Chocolate Hazelnut Cheesecake

Nigella Says

I don’t know if I should apologize for this or boast about it. Either way, I feel you will thank me for it. The thing is that it’s embarrassingly easy and, although I first started making it last Christmas – a lot – reckoning that it was just the sort of count-no calorie indulgence tbat the season demands, I have since decided that something this good, and this speedily simple to conjure into being, needs to be in our lives all year round.

Don’t be tempted to let the cheesecake come to room temperature before serving it slices and eats better with a bit of fridge chill on it.

However, you must have both Nutella and cream cheese at room temperature before making it. To simplify your life a little, you can buy the hazelnuts ready chopped and toasted.

I Say

I have made this several times for family, friends and colleagues and has always gone down well and people are always surprised at how easy it is when I share the recipe with them.

Though I would say dish works better with less hazelnuts on the top, you need some for bite and texture but coating the top with nuts can make it a little overwhelming.

Need

1 x 22 or 23 cm Springform Cake tin

Ingredients

250g Digestive Biscuits

75g Soft unsalted butter

1 x 400g Jar Nutella or equivalent chocolate hazelnut spread at room temperature

100g Chopped Toasted Hazelnuts

500g Cream Cheese at room temperature

60g Icing Sugar

Method

1.      Break  the biscuits into the bowl of a food processor, then add the butter and 1 x 15 ml tablespoon of Nutella and Blitz until the mixture starts to clump. Add 25g of the toasted hazelnuts, and continue to pulse until you have a damp, sandy mixture.

2.      Tip this into the springform tin and press it into the base, using either your hands or the back of a spoon. Place in the fridge to chill while you get o with the filling

3.      Beat together the cream cheese and icing sugar until smooth and soft, then patiently scrape the rest of the Nutella out of its jar and into the cream cheese mixture and continue beating until combined

4.      Take the springform tin out of the fridge. Carefully scrape and smooth the Nutella mixture over the biscuit base and scatter the remaining chopped hazelnuts on top to cover. Place the tin in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

5.      Serve straight from the fridge for best results, unspringing the cake from the tin, still on its base, just before you eat. To cut it, dip a sharp knife in cold water, wiping it and dipping again between each cut. And don’t worry: it may look disappointingly flat when whole, but when sliced its dark depths are revealed