Celebrating with a sweet bite

On every birthday, it’s an opportunity to look back at the year that passed and see how far you have reached. Eat yourself Greek doesn’t have all the Greek recipes, neither has my galaktoboureko gone viral. Homely, traditional recipes rarely fall under the A-list of popular, unless you are really fond of homely flavours. Eat Yourself Greek is very much about simple and clear flavours and it is travelling its way through the blogosphere like a small boat that has opened sail on a fine breeze. This alone is reason enough to get a sweet treat: honey and fig cheesecake with manouri.

Head straight to the recipe.

So cheesecake it is, but a very Greek cheesecake: there are chewy bits in the buttery biscuit base, from dried figs; there is texture in the cream from milky manouri and a thin but wonderful layer of thyme honey to serve it with. And does the word manouri sound a bit alien to you? Manouri is one of the great fresh Greek cheeses. It is a semi-soft white cheese, soft and crumbly under the fork, sweet and creamy to the palate, manouri is a wonderful Greek cheese, often described as the lesser known cousin to feta. Manouri is made by adding milk and/or cream to the whey of goat’s milk left from hard cheese production. It is produced in little barrel-shaped loaves and sold in thick slices. This fresh whey-based cheese is particular to Central and Western Macedonia and Thessaly, in northern and central Greece respectively, and it also holds PDO status. A humble, bright-white everyday cheese that is loved by Greeks for its versatility. Its mild flavour and distinctive creamy texture make manouri ideal for a wide variety of dishes. Whilst it is low in salt, it still great for pies and bakes and creamy enough to use as a substitute for cream cheese in cheesecakes.

As for cheesecakes, there is hardly anything more refreshing and summery than figs and fragrant thyme honey to top it with.

Print Recipe

Fig honey & manouri cheesecake

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Modern Greek

Equipment

• 11inch/ 28 cm cake tin
• Food processor

Ingredients

• 250 gr biscuits such as digestive/graham crackers
• 120 gr unsalted butter melted
• 100 gr dried figs chopped
• 400 gr manouri cheese at room temperature
• 400 ml double cream
• 50 gr of icing sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla essence
• thyme honey for decoration

Instructions

• Use a food processor to crush the biscuits and transfer in a large bowl along with the chopped figs.
• Mix to combine and add the unsalted butter, melted.
• Take the mix to form the base of your cheesecake. Place in the fridge to set for at least 30 min.
• For the manouri cheese cream, use a large bowl to mash the cheese and then add the double cream, vanilla essence, icing sugar and with the help of a handheld mixer combine to get a buttery mixture.
• Take your almond and biscuit base out of the fridge and smoothly layer the manouri cheese filling.
• Return the cake in the fridge and let it set for at least 5 hours.

I hope you will enjoy this fig and manouri cheesecake and its sweetness will make you travel, along with Eat Yourself Greek, through original Greek flavours.

from Mykonos with love,

Eugenia

PS: A huge thanks to Odysea, for inspiring me to develop this recipe, first published on their website.

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