Recipe of the week: Jamaican banana fritter on an American-style cheesecake

Click here to sign up to our free newsletters!

Ingredients (serves 8-10)

120g digestive biscuits, crushed

60g butter, melted, plus extra for greasing

For the filling

400g full-fat cream cheese

200g soft light brown sugar

200g sour cream

100g double cream

3 eggs, beaten

1tsp vanilla extract

100g plain flour

2tsp cornflour

3 ripe bananas

2tsp lemon juice

For the topping

1 x quantity banana fritter mixture (see below)

Vegetable oil for shallow frying

300ml double cream, whipped to soft peaks

Handful of sliced strawberries and blueberries, to decorate

Icing sugar, to dust

For the banana fritter mixture

4 overripe bananas (or plantain), mashed

120g soft brown sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

½tsp ground cinnamon

½tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1tsp baking powder

½tsp salt

250g plain flour

80ml water

Vegetable oil, for shallow-frying

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 160°C Fan/180°C/Gas 4. Lightly butter a 23cm springform cake tin. Place the crushed biscuits in a bowl and stir in the melted butter. Tip the mixture into the greased tin and spread it evenly over the base, compacting it down. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then leave to cool.

2. For the filling, combine the cream cheese and sugar in a bowl. Stir in the sour cream and double cream. Whisk in the eggs, then add the vanilla, plain flour and cornflour and mix to combine. Mash the bananas in a bowl with the lemon juice, then stir into the filling mixture. Spoon the filling over the cooled base and level it out. Increase the oven temperature to 200°C Fan/220°C/ Gas 7. Bake the cheesecake for 10 minutes, then turn down the oven temperature to 120°C Fan/140°C/Gas 1 and bake for a further 45 minutes to one hour, or until the centre has just a slight wobble. Switch off the oven and let the cheesecake cool inside for two hours.

3. For the topping, heat vegetable oil in a pan to the depth of about 5cm. Using a tablespoon, drop walnut-sized spoonfuls of the banana fritter mixture (just mix all the ingredients together) into the hot oil and fry for two minutes or until golden. Spread the whipped cream over the top of the cheesecake. Dot the banana fritters over the cream, then scatter over the berries and dust with icing sugar.

---

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.

---