Greek Yoghurt Cheesecake with Strawberry Coulis

Hello summer, it’s nice to see you again! The weather here in England has finally started behaving itself and this week we are blessed with sunshine and high temperatures. I wish I could spend my days by the pool, but of course I have to keep working, creating recipes, taking photos and writing posts. With this heat, I thought I’d share a recipe that requires no baking at all: Greek Yoghurt Cheesecake with Strawberry Coulis.

A yoghurt cheesecake is a fantastic dessert idea for the summer, served after a barbecue or a dinner party. I decided to add full fat Greek Yoghurt here to add tanginess and a creamy texture to the cake. For a lighter and healthier cake you can use Icelandic skyr, as I did for my Skyr Cake with Roasted Figs a few months ago.

I have also gone for an extra indulgent biscuit base, using Milk Chocolate Digestive biscuits. Since the yoghurt cream feeling is light and not too sweet, I thought an extra tasty crunch base would work really well here.

For the topping I used fresh British strawberries and I also made a strawberry coulis to pour over the cake before serving. A coulis is a thin sauce made from mashed fruit, it is similar to jam in tasteit, but more runny and less sticky. I love making a berry coulis to drizzle over panna cotta, pancakes, waffles or Panettone french toast.

You can make this simply by leaving the berries to macerate with sugar and lemon juice. Or you can also cook it in a pan for a few minutes for a more syrupy sauce.

And of course you can choose any other seasonal fruit or berry, like raspberries or peaches.

Ingredients

For the base

• butter, for greasing the cake tin
• 100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 200g milk chocolate Digestive biscuit crumbs

For the filling

Preparation

Coat the bottom and sides of a springform cake tin with butter. Line bottom with baking paper. Mix the biscuit crumbs and melted butter in a medium bowl, then press it onto the bottom of tin in an even layer. Chill until firm, at least 1 hour or up to 1 day.

Pulse cream cheese, yogurt, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and salt in a food processor, scraping down sides as needed, until completely smooth.

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 minutes. Squeeze out excess water. Place the soaked leaves in a saucepan and over a very low heat, melt slowly.

With processor running, drizzle gelatin into cream cheese mixture; mix until well blended. Pour into prepared crust. Tap the cake tin firmly on the counter to break up any big air bubbles. Smooth the top with a spatula. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and chill for at least 6 hours before serving.

To make the coulis, weigh out 200g of the strawberries into a small pan, add caster sugar and lemon juice. Leave to soak for 30 minutes. On a medium heat, bring the strawberries and juice to a boil, and boil for 1-2 minutes. Purée the mixture until smooth. Store in the fridge.

Decorate the cheesecake with the remaining strawberries. Cut cheesecake into slices, dipping knife into a large glass of warm water and wiping dry between slices, and place on plates. Drizzle the slices with strawberry coulis.

Disclaimer: this post is part of a collaboration with Beko and their American Style Fridge Freezer. It is adapted from this Bon Appetit recipe.