Baked Cheesecake, Christmas-style

A little slice of dairy-deliciousness

I have a confession to make.. I don’t really like cheesecake. I don’t like cream, I don’t like cheese, I hate cream cheese.

Until. I decided to keep the Christmas spirit going, by making this festive version of a baked cheesecake. Instead of digestive biscuits only, the base is mainly ginger cookies. I used IKEA’s Christmas cookies: pepparkakor. They are delicious. I have never baked a cheesecake before, and this is testament to how fool-proof this recipe is. This fool NAILED IT.

 Adapted from a Nigella recipe, serves 8

Ingredients for the base

• 110g ginger cookies
• 40g digestive biscuits
• 75g unsalted butter, melted

 Ingredients for the cheesecake

• 400g cream cheese
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 tbsp vanilla sugar
• 1 tsbp lemon juice

Method

To make the base, measure out the biscuits and make into crumbs. 

This can be achieved by blending in a food processor, or the more fun way – place in a plastic bag, seal and bash the hell out of it with a rolling pin. Just like my nanny taught me!

Wielding the destroyer of biscuits

Bashed:

Show those biscuits who's boss

Place the crumbled biscuits in a bowl and pour in the melted butter. Mix well.

Transfer into a springform cake tin. Flatten down to a packed, smooth base. Place in the fridge to chill while you make the topping.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Beat the cream cheese until it is smooth, and add in the sugar. 

Beat in the eggs and egg yolks. I find it handy to save the egg whites for use in something else, macarons are best made with slightly ‘old’ egg whites, so I keep mine in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Separated egg yolk. I always do the yolks first because if they split, you can use the whole thing for your 'whole' egg

Eggies.

Finally add in the vanilla and lemon juice and mix well. 

Prepare the tin: line the outside with an unbroken layer of tinfoil, and then cover with a second piece of tinfoil. Pour the cream cheese filling on top of the base and place in a roasting tray.

All wrapped up.

Pour in water from a freshly boiled kettle to go up to 1/3 to ½ way up the cake pan. 

Put in the oven and cook for approximately an hour, turning once to ensure even cooking (like I failed to do!).

Take out of the oven when done, and let cool for 10 minutes in the tin. 

It cracked a bit, but that's okay. No one is perfect.

Gently remove the springform sides and and stand it on a rack to cool. When cooled completely it can be placed in the fridge until serving. I made mine the night before and it was just delicious the next day.

Pre-demolition

That was 2 slices worth, I swear!