Easter Recipe – Chocolate Cheesecake

Easter, long before Christ was born, was a season connected with Spring, season of new life. Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon Teutonic goddess, was the goddess of Sunrise and Spring. Ostara, a Norse/Saxon goddess, was the maiden goddess of Spring. The origins of hares (bunnies) and eggs, according to a Teutonic myth, was that the hare was once a bird which Eostre changed into an animal with four legs although it still had the ability to lay eggs! What an extraordinary tale!

For those who gave up chocolate for Lent, Easter will give a certain physical pleasure, apart from the genuine rejoicing at our Risen Lord - so for this month’s recipe I thought I would give you a chocolate dessert, and very tasty it is too!

Ingredients
8 oz chocolate digestive biscuits
3 egg yolks (use the whites to make meringues – fill with fruit and cream!)
4 oz butter or margarine
8 oz fromage frais or curd cheese
3 oz caster sugar flavoured with a little vanilla
1 teaspoon fairtrade cocoa powder
8 oz double cream
4 oz good quality fairtrade plain chocolate
1 tablespoon brandy, rum or orange juice
4 teaspoons powdered gelatine
1 flaky bar of fairtrade grated chocolate
some little fairtrade chocolate Easter eggs, if required

Method
Crush the chocolate digestive biscuits in a bag using a rolling pin. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the biscuit crumbs. Mix thoroughly and press into the base of a clip-sided cake tin. Beat together the curd cheese or fromage frais with the egg yolks and the vanilla flavoured sugar. Melt the chocolate in a basin over a pan of hot water until it is smooth. Whip the cream until it holds soft peaks and mix with the melted chocolate. Add brandy, or rum, or orange juice. Stir this mixture into the cheese and egg yolks. Dissolve the gelatine in four tablespoons of very hot water with the cocoa powder. Stir until it is completely dissolved and mix well into the chocolate, cheese and cream mixture. Pour this onto the biscuit base and chill for 3 to 4 hours. When set, remove from cake tin and decorate with crushed flaky bar and, if you want to, some little chocolate Easter eggs!