Chocolate Cheesecake with Salted Caramel Popcorn

I don’t think I will get sick of the salted caramel craze that is currently taking the world by storm. The mix of decadently sweet and salt, makes it just so ‘moreish’.

When we dined at Ezard a few weeks ago, one of my favourite desserts was a wonderfully salty caramel popcorn teamed with a dark chocolate. Cue light bulb moment in my head as I needed to bake something for work…everyone loves a cheesecake and I thought a dark chocolate cheesecake with a salted caramel topping would work well. 

I found a recipe on the Philadelphia website that looked nice and simple and I swapped out the milk chocolate for dark chocolate, as I thought the bitterness of dark chocolate would work better with the richness of the salted caramel.

Mixing the salted caramel with popcorn makes a lovely, sticky, crunchy mess which tastes delicious. As I took this cheesecake to work, I put the popcorn on the cheesecake the night before. This meant that it softened a little in the fridge, so this is something that I would recommend adding to the cheesecake just before you serve it.

This is a lovely mousse like cheesecake the filling itself is very light and that’s what makes it rather dangerous. Be warned though, it is quite rich and a small slice will be more than enough.

Chocolate Cheesecake with Salted Caramel Popcorn  
Adapted from philly.com.au

Cheesecake

1¼ cups chocolate biscuit crumbs

80g butter, melted

500g cream cheese, softened

¼ cup caster sugar

2 teaspoons gelatine dissolved in ¼ cup boiling water

200g dark chocolate melted and cooled slightly

1 cup thickened cream, softly whipped

Salted Caramel Popcorn

1 1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup water

2/3 cup brown sugar

300ml thickened cream

1/2 – 1 tablespoon sea salt flakes

200g popcorn

Method

1. Combine  the biscuit crumbs and butter then press into the base of a greased and lined 20cm round springform pan. Chill.

2. Beat the cream cheese and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the gelatine and chocolate and mix until smooth then fold through the cream.

3. Pour the mixture over the prepared base. Chill for 3 hours or until set.

4. For the salted caramel popcorn. Add the caster sugar and water to a small pan and stir over a low heat. Once the sugar dissolves, turn up the heat to medium-high and allow the mixture to come to the boil.

5. Reduce the heat and allow the mixture to boil uncovered for around 1o minutes or until the mixture becomes lightly golden. Note, that it’s really important that you don’t stir the mixture during this time.

6. Remove the caramel mixture from the heat, add the brown sugar and stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Add in the cream and stir until combined.

7. Return to the stovetop and stir over medium heat for about 3 minutes.

8. Remove from heat and add salt to taste.

9. Pour mixture over popcorn and use a greased spoon to mix. Gently pile popcorn mixture onto the chilled cheesecake.