Hey guys,

Hope you’ve had a great weekend? It’s been nice and sunny in London, between popping out a few times to run some errands, I’ve been chilling at home with the balcony door thrown open, pottering about in the kitchen mostly.

British Summertime. There are a few things that epitomise this season for me, you can always count on: unreliable weather (read: bursts of torrential, monsoon-like rain), getting the sniffles and sore eyes (hello, hay fever) and hot, smelly tubes (ew!). But it isn’t all bad, in fact, between all the downpours, when the sun does shine, it’s pretty darn special. Long evenings, iced coffees and lemon ices from the ice cream van. And, because we don’t see the sun very often, you can bet everyone is outdoors, soaking up the rays in a park. Another great thing about BST is the amazing English strawberries, which were the inspiration for today’s recipe…

Individual strawberry cheesecakes. ❤

I know individual desserts take a little longer to make, but, when you see the final results, and those layers, it’s worth the hard work!

Layers of buttery digestive biscuit crumble, topped with creamy strawberry infused cheesecake and sweet, stewed strawberries.

Aaand, because I’m me, I didn’t stop with the piped whipped cream. Oh no. I dipped strawberries in dark chocolate and zigzagged on white chocolate to make it that bit more of a statement!

They taste even better than they look!

Grab some strawberries and make these cute cheesecakes soon guys!

-Kay

Ingredients

Crumble base

• 6 digestive biscuits, crumbled
• 50g dark brown sugar
• 50g unsalted butter, melted

Crumble layers

• 10 digestives, crumbled
• 50g dark brown sugar

Stewed strawberries

• 500g strawberries
• Juice of half a lemon
• 2.5 tsp corn flour
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar

Cheesecake

• 250ml double cream
• 300g cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 35g icing sugar
• 75ml strawberry juice (left over from stewed berries)
• Juice of half a lemon

Whipped cream

• 300ml double cream
• 1.5 heaped tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate covered strawberries

• 6 strawberries
• 50g dark chocolate
• 30g white chocolate

Instructions

1. Start with your strawberries. Hull and chop into 0.75cm slices before adding them to a saucepan. Add the lemon juice, corn flour and sugar. Stir to combine and leave to sit for 25mins.
2. Turn the heat on to medium and bring to a simmer for 2 mins, stirring regularly. Once done, pour the mixture into a bowl and chill in the fridge.
3. In the meantime, start on the crumble base. Combine the digestives with the brown sugar and butter before adding it to the bottom of six tumblers. Press down with the back of a spoon to get a smooth finish.
4. Prepare the crumble layers by combining the crushed biscuits and brown sugar. Set aside until you are ready to assemble.
5. Next, begin on the cheesecake filling. Start by beating the double cream and icing sugar in a large bowl until whipped. In a separate bowl whisk the cream cheese, lemon juice and vanilla extract until light and smooth (approx 1 min). Add the whipped cream to the cream cheese and gently fold until combined.
6. Remove the strawberries from the fridge. Place a sieve over a bowl and pour the mixture in, leave for 15mins until properly strained. Don’t throw away the juices! Add 75ml of the juices to the cream cheese mixture and mix well to combine. (At this point, I recommend taste testing, it may need a little more sweetness, if so, add a little more of the strawberry juices.)
7. Use half the cream cheese filling and distribute equally between the six glasses.
8. Top with the stewed strawberries then half of the biscuit crumble mixture.
9. Repeat with another layer of cheesecake and crumble.
10. For the whipped cream on top, combine the cream with icing sugar and vanilla before whisking till just thick enough to pipe. Use a piping bag and nozzle to decorate.
11. Place the cheesecakes in the fridge to chill.
12. Heat the dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan, a quarter filled with water until just melted. Dip your strawberries in, one by one, using the stem to turn and coat all the way around.
13. Place the chocolate coated strawberries on a tin foil lined baking tray and chill in the fridge till set.
14. Using the same process, heat the white chocolate. Pour into a piping bag and snip a small hole. Use this to drizzle lines over the strawberries.
15. Top cheesecakes with strawberries and serve.