Labneh cheesecake with roasted apricots, honey and cardamom

Name: Labneh cheesecake with roasted apricots, honey and cardamom
Yield: Serves ten to twelve
Cuisine: Israeli
Ingredients: 6 cardamom pods, shells on, seeds roughly bashed together in a pestle and mortar; 350 g ripe apricots, stones removed, cut into 6 wedges; A small handful of picked mint leaves, to garnish (optional); 5 eggs (2 whole, and 3 with yolks and whites separated: you will only be using the yolks of these); 2 tsp finely grated orange zest; 1 tbsp orange blossom water; 1¼ tsp vanilla extract; 1½ tbsp cornflour; 75 g runny honey; 2 tsp orange blossom water; 40 ml orange juice; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 10 cardamom pods, shells discarded and seeds finely crushed in a pestle and mortar (or ¾ tsp ground cardamom); 500 g labneh (either shop-bought or 850 g of Greek-style yoghurt, see headnote and, if making your own); ¼ tsp flaked sea salt; 500 g ricotta; ⅔ tsp flaked sea salt; 210 g caster sugar; 90 g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing; 5 sheets of good-quality filo pastry (about 110g); 60 g pistachio kernels; 40 g walnut halves; 50 g caster sugar; 1½ tbsp plain flour

Preparation info

Serves
ten to twelve

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Falastin

By Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley

Published 2020

About

Cheesecake is not, traditionally, a dessert eaten in Palestine, but all the ingredients are: the labneh and filo, for example, the nuts and floral orange blossom. The base was Noor’s idea: blitzing up the sheets of filo to make crumbs. Mixing this with the nuts calls baklava to mind. The result, we think, is distinct and special.

Getting ahead: If you are making your own labneh (which couldn’t be easier: it just requires getting organised a day ahead), then it needs to be mad

Ingredients

Asia
Palestine
Dessert
Vegetarian

Ingredients

Method