For Sophie Gray’s best cherry tips and tricks, go to In season with Food magazine: cherries.
Ingredients
Cherry topping
Method
1.Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 12-cup mini cheesecake pan, or individual paper cups. Place biscuits and coconut in a processor and pulse to fine crumbs. Add melted butter and mix.
2.Place heaped tablespoons of the mixture into each cup and press down firmly with the base of a glass or a wine bottle cap. Chill in the freezer while you prepare the filling.
3.Cut the Cherry Ripe bar, if using, in half. Finely chop half and set the remainder aside for decorating. Place cream cheese, sugar, cream, lemon juice, vanilla and egg in processor and pulse to combine. Pour filling into prepared tins and bake for 12-15 minutes, until set. Cool completely.
4.Meanwhile, make the Cherry topping (see below). Spoon the cherry topping onto each cheesecake and chill. Decorate with small pieces of Cherry Ripe bar, if using, a sprinkle of coconut and a cherry on the stem, if using.
Cherry topping
5.Place cherries in a small saucepan with lemon juice and sugar and simmer gently until pulpy. Strain off some of the juice into a small bowl and let cool. Whisk the arrowroot into the juice, then mix into the cherries. Heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture begins to gel (about 1-2 minutes). Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
The topping is a soft-set syrup, so if planning to take these to an event, top them with the syrup just before serving. We used a mini cheesecake pan with removable bases. You can purchase these cheaply from online kitchenware suppliers. Alternatively, line a mini muffin pan with mini paper cases.
Note
