The Best Baked Cheesecake

About the only television programme I follow these days is Masterchef Australia. Last week I was sort of watching it while making dinner and dealing with the general chaos created by two very small kids. It was a masterclass episode and they were making cheesecake...

Now you might not believe it, but I have never made a baked cheesecake before. I have eaten many slices of cheesecake but for some reason I never got around to making one myself.

So I decided there and then to make a cheesecake, while my parents were still in town so that I had someone to share it with!

It turned out to be dead simple. The masterchef recipe is a winner - it is from Donna Hay and she is just fabulous. Trust me, if I can make this cheesecake then you can make it :-)

The cake had a crack on top, but there are a number of reasons why that might happen, like baking it slightly too long, and luckily it did not impact the taste. The trick is to let it refrigerate overnight.

My cheesecake was glorious. It had the perfect balance of lemon and vanilla. It was rich and had a smooth texture. We were all in cheesecake heaven, I even forgot to decorate it with strawberries and nobody noticed. It was that good.

Here is a link to the recipe.

Here is the copy of the recipe:

Ingredients:

Base
1/3 cup ground almonds (almond meal)
¾ cup plain flour
¼ cup caster sugar
90g chilled butter, chopped



Filling
330g cream cheese, softened
500g fresh ricotta
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups caster sugar
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
¼ cup lemon juice
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ tablespoons cornflour
1½ tablespoons water

Strawberries and raspberries, to decorate


Method:
1. Preheat oven to 150°C.

2. To make the base, place the ground almonds, flour, sugar and butter into a bowl. Rub mixture with your fingertips until it forms coarse crumbs.

3. Line the base of a 20cm spring form tin with non-stick baking paper. Place the base mixture in the tin and press gently with fingers until even and then smooth out with the back of a spoon. Bake for 15 minutes or until light golden, set aside.

4. To make the filling, place the cream cheese, ricotta, eggs, sugar, lemon rind, juice and vanilla in a food processor. Combine the cornflour and water until smooth and add to the cheese mixture. Process the mixture until smooth.

5. Grease the sides of the cake tin with a little butter and then pour the filling over the base. Tap lightly to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and stand the cake in the oven for 1 hour, leaving the door closed. Refrigerate until cold and serve with fresh berries.