Sweet Potato Cheesecake

I saw this recipe in the latest edition of my Everyday Food magazine and decided from the pictures that it looked too good not to try making. My annual pseudo-Thanksgiving dinner was upon us and I thought this would be a perfect dessert. I usually make Pumpkin Pie, but I think I have made plenty with that particular orange gourd this year.

For dinner my mother, Disneyboi and I sat around my dining table and dug into a meal of my cranberry and pumpkin seed dinner rolls, roast chicken (I’ll leave the turkey to mum on Christmas day), onion roasted potatoes, cornbread muffins with bacon, roast broccoli with bacon and pureed butternut squash with ginger and honey. It was delicious, even if I do say so myself!

But the piece de resistance was undoubtedly this unusual twist on a cheesecake. Now, before I read the recipe, I thought it would be full of spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. But I was wrong. This filling stayed very true to a cheesecake, it comprised ricotta and mashed sweet potatoes along with a wee bit of greek yoghurt. I served mines with some sweetened whipped cream – but as Disneyboi said ‘it disnae really need it’.

Sweet Potato Cheesecake

(Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Sweet Potato Cheesecake Squares)

(I cheated and used a pre-made pie crust, but the recipe for one is included below)

Ingredients

Crust:

24 Digestive Biscuits, crushed

84 grams unsalted butter, melted

55 grams granulated sugar

Filling:

600 grams sweet potato, baked

42 grams butter, melted

150 grams granulated sugar

4 large eggs

125 grams fat free Greek yoghurt

pinch of salt

340 grams ricotta cheese

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200^oC. Mix the biscuit crumbs, butter and sugar with a fork until well combined. Place firmly into a 9" pie dish, including the sides. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and allow to cool.

The sweet potatoes should be baked for 1 hour in the 200^oC oven. After this time the flesh should be very tender. Scoop this from the skin into a bowl and mash lightly with a fork. Reduce the oven temperature to 160^oC. 

In a food blender add the potatoes, butter sugar, eggs, yoghurt, salt and ricotta. Blend this until very smooth. Depending on the size of the blender you may have to do this in two stages.

Pour as much of the blended mixture into the piecrust and place into the oven for 30 to 35 minutes. The cheesecake should wobble slightly in the middle still. Allow this to cool fully and then pop into the fridge for at least an hour or overnight if you have the time.

I served mines, like I said, with some whipped cream with vanilla and Splenda added. It really is like no other cheesecake you have had before. But give it a try and you will be surprised – honestly!

Enjoy!