SPECTACULAR Fig & Pomegranate No Bake Cheesecake!

This fig and pomegranate cheesecake is pretty in pink. This upside down no bake cheesecake is covered in fresh, sliced figs with creamy, fluffy pomegranate cream cheese, a surprise fig layer inside and is garnished with fresh figs. This beauty is called Zaria.

I saw this cheesecake on Instagram on an account called Patisserieomycake and wanted to make my own version. I had some fresh pomegranates and pomegranate molasses from my travels and had three boxes of figs so I wanted to make this cheesecake a pink cheesecake to echo the colour of the figs and pomegranates.

No bake cheesecakes vs baked cheesecakes: No bake cheesecakes are lighter in texture and fluffy while baked cheesecakes tend to be denser and creamier. With this no bake cheesecake you don't need to bake the base or the filling.

What is pomegranate molasses? Pomegranate molasses is simply pomegranate juice that has been boiled down to become a thick syrupy, molasses-type texture without any sugar added. It is tart and syrupy and works well in both sweet and savoury recipes. It can also easily be made at home using pomegranate juice. Boil 2 cups of pomegranate juice and then heat at a low simmer for around 1-1.5 hours. Some recipes add 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice at the very first stage and that helps to reduce the cooking time to 1 hour. Store pomegranate molasses in the fridge for up to 6 months.

I used a pomegranate molasses that I bought from a trip to Rylstone from Aril Estate. It tastes of pure pomegranate fruit and has a lovely sweet and sour tang to it.

I made this cheesecake on the Friday before I was bringing it to Monica and Marco's house. I like no bake cheesecakes and cheesecakes for the reason that they can be done the day before which saves time on the day.

It was lucky that I did because we had an easy Saturday planned but it didn't turn out like that and that was because of one little member of the family having to have a vet visit. Everything got pushed back, the grocery shopping, the flower shopping etc. Couple that all with an hour long phone call for Mr NQN to change his health insurance that we had scheduled in a week ago.

Mr NQN and I have a couple rule. We don't go to the bathroom in front of each other. I have an aversion to these sorts of bodily functions (which is why there's rarely a picture of a toilet in my hotel room review photos) and so far it works for us.

Sometimes I get a bit lazy closing the door though especially when he has his door locked all day during the day on his endless Zoom calls. This health insurance call was taking forever at just under an hour and so I quickly peed with the door open figuring what were the chances of him coming out then (a friend once noted that I was peeing bandit, in and out before you'd even know what happened).

Except of course at that second he opened the door.

"I'm on the TOILET!!!" I said, except my voice ended up being really high pitched and I sort of sounded like a kid. Mr NQN was also still on the phone having come out to get some paperwork. His hands gestured for me to be quiet but it was too late, the guy on the other end of the line heard it all, crystal clear.

"Sounds like you've got your hands full there mate!" he said, probably thinking that Mr NQN had interrupted his kid's potty time. He didn't have the heart to tell him that it was his fully grown wife...

So tell me Dear Reader, do you have any "couple rules"? Do you prefer baked or no bake cheesecakes?

Fig & Pomegrante No Bake Cheesecake

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 30 minutes plus overnight setting time

Cooking time:

Serves:

• 12-15 fresh figs (not overly ripe)
• 5 teaspoons gelatine powder
• 1/4 cup/60ml/2flozs. water
• 350ml/12flozs cream
• 100g/3.5ozs. caster or superfine sugar
• 500g/1.1lbs cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs. pomegranate molasses (good quality)
• Pink food colouring
• 80g/3ozs. plain biscuits or Graham crackers
• 60g/2ozs. butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon desiccated coconut
• 2 teaspoons sugar

Please note that you may not need all of the figs but you want slices of the same size, hence the extra figs. You will use some extra fig slices inside the cake.

Step 1 - Sprinkle the gelatine powder over the water and microwave for 20 seconds until clear and viscous. Allow to cool for 5 minutes while you make the cake filling.

Step 2 - Firstly line the base and sides of a 16cm/6.3inch springform tin (8cms/3.1inches high). Please note the smaller size of the tin. Slice the figs and arrange them on the base and sides of the cake tin.

Step 3 - Using the whisk attachment, whip the cream and sugar until fluffy and stiff peaks form. Scoop out and set aside. Switch to the beater attachment and beat the cream cheese, pomegranate molasses and colouring until smooth. Make sure there are no lumps of cream cheese. Then beat in the gelatine mixture until the mixture is pink and smooth.

Step 4 -Fold in the reserved whipped cream making sure not to deflate the mixture and ensure that there are no streaks or lumps. Gently scoop half of the cheese filling over the figs making sure to not dislodge the fig slices. Add some extra fig slices to the centre. Then add the remaining pink filling smoothing it on top. There should be enough filling to cover the figs completely. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Step 5 - The next day process the cookies until fine crumbs and then mix with the butter, coconut and sugar. Pat onto the now firm cheesecake and then refrigerate again for 1 hour. When ready to serve, upturn it onto a serving platter and decorate with extra figs.

Note: if your figs are dry, brush heated honey onto them to sweeten them up once you've placed the cake on a serving platter.