Baked Lemon Cheesecake

This baked lemon cheesecake was the first recipe I perfected. It was a daunting challenge at first , but it’s so easy and delicious that it has become my most baked dessert. I originally found this recipe on a local supermarket, Pick n Pay’s website, and since then I’ve never had the need to try any other recipe!

The original recipes calls for cream crackers for the base of the cheesecake, however I use a different biscuit / cookie every time I make this cheesecake. Some of the cookies I use are:

• oreas
• coconut cookies
• ginger biscuits
• oat cookies
• digestive biscuits
• chocolate cookies *note – if cookies with chocolate chips are used, it may change the texture of the base, and make it soft and wet rather than crispy

The ingredients

For the base:

• about 20 cookies of any variety, depending on how thick you like your base.
• 60ml melted butter

For the cheesecake filling:

• 2 cups plain cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla essence (1 tsp vanilla extract)
• 185ml sugar (I use castor sugar as it dissolves easier than granulated sugar)
• 1 lemon peel – grated
• 2 extra large eggs, room temperature
• 2 Tbs corn flour
• 3 Tbs cake flour
• 3ml salt
• 1 cup cream
• 125ml plain yogurt, or sour cream

The method

1. Butter a 20cm spring-form tin and line base with a double layer of baking paper (cut slightly smaller than the tin to prevent edges from curling into the mixture.)
2. Combine crust ingredients and press evenly into base of the tin with the back of a spoon. Place in refrigerator to firm up. Preheat oven to 140°C.
3. Beat cream cheese in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Add vanilla, sugar and grated lemon peel and mix well. Separate 1 egg. Add white to the mixture and beat well. Add yolk. Beat well again. Repeat with second egg.
4. Sift cornflour, cake flour and salt over the mixture and mix briefly to blend. In another bowl, beat the cream to same consistency as yoghurt. Using a spatula, fold yoghurt and cream into the cream cheese mixture.
5. Fill a large roasting pan 1/3 of the way up with hot water. Place the springform tin with cookie base on a large piece of foil and mould foil around the tin to prevent water seeping into the base.
6. Pour and scrape mixture over crust in foil-covered tin, and place in pan of warm water. Bake at 140ºC for exactly 40 minutes. Increase heat to 180ºC and bake for 12 minutes more. The cake should be puffy and golden on top, set around the edges but still slightly ‘wobbly’ in the middle.
7. Turn oven off, open door a few centimeters and leave cake to cool in the warm oven for another 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a further hour. When cake has cooled, run a thin knife blade between the cake and tin.
8. Gently ease away the sides of the springform tin and turn cake onto a cooling rack covered with a cloth (to prevent marking.) Peel off greaseproof paper, place a serving plate over the base of the cake, and turn it over again onto the plate.
9. Refrigerate for a few hours to firm. Dust with icing sugar, and serve with your favourite fruits.

I hope you’ll give this recipe a go. Follow my instagram account @courtneys_cravings99 to be notified of a new blog post.

Regards, Courtney xx