strawberry cheesecake with nut crumble Drizzle and Dip

This delightful strawberry cheesecake with nut crumble recipe is more like a mousse than a dense fridge cheesecake. The filling is dolloped onto a fabulous crunchy base and finished off with a drizzle of strawberry syrup and slices of fresh strawberry.

It originates from executive chef Phil De Villiers from 54 on Bath in Johannesburg. His is a way more elaborate and sophisticated dish that is made with elderberries, layered with meringues, honeycomb, and vanilla jelly, and served with strawberry-filled ricotta dumplings on the side. They serve this in the fabulous Level Four restaurant at the hotel. I dumbed the recipe right down to ensure it was super easy to achieve for the home cook and left out the extra components. I used strawberry syrup because it so happens I made it recently. Also, elderberries are not available in South Africa at all.

If however, you want to get all fancy pants and live in a place where elderberries are easy to come by, I found this lovely sounding recipe to make elderberry syrup. You will have to put it through Google translate, but it looks so pretty.

The recipe makes a little more crumble mix than is required, but just sprinkle it on other things or eat it with a spoon. It’s totally the best crumble I have ever tasted.

Recipe – makes 12 individual portions

Strawberry Cheesecake

Ingredients

Nut crumble

250 g flour
170 g butter
110 g macadamia nuts
110 g almonds
110 g Demerara sugar
1/2 t vanilla extract

Cheesecake

125 g crème fraîche
225 g Philadelphia cheese
100 g icing sugar
150 ml Strawberry Syrup plus extra to garnish
250 ml cream
3 leaves Gelatine
Fresh strawberries for garnish

Instructions

To make the crumble topping, preheat the oven to 160°C/Gas mark 3. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until the mixture is the texture of breadcrumbs. Spread out the crumble on a baking tray and bake for 30-40 minutes, being sure to stir the crumble mixture every 10 minutes. Remove when the mixture is golden brown and set aside to cool.
For the cheesecake, soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water for about 5 minutes, and use a little bit of the cream and melt the gelatine over a double boiler. Set aside to cool.
Mix together the crème fraîche, cream cheese, sugar, and strawberry syrup (I used an electric stand mixer with a whisk attachment). Put the cream in a separate bowl and whisk until stiff. Gently fold the gelatine into the cream mix and gradually fold the stiff cream into the cream cheese mixture little by little until completely combined.
To assemble the cheesecake, spoon out a layer of crumble at the bottom of your serving glass and top with a good dollop of strawberry cheesecake mix. refrigerate until ready to serve.
Decorate with a drizzle of strawberry syrup and a few slices of fresh strawberries.

Author: Sam Linsell

A few of my favourite desserts:

Berry cheesecake with almond crumble

Basque burnt cheesecake

Honey, rosewater, and cinnamon panna cotta

All my desserts

Mocha mousse parfait

I look forward to connecting with you again in the future.

Visit my Drizzle and Dip Facebook Pinterest, and Instagram

18 Comments

One word. Decadent. Is 54 on Bath the ex Grace Hotel?

Hi Susan. yes its the former Grace Hotel

What a lovely gastronomical tour! I am going to look at it again in slow motion and in detail!

It made me laugh to read that this recipe “a little more crumble than required”. More crumble is NEVER a problem 😉

Hi Sam
Gelatene is not kosher any suggestions to replace it.

When is your book hitting the stores

Regards
Alan

Hi Alan, you could just leave it out. It gives it a big of stability, but thereere is enough dairy in this to keep it firm. When mixing, mkae sure all hte cream and cheese etc is cold. Its seriously delicious. Also I only used 100g almonds (SA pack size).

Hi Janice – so glad to hear. I love me some crumble too #texture 🙂

Hi, this hits my weak spot : ) On my ‘to do’ list for this weekend ’cause luckily I have half a tub of leftover creme fraiche available. Could you help with the equivalent quantity of powdered gelatine as I don’t have the leaf variety? Thanks!

This strawberry cheesecake looks fantastic; I am drooling for your recipe right now.
and yes, I do love “our food stories” blog, too

This does look very divine I especially like the crumble as it can also be easily converted into a topping for a fruit crumble.

Lovely cheesecakes, I adore the crumble!

Thanks Meeta. The crumble is so nutty and not very sweet. Its my new favourite thing and perfect on top of fruit.

These little strawberry cheesecakes are just the cutest things ever.. love the look of them, pinned!

Wow that looks amazing! Pretty sweet hotel stay too!

Thanks Thalia, Ive been drooling all over your food lately. You are doing the most delicious things
Sam x

Absolutely tasty! Best cheesecake I’ve ever had ????

Thanks Leila – I so agree with you, its my all time favourite now. Did you see the version I did with lemon curd (fairly recent post) – also stunning. So many variations here. Thinking passion fruit curd or even raspberries