Baked Cheesecake
Cheesecake is a sweet dessert made mainly from soft cheese (such as cream cheese, ricotta or mascarpone), eggs and sugar. It usually sits on a crust of crushed biscuits, often graham crackers or speculoos, mixed with butter. Cheesecake can be baked or made without baking.
Ingredients
Base
- 100 g crushed biscuits
- 53 g unsalted butter melted
- 1.5 tbsp white sugar
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp lemon zest
Cheesecake
- 220 g Philadelphia cream cheese
- 100 g caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Method
- All the ingredients should be at room temperature.
Base
- A food processor is not essential but it makes things easier. If you do not have one, put the biscuits in a freezer bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
- Put the biscuits in the food processor with the sugars and the zest.
- Once you have a powdery texture, pour in the butter.
- Work the mixture until it looks like wet sand.
- Butter the base and the sides of your cake tin.
- Then tip in the biscuit mixture. Press it into the base with a flat-bottomed glass.
- Carefully build up the sides with a spoon.
- Bake at 180°C for 12 minutes.
- Set aside and leave to cool.
Cheesecake
- Put the Philadelphia in the bowl of the stand mixer and beat on low speed with the paddle attachment for 2 minutes.
- Add the sugar gradually.
- Add a pinch of salt.
- Add the eggs one at a time.
- Add the tablespoon of lemon juice.
- Add the vanilla extract.
- Set aside.
Baking
- Preheat your oven to 160°C (conventional setting) with a baking tray filled with water to about two thirds of its depth.
- We are going to bake the cheesecake in a water bath.
- To stop water getting into the tin, wrap the bottom of the tin in foil.
- Pour the cheesecake mixture over the base.
- Bake at 160°C for 1 hour 20 minutes.
- Let the cake cool before turning it out.
- Then chill it for at least 2 hours before serving, ideally 4.
