with halves or quarters of the fruit.
