Chevre Cheesecake Pots with Caramel and Fleur de Sel

Sugar High Fridays are a monthly online food blogging event started by Jennifer at Domestic Goddess. Each one is hosted by a different Food Blogger who chooses a sweet theme around which participants create something delicious, then blog about it. This month's theme, chosen by Debbie at Words to Eat By is Caramel.

A recipe for Salted Caramel Cheesecake in the October issue of Food & Wine magazine had long been playing on my mind. Debbie's challenge gave me the perfect excuse to try it out. When I dug out the appropriate issue and checked the recipe, I was horrified. The caramel was make with corn syrup. It wasn't what I had in mind at all. I had imagined using natural ingredients, butter, sugar and cream. I decided, there and then, that their recipe would be my inspiration, but the creation of it would be my own.



For the cheesecake portion I decided to use some local products. I wanted it to have a little bit of a kick, so I decided to experiment with chevre. Whilst my recipe uses locally sourced ingredients which I will highlight in this post, you should be able to substitute with similar products.

Chevre Cheesecake Pot Ingredients
8oz Redwood Hill Chevre
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1/2 cup Cowgirl Creamery Creme Fraiche
3 eggs
All ingredients should be at room temperature

Chevre Cheesecake Pot Method
The oven should be preheated to 350F
First, beat together the sugar and the chevre until the mixture is completely smooth. One at a time, add the eggs. Continue beating. The mixture will become more and more runny. Finally beat in the creme fraiche. The result should be a batter-like liquid.

Divide the cream and cheese mixture equally between six small ramekins.
Make a bain-marie by taking a roasting pan large enough to house all six ramekins. Carefully add boiling water to the pan until it reaches half way up the sides of the pots and put them in the centre of the oven.

Bake for just 10 minutes. The edges will have started to firm up, but the centres will still be soft. Leave them in the oven, as it cools, for at least another hour. Remove from the oven after that time and to cool down completely on a wire rack.



Caramel Sauce

For the caramel sauce recipe, I looked to one of my favourite online English recipe sources. I knew I'd made caramel as a kid without the slightest hint of corn syrup. I guessed that Waitrose (a high-end supermarket chain in the UK) would have what I was looking for. Their caramel recipe instructions are indeed fabulous. They take you through the whole process step by step. I was really patient, and followed their method exactly and precisely, even brushing sugar crystals off the side of the pan with a wet pastry brush as they suggested. Once my caramel had turned a deep golden colour I took it off the heat and quickly beat in 2oz of diced Spring Hill Farm Hand Made butter, and half a cup of Cowgirl Creamery Creme Fraiche. The caramel started to harden too quickly at this stage so I returned the pan to a gentle heat and beat like crazy with a wooden spoon until all of the ingredients were blended.

Once everything was completely cool, I stirred a teaspoon of fleur de sel into the caramel sauce. I then carefully poured the sauce to cover the surface of each cheesecake. I then left the cheesecakes in the fridge overnight to chill. Just before serving I sprinkled each one with more fleur de sel.

Woah! D E L I C I O U S

Chevre Cheesecake Pots with Caramel and Fleur de Sel