Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake

Photo: Katja Tootle-Pizka

Ingredients

Crust:

1 1/4 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs

1/2 cup Sugar

5 tablespoons butter, melted

Coulis:

2 cups Strawberries, cut in pieces

1 cup Sugar

1/2 cup Water

Filling:

16 ounces Cream Cheese or light Cream Cheese

1/2 cup Sugar

1 cup boiling Water

2 tablespoons Vanilla Extract (I also added the seeds of ½ vanilla bean)

1 Lemon, Zest only (finely grated)

1 Envelope Gelatine

Preparation

Crust: Prepare crust, by mixing sugar, graham cracker crumbs and melted butter.

Pack combined crust ingredients in 9 inch spring form.

Bake for 5 minutes in 350 degree oven. Cool!

Coulis:

In a saucepan, combine strawberries, sugar and water, bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes, until strawberries are soft.

Remove from heat, put in a blender and blend until smooth, strain through sieve to remove seeds. Put back in saucepan and simmer until most of the water has dissolved and the coulis is thick and syrupy.

Filling:

Combine cream cheese, vanilla, and lemon zest in a mixing bowl and beat until creamy.

Bring water to a boil, pour over gelatine and sugar and stir until gelatine has dissolved completely.

Combine cheesecake mixture and gelatine slowly.

Pour 1/2 of the cream cheese mixture into the cool pie crust. Dot with strawberry coulis, pour remaining mixture on top. Dot again with coulis, with knife or fork create swirls, so top of cake looks marbled.

Cover with foil and refrigerate for 2- 3 hours. Decorate!