Ottolenghi's winter spiced cheesecake with marmalade glaze

In The Guardian recently, I spied an interesting sounding recipe for Winter Spiced Cheesecake with Marmalade Glaze by Yotam Ottolenghi.  The cheesecake was interesting because it contains sweet potato; yep, you read it correctly, sweet potato.

Being a sucker for anything a little unusual, of course I tried it:

As you can see, these cheesecake is a glorious orange colour, and the base has a wonderful earthiness about it from the toasted almonds and sesame seeds.  Don't skip the marmalade glaze - the filling of the cheesecake is not overly sweet, so the glaze gives the cheesecake a delightful sweet hit.

To make this cheesecake, you will need:

550g sweet potatoes cut in half lengthways
60g hard amaretti biscuits (I used morning coffee biscuits)
60g Hobnob biscuits (I used Graham crackers)
60g roasted almonds, roughly chopped
10g toasted sesame seeds
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
70g melted butter
300g cream cheese (I used light cream cheese)
250g mascarpone
90g icing sugar
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla bean essence
140g fine-shred marmalade
3 tbsp maple syrup

Preheat your oven to 210 degrees Celsius. Line a round 23cm spring-form pan with baking paper.

Line  an oven tray with baking paper and put the sweet potatoes cut side down on it.  Roast the potatoes for 30-50 minutes until soft. Scoop out the potato flesh, discarding the skins, and process in a food processor until smooth.  Refrigerate until cold.

Put the biscuits in a food processor and blitz until fine crumbs form. Mix with the almonds, sesame seeds, spices and butter, then press into the base of the springform pan to form an even layer. Chill in the fridge.

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In a stand mixer, beat the cooled sweet potato with the cream cheese, mascarpone, icing sugar, two tablespoons of lemon juice and a teaspoon of vanilla until smooth. Spread the filling evenly over the biscuit base, then refrigerate overnight or until set.

Bring the marmalade, maple syrup and the remaining lemon juice and vanilla to the boil in a small saucepan and stir for two minutes until the mixture thickens slightly. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Release the cheesecake from the pan, discard the paper, and pour the cooled marmalade mix evenly over the top of the cheesecake. Refrigerate again for 10 minutes, then serve.