In Spain, a simple and delicious starter or “tapa” is a plate of cheese with a glass of fine red wine. Sometimes the most simple flavours are the best and cheese and wine as we all know are perfect partners. The concept of this dish was born over a plate of cheese and a glass or two of wine with an idea to make a cheesecake complemented by some Rioja red wine jelly. We used a red wine jelly we had found from a small producer based in the Sierra de Huelva in southern Spain but you can of course make your own. The explosion of flavours with the three cheeses and the red wine are complemented with another Spanish favourite: fig bread.
PrintThree Cheese Cheesecake with Red Wine Jelly
- Prep Time: 4 hours
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Total Time: 6 hours
- Cuisine: Desserts
Ingredients
- 200g white cream cheese
- 120g goats cheese
- 50g blue cheese
- 100g dry figs
- 80g dry apricots
- 30g walnuts
- 500 ml water
- 10g gelatine powder
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 large red pepper chopped
- 30g brown sugar
Instructions
- Put the figs, apricots and walnuts in a foodprocesor and grind until you have a thick paste. Spread the mixture out over a piece of backing paper at a height of approximately 0.5 cm and leave in the refrigerator.
- Now to prepare the cheese filling. First put the gelatine in a dry bowl. Measure out 500ml of water, adding 100ml to the bowl with the gelatine powder and putting the rest in a saucepan to boil. Once the water has boiled, take it off the heat and add your gelatine mix.
- Next, put all your cheese in a saucepan over a low heat and add two tablespoons of milk so that your filling is more creamy. Continue to stir until you have a smooth sauce with no lumps. If needed, then try using a blender.
- Remove the cheese sauce from the heat and add 200ml of your gelatine mixture and stir until everything is completely mixed.
- Pour into a square container to a depth of 5cm and place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, or until firm.
- Meanwhile you can prepare the pepper jam. Take one large red pepper, chop finely, and add to a saucepan with the sugar.
- Stir constantly and remove from heat when you have a jam-like consistency.
- After three hours, you can now put everything together. Cut the fig bread into two rectangular pieces. Use one piece as your base, spread some of your pepper jam and add a layer of your cheese filling. Then add your next piece of fig bread and repeat. This top layer of cheese is where we use our star ingredient: the red wine jelly which gives a distinct flavour to this dish.
