The Big Cheese

I heart cheese! Cheese in all shapes and forms, from soft stinky gorgonzola to gooey brie and everything in between. I have also shared another dirty little secret with you here, about my love affair with sugar and my tendency to eat dessert for dinner. Seeing as cheese + sugar = cheesecake, you can safely conclude that cheesecake is a weakness for me. This weekend I made the most delectable baked cheesecake, I just managed to steal myself a piece before the rest of my family attacked it. I got the recipe out of my new favourite cake book. This is a New York cheesecake.

{hmmm lets get started}

{quick taste test}

{this cheesecake is full on flavour and FAT, it takes almost 4 tubs of cream cheese, yikes!}

New York Cheese Cake:


Ingredients:

CRUST

85 g butter
280 g digestive biscuits

FILLING

900 g good quality cream cheese
250 g Sugar
45 ml Flour
3 eggs and 1 yolk
250 ml sour cream
7.5 ml Vanilla essence

TOPPING

250 ml sour cream
15 ml Castor Sugar
Juice from 1 lemon


Method:

Preheat Oven to 180 °C. Grease and line a 23 cm spring form cake pan.

For the crust, melt the butter in the microwave, and then stir into the crushed biscuits.

Press crushed biscuits into base and sides of pan. Bake in oven for 10 minutes. Cool while preparing the filling. Increase the oven setting to 230° C.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, with the paddle attachment beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Add the sugar and flour and continue beating for another 3 minutes. Add the eggs and yolk one at a time. Stir in sour cream and vanilla essence.

Pour filling into prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 110° C and bake for a further 30 minutes. Switch off oven and open door, leave to cool in the oven for at least 2 hours.

In a medium bowl, stir the sour cream, castor sugar and lemon juice together until the sugar has dissolved. Pour over the cooled cheesecake and refrigerate overnight.