If you do one thing this weekend…

All Good news & banana gossip

If you do one thing this weekend…

28 January 2011 | Posted by simon in All Good News, Recipes

Simon’s mum made the most delicious Roast Banana Cheesecake last week. It was to die for!

The recipe comes from the wonderful people at Ripe Deli on Richmond Road who have just launched a recipe book of all their favourites, Ripe Recipes. This particular cake is a favourite of Kiwi actor George Henare, so much so, that it’s been dubbed by the Ripe team as George’s Roast Banana Cheesecake.

You can buy the book at Ripe deli on Richmond Road, Auckland (who also use our bananas in their baking) or online.

The lovely Ange Redfern at Ripe has kindly let us publish the recipe on our blog (after we had hundreds of requests from twitter fans who wanted to make it). We highly recommend using Fairtrade bananas, of course, because they leave a much better taste in your mouth!

GEORGE’S ROAST BANANA CHEESECAKE from Ripe Recipes

Former head chef Louise Kelleher introduced this cheesecake to Ripe, which is now officially named after its biggest fan, George Henare. Louise’s caring and infectious personality is missed at Ripe (not to mention her piping bag skills!).

Serves 8-10

base

250g Malt, Gingernut or Digestive biscuits
100g butter, melted

roast banana FILLING

4 bananas
1kg cream cheese
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
6 eggs
½ cup (175g) maple syrup to glaze

TOPPING

1 banana
1 tbsp Butter
1 tbsp white sugar

Preheat oven to 170°C.

Grease and line a 26cm spring form tin with baking paper.

To prepare the base: place the biscuits and butter into a food processor and blend until they form a wet sandy consistency. Transfer mixture into the lined tin and press down with the back of a spoon. Cover and chill in the fridge.

To prepare the filling: put the unpeeled bananas on a lined baking tray and bake until black and soft, approximately 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In the cleaned food processor bowl place the cream cheese, sugar and eggs and process until smooth and well combined.

Split and peel the cooled bananas and add to cream cheese mixture. Process until well combined.

Pour onto the chilled biscuit base and bake for 45 minutes. At this point give the tin a gentle jiggle – if the surface stays set together on top it’s ready to remove from the oven.

For best results chill in the fridge overnight.

To prepare the topping: peel and slice the banana in half lengthways. Melt the butter and sugar in a small frying pan. Add the banana and cook over a medium to high heat until slightly caramalised. Allow to cool.

Before releasing from the tin, pour over the maple syrup as a glaze and pile the banana on top.

Copyright Sally Greer GEORGES ROAST BANANA CHEESECAKE Ripe Recipes published by Beatnik.