Baked Cheesecake with Plums and Tofu

The Dittisham Ploughman Plum only grows in the small village of Dittisham, on the River Dart in South Devon. Nobody knows exactly where Dittisham Plums come from originally, but as they only grow in a tiny area, they are a very rare treat.

Sally in Dittisham told me she had a bounty crop this year. Go to her blog, Raining Sideways, for more plum recipes.

And then Holly sent me this challenge from Jilly Rowden of Jilly’s Farm Shop in Dartmouth.

Sadly I can’t get Dittisham Plums here in Japan, but there is a plum tree just outside the driveway to my house that belongs to nobody in particular, and in early summer (plums ripen earlier here in Japan than the UK) when the plums begin to ripen there is a race to pick them! I managed to bag a few this year, but I think I’ll have to get out earlier next year to grab the best ones…

I used Japanese plums to make this baked cheesecake with tofu. The tofu keeps the calories down, and makes it light and fluffy too, but you can make it without the tofu, of course – in that case use 50g more cream cheese.

If you want it when it tastes its best, you will need to fight the urge to eat it all immediately, and after you’ve baked it put in the fridge overnight….. It will taste great, if only you can control yourself!

Ingredients

100cc fresh cream
1/2 cup granule sugar
3 eggs
200g cream cheese
150g kinu (silk) tofu
50g butter
15g biscuits of your choice
plums

1. Crush the biscuits into crumbs and line a pie dish with them

2. Melt some butter in a bain-marie and pour onto the biscuit crumbs. Spread butter up the sides of the pie-dish and spread the crumbs to the top. Then cool the biscuit mix in the fridge for 30 minutes.

3. Warm the cream cheese to room temperature, then mix in the sugar, eggs and tofu and whip well with a mixer. If your cream cheese is hard, warming it for a few seconds in the microwave will make mixing easier.

4. Take your biscuit pie from the fridge and line it with a layer of sliced plums, then pour the cream cheese mix over it, using a spoon to make sure it spreads right to the edges.