Woman in white: individual dame blanche cheesecakes

I am currently covered in white paint; the DIY continues, only this time, we thought it would add a ‘fun’ dimension if the entire bathroom was out of order (the floor is being tiled, the tiler has disconnected the appliances and, after four days, is yet to reconnect them. As I said, fun!).

I tried many ways to take my mind off the whole thing on Sunday so that I didn’t explode with the sheer awfulness of it all. It didn’t work, I had a meltdown of epic proportions at 12.50am, after two hours of trying to persuade my mind to switch off and let my weary body sleep. But hey, that’s life (and DIY).

On the plus side, being coated in white paint reminded me of my favourite desert when I was a little girl: dame blanche (white lady). A dame blanche is a typical Belgian ice cream sundae composed of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Simple, yet utterly delicious (plus, when I was a wee lass, Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food did not exist, so this was a positively exotic take on ice cream).

A note on speculoos (the biscuits I used for my base). Here I have used the bog-standard (no pun intended) Lotus variety that you can buy in the supermarket – at least you can in Belgium. If you’re planning to eat speculoos ‘raw’ as it were, Dandoy should be your port of call.

Serves: six

For the base:

Half a pack speculoos biscuits

50g butter

3 tbsp chocolate spread (I used Cote D’Or Chokotoff)

For the filling:

1 x 200g pack cream cheese

1 x 300ml tub double cream

1 vanilla pod

Juice of half a small lemon

2 tbsp icing sugar

Cocoa powder and raspberries to garnish

Give the biscuits a good bash with a rolling pin (feel free to pretend it’s a CERTAIN tiler) until they break up into a fine crumb. Melt the butter and chocolate spread, add to the biscuits and stir well.

Line ramekins with cling film, then press the biscuits into the bottom and pop in the fridge.

In a bowl, mix the cream cheese, icing sugar and lemon juice. Score the vanilla pod down the middle vertically, then scoop out the soft centre and add to the cream cheese. Whip the cream, then fold into the cheese.

Fill the ramekins with the cheese mix, then refrigerate for a couple of hours. Coat with cocoa powder and garnish with a raspberry.

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