How could you resist eating a Mojito?

Last Saturday was Australia Day - A wonderful day to celebrate all things Aussie.  We've only been living in Sydney for just under two years and have been blown away by how welcoming the Aussies have been, and of course how beautiful their country is.  So Happy Australia Day everyone and thanks for having us!

We were were invited to a BBQ and I was asked to do the dessert.  I decided to go against tradition and do a non-Aussie desert.  I'm really not a fan of lamingtons (sorry!) and we've only just had pavlova at Christmas time.

Santa brought me a beautiful book for christmas called "In The Mix, Great thermomix recipes" and there is one particular recipe that I have been dying to try out.  (I haven't been able to make it yet as there is far too much risk that I will just eat it all)

The Mojito Cheesecake

Picture taken from my 'In The Mix' Cook book.

I LOVE mojito's - every version of them!  They are my all time favourite cocktail and they always bring back lots of fabulous and hilarious memories of nights out with the girls (yeah - those old days!!).  

So this Australia Day BBQ seemed like the perfect time to test it out.  And it was just so DELICIOUS that I just had to share it with you!!!  It really really tasted just like a Mojito.  The flavours were so intense and every now and again you get a surge of delicious Mount Gay Rum in your mouth!  If you closed your eyes you could quite easily be on a beach in Barbados!

So here is the recipe..........

I had to sneak the rum from Mr D's secret stash!

Ingredients:

35g Butter

150g Digestive biscuites

100g light muscovado sugar (although I used the dark kind as it was all I could find)

10g mint leaves (plus a few extra to decorate)

80g of golden rum (I used Dark Mount Gay)

zest and juice of 3 limes

250g cream cheese

250g mascarpone

Start buy zesting the limes.  Place all the peel into the thermomix and whizz on speed 9 for 3-5 seconds.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and press the turbo button just once for added effect.  Set the zest aside in a separate bowl, and give the thermomix a quick rinse out (no need to wash it, a rinse will be fine).

The Base:  

Put the butter in the TM bowl and melt for 1.5mins at 80 degrees on speed 1.  Add the biscuites and chop them for 5 seconds on speed 6.  Scrape down the sides and chop for another 2 seconds on speed 6.  Empty the biscuit mix into either a flan dish or individual glasses.  Then flatten and compress it with the palm of your hand (clean of course).  Set it aside until the  cheesecake mixture is ready.

I've used a flan dish but you could use individual glasses

Cheesecake mixture:

Place the sugar and mint leaves into the TM bowl with 40g of water.  I found it quite difficult to weigh out 10g of mint leaves as they are so light, so I just threw in a handful of leaves.

 Heat them for 2 minutes at 80 degrees on speed 2.

With the TM lid open, add the rum, lime zest (except for a small handful which you will need to save for decorating), cream cheese and mascarpone into the TM bowl.  Close the lid and place the MC into the top.  Now squeeze all the juice from the limes onto the lid so that it can drip down without any pips or pulp falling through.  Then whizz it all together for 20 seconds on speed 6.

 Pour the mixture onto your biscuit base.

Decorate with a couple of mint leaves and the remaining lime zest.    Pop it into the fridge to set for a minimum of 2 hours.  It's best if you leave it overnight.

Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and you will be in heaven.  I wonder if I could turn all my favourite cocktails into desserts??????