Baklava Cheesecake

Base:

Filling:

Honey syrup:

Phyllo:

To finish:

Base:
Preheat oven to 200°C. Roast walnuts for 5 minutes. Remove and leave to cool. Blitz in food processor until coarsely ground. Stir in castor sugar, cinnamon and cornflour. Add butter and mix. Double line the bottom of springform pan with baking paper. Press mixture firmly onto base. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Bake for 10 minutes. Take out of oven and leave to cool.

Filling:
Increase oven temperature to 240°C.

Carefully wrap the pan with the prepared crust in foil to make it watertight. Place the pan in another bigger pan or into a deep baking tray. Fill with 2 cm boiling water. (This will prevent the cheesecake from cracking).

Beat the cream cheese and cultured cream together until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Add the castor sugar, vanilla extract and orange zest and mix well. Sift in the corn flour while beating.

Pour the mixture into the prepared springform pan. Bake at 240°C for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 150°C and bake for a further 60 minutes.

Cool in the oven, opening the door briefly to let out a bit of heat. Once it’s cooled completely, remove from the pan and allow to chill in fridge.

Honey syrup:
Simmer all ingredients and reduce until syrup lightly coats back of a spoon. Cool completely and strain to remove cloves, cardamom and cinnamon stick.

Phyllo:
Take sheet of phyllo pastry and brush lightly with butter before baking until golden brown. Crush.

To finish:
Mix pistachios and crushed phyllo pastry together. Scatter over chilled cheesecake and pour honey syrup over.

Recipe adapted from Kathryn Chiles, finalist of 2016 LANCEWOOD Cake-Off®.