White chocolate cheesecake with strawberries and meringues

Ingredients:

50g unsalted butter

100g Nice biscuits

2 punnets of strawberries (about 400g in total)

50g caster sugar 

100ml of lemonade (or sparkling wine, for a special occasion)

1 tub of cream cheese (250g)

50g icing sugar

100g white chocolate

150ml of whipping cream

2 broken meringues (or nests)

Method:

1) Line a 18cm loose bottom flan tin with grease proof paper.

Melt the butter on a low heat.

Put the biscuits in a plastic food bag and crush to crumbs with a rolling pin. Add to the melted butter and mix well. Spread this in the tin and smooth surface with a metal spoon. Chill for about 10 minutes until set.

2) put one punnet of hulled strawberries in a blender with the lemonade, blend until smooth. Transfer to a pan, add the caster sugar. Heat until sugar has dissolved ,  bring to the boil and simmer for about 15mn until reduced to a thick syrup. Leave to cool in a jug.

3) melt the chocolate, broken in small chunks over a pan of hot (but not boiling) water.

Beat the cream cheese, cream and icing sugar together until it forms soft peaks. Gently whisk in the melted chocolate. Place the mixture over the base and leave to chill for a few hours (or overnight). 

4) cut the rest of the strawberries in halves or quarters according to size and decorate the cheesecake with the strawberries and broken meringue pieces. 

5) serve with the syrup drizzled over each portion.

Serves 6 - 8