
Main INGREDIENTS
- Fruit
Ingredients
Method
Ingredients
Main
- 125g soft butter, plus extra for greasing
- 4 ripe but firm deep red plums (approximately 200g)
- 200g shelled, unsalted pistachio nuts
- 250g caster sugar
- 3 medium eggs
- 60g Greek-style natural yoghurt
- 200g dried polenta
- 75g self-raising flour
- Finely grated zest and juice of 1 small lemon
- 150g small strawberries, halved
- 2-3 tablespoons honey, warmed
For the Rose-scented Cheesecake Cream
- 150g full-fat cream cheese, such as Philadelphia
- ¼ teaspoon rose water, or to taste
- 25g icing sugar
- 100ml double cream
- 50g Greek-style natural yoghurt
- Dried rose petals/freeze-dried strawberries/pomegranate seeds/extra chopped pistachio nuts, to decorate – choose any combination to decorate the cake
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Method
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1Preheat the oven to 170°C/ Fan150°C/ Gas Mark 3½
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2Grease the inside of the casserole with butter and line the base with a 19cm disc of non-stick baking paper. Halve the plums, discard the stones and cut the fruit into wedges. Put the pistachio nuts into the bowl of a food processor and grind coarsely. Add 50g of sugar and grind once more until really fine and the texture of ground almonds.
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3Beat the butter in a bowl for 1 minute until soft. Add the remaining sugar and beat for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in 50g of the ground pistachio nuts, followed by the eggs, one at a time. Fold in the remaining ground pistachio nuts, yoghurt, polenta, flour, lemon zest and lemon juice.
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4Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared casserole and arrange the plum wedges and strawberry halves on the top. Bake for 1½ hours or until a skewer, pushed into the centre of the cake, comes out clean. Remove from the oven, brush the surface with the warmed honey and leave to cool.
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5Meanwhile, for the cheesecake cream, beat the cream cheese, rose water and sugar together in a bowl until smooth. Lightly whip the cream in another bowl into soft peaks. Fold this into the cream cheese mixture with the yoghurt. Spoon into a Le Creuset Stoneware Petite Casserole and decorate with the dried rose petals, freeze-dried strawberries and/or pomegranate seeds and extra chopped pistachio nuts. Serve with the cake.
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6Cook's Notes
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7If you are not fond of the flavour of rose water in the cheesecake cream, simply add the finely grated zest of 1 lemon instead.