Baked Cheesecake

I have been threatening to make cheesecake for about a year, but something else always seemed to come along and take my attention. It’s definitely something that needs a crowd, or R and I would be the size of a house. However, I did manage to find a slightly lower-fat version, and on this evidence it doesn’t affect the taste.

Baked Cheesecake

This is based on a recipe from BBC Good Food, but I have changed some of the quantities a bit.

140g digestive biscuits
40g butter
600g Philadelphia Light
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
3 tbsp cornflour
75ml sour cream or crème fraiche (about half a small tub)
Vanilla pod
1 tsp vanilla essence
Grated rind of 1 lemon
A small squeeze of lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 20cm loose-bottomed/springform tin with baking parchment (if your tin is non-stick I reckon you don’t need to line it, but I don’t want to be held responsible if you can’t get it out!)

Get out all of the stress of London commuting by bashing the biscuits to crumbs (or perhaps that is just me).

Melt the butter and mix with the biscuit crumbs, then press into the base of the tin and bake for 10 minutes. Once removed from the oven turn the temperature up to 240C.

Meanwhile whisk the Philadelphia with an electric handwhisk on low speed (or the old fashioned way) until creamy. Then add the sugar in large spoonfuls, whisking between each. Add the cornflour, and then the eggs one at a time. Only beat enough to combine the ingredients, try not to overwhisk. Then add the lemon zest and juice, vanilla extract and the seeds from the pod, and finally the sour cream. The mixture will be quite runny.

Pour the creamy mixture into the tin, and tap lightly to get rid of any bubbles. Bake at the high temperature for 10 minutes, at which point it was just brown around the edges. Then turn the oven temperature down to 110C, leaving the oven door open for the first few minutes, and bake for another 25 minutes. I found it was still very wobbly in the centre after this, and so it had another 20 minutes in the oven. Then turn the oven off and leave for a few hours to cool (or overnight, which is what I did). Wrap in foil and put in the fridge until about an hour before you want to serve it.

We had this with raspberry coulis (put a punnet of raspberries in a saucepan with a tiny bit of water over a very low heat. When the juice has started to run add a tablespoon of icing or caster sugar and cook until the raspberries have broken down. Sieve to get rid of the seeds if desired).

The original recipe said it served 8, but 5 of us with small seconds only ate half, so I reckon it could go a very long way!