This is a recipe from my cookbook full of recipes from around the world, so as well as getting to make one of my favourite desserts, I learnt about cheesecakes too! The book describes a New York cheesecake as follows:
"The typical New York style cheesecake is rich, with a dense and particularly creamy consistency. This is because cream or soured cream is added to the batter instead of cottage cheese or cream cheese alone. The brave also add a good pinch of salt to the base to balance out the tender, creamy sweetness of the cake."
I didn't go for the pinch of salt this time but the base went really well anyway, as did the cheesecake! This is quite a simple cheesecake - it's flavoured with orange and lemon, but you could do anything - fruits, chocolate, liqueurs, whatever you can think of! It's great to get your base recipe sorted, and then start playing around with it. Alternatively you could score yourself an amazing recipe book full of cheesecake recipes like I did recently (stay tuned for a few recipes from this coming up soon!)
That's it for me today - let me know what you guys think! xx
RECIPE - serves 10
Prep time: 40 minutes, plus 2 hours to cool and overnight to chill
Cook time: 55 minutes
100g butter
150g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
1 tbsp sugar
900g cream cheese, room temperature
250g caster sugar
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
finely grated zest of 1 orange
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
300ml double cream
1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat and stir in the biscuits and sugar. Press the mixture tightly into the base of a grease and base lined 23cm round springform cake tin. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.
2. Increase the oven temperature to 200 C. Use an electric whisk or whisk the cheese until creamy, then gradually add the caster sugar and flour and whisk until smooth. Increase the speed and whisk in the vanilla extract, orange zest and lemon zest, the whisk in the eggs and egg yolks one at a time. Finally, whisk in the cream. Scrape any excess from the sides and paddle of the electric whisk into the mixture. It should be light and fluffy - whisk on a faster setting if you need to.
3. Pour into the cake tin. Smooth the top, transfer to the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 110 C and bake for a further 30 minutes. The cheesecake should be cooked around the edges, but wobbly in the middle. Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in it for 2 hours to cool and set. Chill in the refrigerator overnight before serving.
4. Slide a knife around the edge of the cake, then unclip and release the springform and transfer the cake to a plate to serve
.
Source: "BAKE: Beautiful baking recipes from around the world"