Cafe Lula

The last of the weekend’s Mexican recipes is this ace cheesecake. If this cheesecake were a person, it would be Ryan Gosling. Beautiful, yummy and lovely to eat caramel sauce off of. Oh, Ryan Gosling. So perfect. So swoonworthy. How are you not mine? *sigh*

What were we talking about?

Oh yeah. I remember. In the event that you have no supply of Ryan Gosling, I suggest you make this cheesecake. It makes me happy.

Vanilla cheesecake with pineapple caramel sauce

Adapted from Mexican Food Made Simple by Thomasina Miers

Serves 10-12

Ingredients:

For the cheesecake:

35g butter

125g digestive biscuits

200g caster sugar

1.75 tbsp cornflour

665g cream cheese

5 large eggs, separated

0.5 tsp vanilla extract

135ml double cream

135ml sour cream

For the pineapple caramel sauce:

a large knob of butter

200g fresh pineapple, peeled, cored and chopped

225g caster sugar

240ml water

Preheat the oven to 150C. Grease and line a 23cm loose-based round tin.

Make the base by melting the butter and crushing the biscuits, either in a food processor or by putting them in a sandwich bag and bashing them with a rolling pin. Mix the butter and biscuits together and presh into the base of the cake tin. Put the tin in the fridge to chill.

Beat together the sugar, cornflour, cream cheese, egg yolks and vanilla extract. Add the creams gradually, whisking as you do.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Fold them gently into the cream cheese mixture. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 1hr 15 minutes, until the top is golden. Try not to open the oven. Once the cheesecake is golden on top, turn the oven off but leave the cheesecake in there to cool completely. Put it in the fridge while you make the sauce.

To make the caramel, melt the butter in a pan over a high heat and fry the pineapple with 1 tsp of the sugar until golden. Remove the pineapple from the pan and set aside. Add the rest of the sugar to the pan with 100ml of the water. When the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat up and cook until the mixture is a deep amber colour.

Turn the heat down and add the rest of the water. Be careful as the mixture will spit, so stand back a bit! Stir like a maniac until the sugar dissolves again. Cook until it has thickened slightly, although it will still be very liquid. Add the pineapple to the caramel and stir well.

Once the sauce has cooled slightly, serve with the cheesecake and think of Ryan Gosling.