Ricotta, Raspberry and Peach Cheesecake Bars

With a light baked ricotta filling studded with fresh raspberries, crunchy almond-oat base and griddled peach topping, these cheesecake bars pay homage to 90s peach melba, and make for the perfect summer dessert.

Ingredients (makes 12 bars)

For the base

• 150g digestives
• 2tsp demerara sugar
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 50g rolled oats
• 50g almonds
• 140g unsalted butter, melted

For the filling

• 500g ricotta
• 125g golden caster sugar
• 30g corn flour
• 2 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 100g full fat greek yoghurt
• 200g raspberries

For the topping

• 2 peaches, sliced
• few extra raspberries
• decorative herbs, almonds, edible flowers (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160c and grease and line a 22x22cm baking tin. Place the digestives, demerara sugar and cinnamon in a food processor and blitz into crumbs. Add in the melted butter, almonds and oats and very briefly blitz again to combine- don’t over mix here, you want a nice crunchy base. Tip this mixture into the prepared tin and pack down with the back of a spoon. Chill for 15 minutes then bake for 10 minutes to set. Once baked set aside for later.
2. Now make the filling. To do this simply whisk together the ricotta, golden caster sugar, corn flour and vanilla until very smooth, then add in the egg and egg yolk one at a time, whisking between each addition to bring the mixture together again. Lastly, whisk in the yoghurt. Roughly break up the raspberries with the back of a fork and tip them in. Ripple them through then scrape all the filling onto the base. Place the tin into another larger roasting tin and fill with water (about half way up the sides of your baking tin). Bake for 1 hour or until the cheesecake is set but still has a uniform wobble.
3. Once baked, leave the cheesecake to cool completely then chill for 4-6 hours to set.
4. While the cheesecake is chilling, lightly oil a griddle pan and slice the peaches into wedges. Heat the pan and char the slices on each side, then leave to cool.
5. When your cheesecake has set, just remove it from the tin, slice into 12 bars (use a hot knife for this and you will get a cleaner result) and top with the griddled peach slices, extra raspberries and nuts.

Enjoy!