Rhubarb Vanilla Compote with Baked Vanilla Cheesecake

 

This month’s Cheese, Please! challenge was to create something cheesy and seasonal.

Right from the start I wanted to make something sweet. My mind more or less instantly focused on cheesecake and stayed there with such a dogged determination that it was difficult the believe that I would make anything else for this month’s challenge.

The only problem was that there is very little fruit in season at this time of year (according to this helpful little chart). I know that strawberries are starting to appear in abundance in the supermarkets, but technically when I came to make this month’s recipes, they weren’t.

I had a choice of three fruits – banana, kiwi and rhubarb.

Bananas – not grown in this country, so I discounted them.

Kiwis – again, not grown in the UK, and as much as I love kiwi fruit, the thought of them with a cheesecake made me pull a funny face.

So, rhubarb it was.

Now I was faced with a different problem. For a fruit that is supposed to be in season, I couldn’t find any. Anywhere.

The internet is awash with rhubarb recipes at the moment. Gloriously bright pink rhubarb to be exact (although sometimes it is paired with strawberries, therefore emphasising the pink-ness). Forced rhubarb with give you this candy-like pink colour, but unfortunately I had left it so long that it had been and gone and the un-forced rhubarb had yet to make an appearance. There is some very pink (un-forced) rhubarb growing in the garden, but that isn’t ready yet either.

As luck would have it, I walked into a supermarket just in case they had some, and there it was, one lonely packet of rhubarb languishing on a discounted produce trolley with only some radishes and baby sweetcorn for company. I all but pushed a woman out of the way in order to get to it (she looked like she was going to snaffle it, and I needed that rhubarb). I triumphantly put it in my basket and started to gather the rest of the ingredients for the cheesecake (I hadn’t bought any cream cheese, just in case I had to re-think everything. It all hinged on finding some rhubarb).

However elated I felt at finding my much longed for ingredient, I knew there was still going to be a slight issue with this recipe, primarily when it came to photographing it. I’m sure you’ve noticed it already. I’m sure you have already made, albeit in your head, some snide comment.

Yep, my rhubarb was more green than pink.

And rhubarb that is more green than pink cooks down to a sludgy brown colour.

And sludgy brown rhubarb does not a pretty photography take.

But for all it’s sludgy brown colour, it still tastes delicious. So please bear that in mind whilst looking at the photos accompanying this post / recipe. Do not berate my rhubarb for being ugly. It is still yummy.

Let’s talk about the actual cheesecake for a moment:

I used some left-over Speculaas biscuits for the base. The spices in them go really well with the rhubarb, but you could use whatever biscuits you wish. In order to keep the amount of sugar down I swapped the caster sugar for coconut sugar which is why it is a slightly caramel, golden brown colour. If you use caster sugar, your cheesecake will be much creamier in colour and potentially a little sweeter.

So there you have it, the trials and tribulations of trying to take part in another Cheese, Please! challenge. Jeez, it can be stressful.

Pass me the cheesecake . . .