Lime Cheesecake With A Chocolate Surprise

A delicious lime cheesecake recipe with a surprise chocolate layer hidden below the surface. You’re guaranteed to get plenty of oohs and ahhh when you cut into this no-bake dessert. The combination of salty biscuity crumb, sweet chocolate and tangy creamy filling is a particularly good one.

Party going family members en route from Gloucestershire to Falmouth, thoughtfully stopped by for lunch at the weekend. It was time to revive an old favourite. I used to make this chocolate and lime cheesecake surprise for Christmas and when entertaining, but for some reason, it fell off my radar.

Update Jan 2025 – I’ve made many iterations of this recipe over the years and the one I’ve given you in the recipe card at the bottom of this post is the absolute best.

I’ve updated the images and added several new sections. I hope you like it.

Chocolate and Lime Cheesecake Surprise

Scouring my memory for the recipe proved more difficult than I’d expected. Quantities were the problem rather than ingredients. Luckily, one of the beauties of this recipe is that you can play around with both quantities and ingredients to suit evolving tastes.

The original recipe came from one of my aunts, way back in the mists of time. It contained no lime, but used hazelnut yoghurt instead of plain. I changed this and for a long time, I used plain yoghurt and chopped roasted hazelnuts. But it has been undergoing a slow metamorphosis over the years.

Sometimes I use plain chocolate, sometimes milk. My favourite is a mix of both. I’ve also incorporated the chocolate directly into the cheesecake mixture rather than having it as a separate layer. It’s good, but not as interesting.

This latest incarnation replaces the original hazelnuts with lime. It’s the best one yet.

The cheesecake was as good as I remembered and was a real hit with my visitors. The chocolate layer always comes as a pleasant surprise and it elicited the usual oohs and ahhs that I’ve come to expect with this fabulous creation. The combination of salty biscuity crumb, sweet chocolate and tangy cream filling is a particularly good one.

The flavour of lime permeates the whole cheesecake, despite the small quantities involved. Why, I wonder has it been so long since I last made it?

How To Make Lime Cheesecake

Although this is an easy recipe, it requires a few stages and each one needs to set. In my usually cold kitchen, this isn’t an issue as everything sets really quickly. However, you may well need to place the cheesecake in the fridge or somewhere cool after each stage. Ten minutes or so should do it.

Step 1. Make Biscuit Base

Step 2. Chocolate Layer

Step 3. Cheesecake Layer

Surprise Chocolate and Lime Cheesecake: Top Tips

When you’re creating the biscuit layer, try and press the crumbs down as hard as you can so that you have as even and firm a layer as possible. The back of a metal spoon is best for this.

I tend to get a bit fidgety at this point. You can probably tell by the photo above that my patience didn’t run the course on that particular occasion. But it’s worth persisting if you can, so that you get a clean slice when you cut into the cheesecake.

I usually make this surprise chocolate and lime cheesecake with a mix of milk and dark chocolate. But it’s absolutely fine to use milk or dark chocolate only. I sometimes go this route. It’s all very much dependent on mood. More often than not, these days, I throw a bar of chilli chocolate into the mix.

You can add a little more sugar to the cheesecake layer if you don’t think it’s sweet enough. I find the milk chocolate is already quite sweet and the not-so-sweet cheesecake mixture acts as a nice foil. However, if you use plain chocolate, it’s a good idea to double the quantity.

To give this cheesecake a bit of additional zip, squeeze the juice from the remaining half lime into the mix. It’s delicious and the way I mostly go now. If doing this, add an additional five to fifteen grams of sugar to compensate for the extra sour element.

Other Biscuit Base Desserts You Might Like

• Baileys chocolate banana pie
• Banoffee pie
• Chocolate cashew pie
• Coconut cream pie
• Easy strawberries and cream dessert
• Matcha green tea cheesecake pots

Keep in Touch

If you’d like more lime recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.

Choclette x

Surprise Chocolate and Lime Cheesecake. PIN IT.

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Lime Cheesecake With A Surprise Chocolate Layer

A delicious no-bake cheesecake with a surprise chocolate layer hidden below the surface. You're almost guaranteed to get plenty of oohs and ahhs when the chocoalte is discovered. The combination of salty biscuity crumb, sweet chocolate and tangy cream filling is a particularly good one.

 

Cook ModeToggle to keep screen awake

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time0 minutes mins

Setting Time30 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: British

Keyword: biscuits, cheesecake, chocolate, cream cheese, lime, milk chocolate, no-bake, yoghurt

Servings: 8 people

Calories: 538kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

Base

• 115 g unsalted butter
• 230 g digestive biscuits
• 100 g milk chocolate
• 100 g dark chocolate I like to use chilli chocolate

Cheesecake Layer

• 85 g full fat cream cheese
• 30 g golden caster sugar
• 250 ml double cream (heavy cream)
• 250 ml natural yoghurt
• 1 lime zest and juice

Metric – US Customary

Instructions

Base

• Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a gentle heat.
  115 g unsalted butter
• Meanwhile, place the biscuits in a large bowl and bash them with the end of a rolling pin until you’ve turned them into crumbs. Alternatively use a food processor.
  230 g digestive biscuits
• Pour in the butter and mix.
• Scrape into a round 20cm (8") flan dish or tart tin and use the back of a spoon or your fingers to mould the crumbs to fit the bottom and sides (as you would with pastry).
• Break 180g of the chocolate into small pieces, keeping the remainder back for decoration. Place in a bowl suspended over a pan of hot, but not boiling water and leave the chocolate to melt.
• Stir until smooth, then pour over the biscuit base. Spread it out as much as possible withe the back of a spoon. Leave to set.

Cheesecake Layer

• Whilst the base is setting, mix the cream cheese with the sugar.
  85 g full fat cream cheese, 30 g golden caster sugar
• Whip the cream until soft peaks formed. You can do this by hand or with an electric whisk.
  250 ml double cream (heavy cream)
• Mix the yoghurt and cheese together until well mixed.
  250 ml natural yoghurt
• Fold the whipped cream into the cheese mixture until it's thoroughly incorporated, but go gently as you don't want to lose too much air.
• Grate the lime zest then stir ¾ of it into the cheese mixture. Stir in half the lime juice and taste test. If you'd like more, add the remaining half. Spoon the mix onto the set chocolate layer and smooth out.
• Grate the reserved chocolate over the top and scatter the remaining lime zest over the surface.
• Either cut slices to serve whilst in the tin, or remove from the tin and place on a stand.

Notes

You can use more sugar in the cheesecake mix if you like, but the chocolate is already quite sweet and it’s nice to have a foil for it.

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on serving size and exact ingredients used. Please refer to my nutrition disclaimer for further information.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories: 538kcal | Carbohydrates: 41g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 40g | Saturated Fat: 23g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 82mg | Sodium: 211mg | Potassium: 281mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 21g | Vitamin A: 1006IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 111mg | Iron: 3mg

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below letting us know how you got on and do share a photo on Instagram. Tag @choclette8 or use hashtag #tinandthyme.

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