Lychee Cheesecake

Lychee Cheesecake

  • Serves: 10–12

  • Prep Time: 30 minutes, plus 6 hours setting

  • Cooking Time: No baking

Example Product Title

Ingredients

Base

  • 250 g plain sweet biscuits
  • 125 g butter, melted

Filling

  • 500 g cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 100 g caster sugar
  • 150 ml Lush Lychees Lychee Coulis, at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 250 ml thickened cream
  • 4 teaspoons powdered gelatine
  • 4 tablespoons hot water

To finish

  • 100 ml Lush Lychees Lychee Coulis
  • Then choose your fruit — 250 g fresh lychees or 250 g strawberries or raspberries
  • Mint leaves (optional)

Coulis beaten through the filling and poured over the top. One bottle, no oven.

Most fruit cheesecakes only wear the fruit on top, which means the flavour arrives and leaves in the first mouthful. Beating coulis into the filling as well puts lychee right through it, you just have to adjust for the extra liquid, which is why the cream comes down and the gelatine goes up.

Method

  1. Blitz the biscuits to fine crumbs, stir through the melted butter, and press firmly into a 22 cm springform tin using the back of a glass. Chill 20 minutes.

  2. Beat the cream cheese and sugar until completely smooth, then beat in the 150 ml of coulis and the vanilla. The mixture will loosen noticeably — that is expected.

  3. Whip the cream to soft peaks in a separate bowl.

  4. Sprinkle the gelatine over the hot water, stir until fully dissolved and clear, then let it cool for a minute so it is warm rather than hot.

  5. Working quickly, pour the gelatine into the cream cheese mixture in a thin stream while beating. Everything must be at room temperature — cold mixture makes the gelatine set in threads the moment it lands.

  6. Fold in the whipped cream in two batches, stopping as soon as it is combined.

  7. Pour over the base, level the top, and refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight.

  8. Release the tin and pour the remaining 100 ml of coulis over the top just before serving.

  9. Top with fruit if you are using it. Whole lychees piled in the centre with the coulis running out around them looks best; a ring around the outer edge is the tidier option if you want clean slices. Finish with mint.

Tips

  • The sugar is lower than a standard cheesecake on purpose — the coulis brings its own sweetness with it.

  • Do not add more coulis to the filling hoping for a stronger flavour. Past about 150 ml it will not set firmly enough to slice.

  • For a marbled top, hold back 50 ml, dollop it over the filling in the tin and drag a skewer through it in figure eights before it goes in the fridge.

  • Top it at the last minute. Peeled fresh lychees brown at the cut within a couple of hours, and preserved ones carry moisture that weeps into the coulis and thins it.
Lychee Cheesecake