Baked London Cheesecake
Why I Love This Recipe
A Nigella Lawson recipe - this is the first cheesecake I ever made and it will be the last! The reason, well, when you've found perfection, there's just no need to search anymore!
Ingredients You'll Need
200g digestive biscuits
100g unsalted butter at room temperature
600g cream cheese
150g caster sugar
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
300ml tub sour cream
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
Either use a food processor or place the biscuits in a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to pulverise. Add the butter and rub into the pulverised biscuits till they resemble breadcrumbs.
Line the bottom of a 20cm springform cake tin and press the biscuits in with your hands, making sure to compact them right into the edges. Put the base in the fridge to set and preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Beat the cream cheese till it’s as soft as creamed butter, then add the sugar and beat in again. Beat in the eggs and egg yolk, then the vanilla and then the lemon juice. Put an almost full kettle on to boil at this stage.
Remove the cake tin from the fridge and line 3 times with strong foil, making sure to alternate short and tall sides of the foil (since it’s rectangular and all…uhh…yeah…). Pour cream cheese mix into the chilled cake tin and place into a roasting dish.
Pour the boiling water into the roasting dish so it comes up halfway around the cake tin - bear in mind that less is better than more as overfilling will make removing the cake tin difficult. Place the whole thing in the oven and bake for 50 minutes till it feels set when you lightly touch the surface, and it wobbles like a set jelly.
Whilst the cake is baking, beat together the sour cream, sugar and vanilla. If your sour cream is as thick and solid as mine, you may want to zap it in the microwave for a few seconds till it liquefies, as otherwise it will be a bit blobby on top of the cake. Once the cake has set, pour the sour cream mix on top of the cake and bake for a further 10 minutes.
Remove the cake from the oven, unwrap the foil and stand it on a rack to cool. Once it has cooled completely, leave it to set in the fridge for about 4-6 hours as it helps to make the cake more solid and the flavours meld together. Remove 15 minutes before serving to take the edge off the coldness. Unmould and use a knife which has been run under hot water to cut and serve :)
Serve with some delicious blueberry syrup for a extra special treat!
