I want strawberries and I want champagne

I just finished a fun little project with Perrier-Jouët designing a Valentine’s dessert for their Blason Rosé. This is a gorgeous rose champagne with lovely notes of red fruits, so I decided to make a light strawberry cheesecake for the pairing. It’s a rare cheesecake that doesn’t need to be baked, the flavor and texture both heavenly light, combined with fresh strawberries and a hint of rose, it’s just perfect.

So, what do we need to make this strawberry cheesecake?

For the bottom:

• Cookie crumbs…100g
• Melted butter…10g

Procedure:

1. Mix cookie crumbs with melted butter and press the mixture at the bottom of the cake mold. I used house-baked cookies to make the crumbs, but you can simply buy graham crackers for this purpose.

2. Slice strawberries in half and arrange them neatly along the inside of the cake mold. Don’t forget to line the cake mold with clear plastic for easier unmolding later on.

For the light cheese mousse (optional rose flavor):

• Cream…63g
• Milk…63g
• Egg yolk…30g
• Sugar…40g
• Gelatin sheet…4g
• Cream cheese…150g
• Whipped cream…100g
• Rose essence (optional)…8~10g

Procedure:

3. Soak gelatin in ice water for at least 20 minutes.
4. Soften cream cheese in room temperature and cream using a whisk.

5. To make the creme anglaise, boil cream with milk. At the same time, whisk together egg yolk and sugar until sugar is completely melted.
6. Add 1/3 of boiled milk and cream into sugar yolk mixture, whisk until homogenous, then pour back into the pot to combine with the rest of the liquid. Continue whisking until mixture reaches 85C, and remove from heat immediately.

7. Remove gelatin from ice water and squeeze out excess water. Add to creme anglaise and whisk until melted.
8. Cool creme anglaise until 30C, then delicately fold in whipped cream. If you like rose flavors, you can add rose essence now.
9. Pour 1/4 of cream cheese mousse into the cake mold, top with whole strawberries, then cover the strawberries with the rest of the cream cheese mousse.

10. Let set in the fridge for about 1 hour.
11. Remove cake from fridge, decorate with fresh strawberries.

This is a fairly simple cake that can be easily made at home, even if you don’t have an oven – do leave a comment if you have questions about any of the steps. On the other hand, if you are too lazy to make it, stay tuned…I will be creating a leveled-up version of this cake with more layers of flavors and textures…available for sale after Chinese New Year :)

Strawberry light cheesecake paired with Perrier-Jouët rose champagne…this combo is too good to be limited to Valentine’s Day – it should be an everyday event!