At Christmas I find its fairly common for people to have a special dish that they only make that time of year, one with a recipe that they may have honed over the years and this is mine. Behold the Baked Chocolate Orange Cheesescake, which I take to my inlaws every Christmas and is especially loved by my sister in law Rosie.

I'll be honest for us Christmas just doesn't feel like Christmas without it.

Its sure to be a showstopper , its' a recipe i've kept to myself for many many years but i'm happy to share it with you now.

The beauty is in its simplicity.

Ingredients

One tub of marscarpone cheese 250g £1.80 Tesco

One tub of soft cheese 83p Tesco

Two 200g bars of milk chocolate (you may not need all of it, add half and then taste). 45p each tescos

One chocolate orange £1.49

Ginger biscuits 300g 65p

Melted butter (i never measure it but enough to stick the base together)

Some orange zest to decorate.

Total cost £5.67

Method

Crush the ginger snaps with a rolling pin , mix with enough butter to give the correct cheese cake consistency, then press into the base of a greased (and preferably lined cake tin)

Mix the Marscarpone and cream cheese together using a whisk (an electric one is better but by hand will also do), add the melted milk chocolate and finally almost all of the chocolate orange (melted) save a few segments for topping.

Pour the mixture over the biscuit base.

Now if you want to you can stop here and just allow to cool and pop in the fridge, however i find popping into the oven (very low) 120 ish for around 10 minutes just really creates the most delicious texture ever. If cooking allow to cool with the door ajar. Once cooled, place in the fridge and leave it there for at least 12 hours, ideally 24 !

Then top with chocolate orange segments and some orange zest. Keep in the fridge and enjoy.

How many does it serve? Well this really depends on how big a slice you have ! There are usually 10/11 of us for Christmas and i would say at least 8/9 of us eat the cheese cake and there is always left overs and we have BIG Slices. If we can wrestle it off Rosie that is !