Almond and apricot cheesecake
- Published: 24 Mar 23
- Updated: 25 Mar 24
This apricot cheesecake from Honey & Co’s Sarit Packer heroes dried apricots and amaretti for a dish that can be prepared and in the oven in less than half an hour! The really hard part is waiting for it to cool…
“A party is not a party without a cheesecake, if you ask me. Apricot, almond and amaretto are a dream combination and bring a great balance to a cheesecake – it’s quite something.”
Sarit and her husband Itamar Srulovich co-founded restaurants Honey & Co, Honey & Smoke: Grill House and deli Honey & Spice: Food Store. The couple have written four cookbooks, write a recipe column in FT Weekend and host a podcast called Honey & Co: The Food Sessions.
- Serves 10-12
- Hands-on time 25 min, plus at least 4 hours cooling, oven time 45 min
Ingredients
- 250g amaretti biscuits, crushed
- 80g unsalted butter, melted
- 500g full-fat cream cheese
- 100g soured cream
- 150g almond butter
- 200g demerara sugar
- 4 medium free-range eggs
- 2 tbsp amaretto
- 2 tbsp cornflour
For the topping
- 300g soured cream
- 4 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 200g dried apricots
- 3 tbsp amaretto
Specialist kit
- 22cm loose-bottomed cake tin
Method
- Heat the oven to 170°C/gas 3½ (don’t use the fan). Mix the crushed biscuits with the melted butter, then pack the mixture into the bottom of your cake tin. Bake for 8 minutes.
- Meanwhile, use an electric whisk to beat the cream cheese, soured cream, almond butter and sugar together until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking them in before adding the next, then whisk in the amaretto and cornflour. Pour this mixture over the biscuit base, then return it to the oven for a further 30 minutes.
- While the cake bakes, make the topping. Mix the soured cream and half the sugar together. After 30 minutes, pour the soured cream mixture over the cheesecake and return to the oven for a final 8 minutes, or until it is just set but still a bit wobbly. Leave to cool entirely in the tin, then cover and put in the fridge to chill completely for at least 4 hours (but ideally overnight).
- Put the remaining sugar, the cinnamon stick and 100ml water in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, then add the dried apricots and remove from the heat. Leave to plump up and cool for 15 minutes, then add the amaretto and put in the fridge to chill with the cheesecake. To serve, transfer the cake to a serving plate, then decorate with the apricots and a drizzle of the poaching syrup.
- Recipe from May 2023 Issue
Nutrition
- Calories
- 552kcals
- Fat
- 33.7g (14.8g saturated)
- Protein
- 11.9g
- Carbohydrates
- 46.6g (33.3g sugars)
- Fibre
- 2.9g
- Salt
- 0.5g
delicious. tips
Use chopped fresh apricots instead of dried if you come across some particularly ripe ones.
It’s best to start this cheesecake the day before you plan to serve as it needs to chill thoroughly in the fridge.
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