NY Baked Cheesecake..

I think people find the thought of making cheesecakes a little worrying, especially when the cheesecake has biscuit walls rather than just a base but let me tell you they're easier than making a cake because you don't have to worry about the cheesecake rising or not rising. Also with a baked cheesecake, if your cheesecake surface does crack you can easily hide any imperfections with icing sugar and fruit! And no one will ever know!

I love both types of cheesecakes, baked or non-baked, they're both delicious, but I had never given a baked cheesecake a go and it was suggested on my Instagram page so I thought I'd try it out!

One thing I will tell you is, make sure you blitz your biscuits enough so that they are very fine crumbs, this way you are making full use of the biscuits for the base. The biscuit walls are also much stronger than you will ever believe, they do hold really well so don't worry about them crumbling because they won't.

Unlike cake batters, we don’t want to aerate the cheesecake batter to make it rise too much. If you over-beat the batter causing bubbles in the batter, the cheesecake will rise more when baking then when it collapses as it cools, it will crack.

So what are you waiting for..

Recipe:

Biscuit Base:

200g Digestive Biscuits (12 Biscuits)

120g Unsalted Butter

Cheesecake Filling:

500g Soft Full Fat Cream Cheese

30g Plain Flour

1tsp vanilla extract

125g Sour Cream

330g Caster Sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

3 Room Temperature Eggs

Method:

Preheat oven to 160C/140C fan

Lightly grease an 8inch Cheesecake Tin with butter, the base and the sides

Blitz digestives in a food processor or place in a freezer bag and beat then roll with a rolling pin until they’re fine crumbs

Melt your butter in a bowl/pyrex jug in the microwave for 1minute.

Place blitzed digestive crumbs in a mixing bowl then pour melted butter over the digestives and mix together with a fork, the mixture will look like wet sand

Place biscuit mixture into your greased cheesecake tin and pat it down to form the base. For the sides, push the biscuit mixture up the side of the tin until the sides are 1cm thick, pushing a straight edge mug up against the sides will help

Pour your 500g of cream cheese in a clean mixing bowl and whisk together until smooth

Add flour and beat until just combined

Add vanilla, sour cream, sugar and lemon zest. Again beat until just combined

Add eggs one at a time, whisking between each one. Don't over beat, you don’t want to aerate the batter

Pour your cheesecake batter into prepared tin

Bake for 55 minutes on a middle rack

The top should be a very light golden brown, not cracked, and near perfectly flat. It should jiggle slightly when you gently shake the pan

Leave the cheesecake in the oven with the door half way open until the oven has cooled (if the oven door is open too wide the cheesecake will cool too fast and the cheesecake will start to crack)

Afterwards, move the cheesecake in its tin to cool in the fridge for 4hours+

When it has been in the fridge for 4hours+, depending on your cheesecake tin, you can now unclip the tin or push the base up to reveal the cheesecake

Top with berries, I used blueberries and raspberries and dust with icing sugar!

Happy Baking!