American Cheesecake topped with Jamaican Banana Fritters

Ingredients

• 240g digestive biscuits 
  
• 120g melted butter 
  

CHEESECAKE FILLING 

• 400g full-fat soft cheese 
  
• 150g dark brown sugar 
  
• 200g soured cream 
  
• 100g double cream 
  
• 3 small eggs, whisked 
  
• 2 teaspoons cornflour 
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 
  
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice 
  
• 3 large blended/mashed bananas 
  

BANANA FRITTERS 

• 4 over-ripe bananas 
  
• 100g light brown sugar 
  
• 250g plain flour 
  
• 2 teaspoon vanilla essence 
  
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon 
  
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg 
  
• ½ teaspoon salt 
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
  
• Vegetable oil, to shallow fry 
  
• Icing sugar, to dust 
  

Method

• For the crumble base, crush your digestive biscuits finely, then melt the butter and mix it into the digestive biscuits. Divide the biscuit mixture equally between the 8 ramekins and carefully level.
  
• Now let’s get started on the cream cheese filling. In a large mixing bowl add the cream cheese and brown sugar and mix together. Add the soured cream and double cream and mix together. Whisk in your eggs, then add in your vanilla and cornflour and mix together well. Blend together 3 bananas with the lemon juice, then add to the cream cheese mixture and stir. Add your mixture to the ramekins and level, then chill in the fridge. 
  
• Now you can start on the banana fritters. Firstly, crush your bananas into a mixing bowl, then add the flour, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking powder and a little water then mix together until you form a thick batter-like consistency. 
  
• Pour the vegetable oil into a frying pan place over a medium heat. Using a large spoon carefully scoop some of the mixture and pour into the frying pan, making each small enough to fit within the ramekins. Turn the heat down to a medium-low heat and fry the fritters until golden on each side then rest on a paper towel to drain. Continue with this until you have made 8 fritters. 
  
• Preheat the oven to 200˚C/ Fan 180˚C/ Gas Mark 4. 
  
• Remove the cheesecakes from the fridge, add 1 banana fritter to the top and then place in to the preheated oven to bake for about 25 minutes or until just set. 
  

Cook’s Notes 

• The cheesecake must be as solid as possible before it comes out of the fridge to ensure it bakes well. 
  
• You may have banana fritter mixture leftover, use this another day to eat with ice cream or custard.