Baked Lemon and Ginger Cheesecake

My next recipe, baked cheesecake, is something I've eaten at restaurants a million times, but until today had next actually made myself! I've made dozens of no bake cheesecakes in the past, but really wanted to try out a recipe like this, I love the texture of baked cheesecake, and after trawling through hundreds of recipes I think I've come up with the perfect ratio of ingredients and flavours. Ginger and lemon really are a match made in heaven.

(I'm away this weekend and attempting to find my way around a new kitchen, hence the slightly different pictures in this post).

Ingredients

200g caster sugar

100g plain flour

600g soft cheese

75ml double cream

75ml soured cream

200g ginger biscuits *

75g unsalted butter

Rind and juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp vanilla extract, or seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod

2 eggs plus 1 extra egg yolk

Mixed fruit to decorate (optional)
1 tbsp icing sugar to decorate (optional)

* Now this is where I cheated a little bit, you can of course make your own biscuits and use those, but I went for shop bought biscuits because it is soooooo much quicker, and in my opinion just as lovely... don't tell me off! You could use digestive biscuits instead if you wanted a more classic cheesecake base.

Method

- Start by preheating the oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F/Gas 6.

- Grease and line a 23cm cake tin.

- Crush your biscuits to form fine crumbs, I do this by placing them in a plastic bag and breaking them up with a rolling pin, but you could also use a food processor. 

- Over a low heat melt the butter, and mix this into the biscuit crumbs until completely combined.

- Press the biscuit mixture into the base of your cake tin and smooth down as much as possible, then leave to chill in the fridge until you need it.

- In a large bowl whisk the rest of your ingredients (except the fruit) until smooth, try not to over whisk as this will add too much air.

- Pour the mix into the cake tin, over the biscuit base, and place on the middle shelf of the oven. Bake for 20 mins, then turn the heat down to 160C/140C Fan/325F/Gas 2 and bake for a further 30-35 mins, or until the cheesecake is firm on top but with a slight wobble.

- Turn off the heat and leave the cheesecake to cool for at least an hour in the oven. Then decorate with the mixed fruit and a sprinkling of icing sugar and enjoy.

I was so happy with how this turned out on my first try, it's so delicious and I think that this recipe works really well! Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

🍰