Pumpkin and Amaretto Cheesecake

Ingredients

225g digestive biscuits
100g ground almonds
75g butter
340g cooked pumpkin (steamed or roasted)
225g light brown sugar
450g cream cheese
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
4 eggs
90ml double cream
90ml natural yoghurt
2 tbsp amaretto or almond essence

 

Instructions

1.      Heat the oven to 170°C, gas mark 3.  Crush the digestive biscuits into crumbs. Melt the butter over a low heat and mix in the biscuit crumbs and ground almonds. Lightly grease a 25cm loose-bottomed cake tin and press the crumbs into the base and up the sides slightly.

2.      Mix together the cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg until smooth. Beat the eggs and fold into the pumpkin mixture. Turn into the tin and bake in the oven for 90 minutes until the surface is set but the underneath still slightly squidgy.

3.      Take the cheesecake out of the oven and let it cool in the tin. When cool, turn it on to a serving plate, cover with clingfilm and chill overnight.

Whip the double cream until thick and fold in the yoghurt and amaretto or almond essence. Spread over the top of the cheesecake and serve at room temperature