Rachel Allen's Baked Cheese Cake with Blueberries

Easy
serves 10; prep 15min ; cook 45 min



Ingredients
75g Butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
175g digestive biscuits
175g Blueberries, plus extra for decorating
450g cream cheese
150g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 Eggs, lightly beaten
icing sugar, to dust

1. Preheat the oven to 180/gas 4. Butter the sides and base of a 24cm cake tin.

2. Place the biscuits into a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles rough breadcrumbs. Alternatively, place them into a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin. Mix the crushed biscuits with the melted butter and press down into the base of the tin. Spread the blueberries over the base and allow to chill in the fridge until needed.

3. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract and the eggs together in a large bowl until smooth and creamy. Pour over the top of the blueberries and then bake in the oven for 40 minutes, or until pale golden and only wobbles slightly when you gently shake the tin.

4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for about 10-15 minutes, then run a knife around the edge to loosen it and carefully remove the cheesecake from the tin. Transfer to a serving plate. Sprinkle over a few blueberries, then dust with icing sugar.

5. Cut into slices to serve. This cheesecake is best eaten when it is at room temperature.

Cook’s note: You can experiment with all kinds of (dry) sweet biscuits or cookies for the base; just crush them the way you would the digestives above. Try using a chocolate biscuit base and omitting the blueberries.

Adapted from Rachel Allen, Bake (Collins)

Gordon Ramsay's CheeseCake

Cheesecake
Source: Olive mag
30 minutes + chilling - serves 8

175g caster sugar
1 pod vanilla
75 ml lemon juice
450 g soft cream cheese
175g creme fraiche
475ml double cream
Swirl
150g dark chocolate
150g double cream
Base
8 digestive biscuits
25g butter, melted

1. for the base, crush the biscuits and mix them with melted butter. Press into the bottom of a 20cm spring form tin. Chill.
2. for the filling, mix the sugar, cream cheese and seeds from the vanilla pod together. Whisk the lemon juice with cream and creme fraiche to soft peaks. Fold everything together. Keep the mixture cool until you need it, but don't chill it.
3. for the swirl, melt the cream and chocolate together in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Cool the mixture until it is cool enough not to melt the filling and thick enough to hold a trail.
4. Spoon or pope a layer of cheesecake mix over the biscuit base, then drizzle a thin stream of chocolate mix in a swirl on top, then repeat until you have 3 layers of each. Stick a thin knife blade or skewer into the cheesecake and swirl the mixtures together. Don't be tempted to smooth the surface down or it will look muddy. Chill for at least 5 hours and keep chilled until you need to cut it.