Cutting The Cheese

This is really a food fawn and therefore does belong somewhere more worthy, but nevertheless here it is. I used to be too afraid to try baking cheesecake until my good friend, Kathy, showed me her method. She has one of those beautiful KitchenAid benchtop mixers and did all the mixing in that. For those of us who don't have one of these, a handheld mixer works just fine.

1 x 250g plain biscuits
4 x 250g sticks of Philadelphia cream cheese (not the light version!)
4 eggs
2 tbsp bourbon
1 tsp vanilla essence
1-1 1/2 cups brown sugar
unsalted butter
greaseproof paper
20cm baking tin (needs to be at least 5cm high)

A few hours before preparing the cake batter, take eggs and cream cheese out of the fridge in order to get to room temperature.

When ready, preheat oven to 325F. Half fill a large baking tray with water to form a bain marie. Best to place it on the bottom rack of the oven.

Grease the cake tin, cutting greaseproof paper such that it only goes a centimetre or two up the sides. Do not grease the rest of the tin yet or else the biscuit base will get stuck on the sides.

Crush/chop biscuits in a food processor until they form a fine powder. Get rid of any chunks or big lumps. Melt 1-2 tbsp butter, and mix in evenly with the biscuits. Add to the base of the tin and smooth over evenly. Press down firmly with fingers or with the blade of a knife.

On low speed, mix the 4 sticks of cream cheese in a large bowl. Add vanilla, bourbon and some of the sugar. So you don't make the cake too sweet, check for taste before adding all sugar.

Add one egg yolk to cream cheese mix. Mix in on low speed. As soon as the yellow is gone, stop mixing. Repeat this with each egg. Batter should be completely smooth and have the consistency of thickened cream.

Grease and paper the remaining sides of the tin. Pour in the batter.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours, rotating the cake during the first half hour. Prick any bubbles on the surface with fork or toothpick.

Cool completely before turning out.