THE Cheesecake

Submitted by admin on 3 January, 2011 - 18:37.

There are many kinds of cheesecake: with fruit, with chocolate, with... you name it, it seems that some people want to add to cheesecake but we think it should be creamy and rich but delicate with a little taste of vanilla and that it shouldn't need any enhancement at all.  So here's what I think is THE cheesecake recipe. Leave the fruit for decoration - everyone loves this one just the way it is.

Ingredients:

1 large pack of Digestive biscuits
2 eggs
1/2 kg curd cheese
1 cup of sugar + 2 tablespoons of sugar
300ml soured cream
A few drops of natural vanilla essence (1/2 a teaspoon in total)

First crush or blend the biscuits and empty into a lined and greased springform tin, patting down very gently to make a base about 1cm thick.

Beat the eggs and add the curd cheese, one cup of sugar, and a few drops of vanilla essence. Beat until well mixed and pour onto the biscuit base. Bake in a preheated oven for 20 mins at 170 degrees.

Beat the soured cream with a few drops of vanilla essence + 2 tablespoons of sugar.  Pour gently onto the previous layer over the back of a spoon and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes at 185 degrees.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool. When cold, cover and place in the fridge overnight.  Remove from fridge 20 mins before serving.

No curd cheese? No soured cream?

Submitted by admin on 3 January, 2011 - 19:02.

If you're somewhere where curd cheese or soured cream are hard to come by, you can substitute with local products, not forgetting that the white cheese you use must still have some cheese flavour.

I used St Moret instead of curd cheese and mixed in some "brousse de brebis" for good measure.  You could use Philadelphia instead.

And as for soured cream, I used creme fraiche and added just a little full fat milk.  Adding a little single cream or even some brousse might work here too.