Brûléed cheesecake

  • Preparation time: 25 minutes, plus cooling and chilling
  • Cooking time: 1 hour 10 minutes
  • Total time: 1 hour 35 minutes, plus cooling and chilling
  • Serves:12

    Ingredients

    BISCUIT BASE
    100g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
    250g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
    4 tbsp demerara sugar
    1 tsp ground ginger
    1 egg yolk, beaten

    CHEESECAKE FILLING
    ½ lemon, zest
    2 x 250g tubs essential Waitrose full fat soft cheese, room temperature
    125g golden caster sugar
    1 tbsp cornflour
    1 tsp vanilla bean paste
    3 eggs, beaten
    200ml full fat crème fraîche

    BRULEE TOPPING
    2 tbsp golden caster sugar

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 200˚C, gas mark 6. Grease a 20cm loose-bottomed, deep cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. Mix the digestives, butter, demerara sugar and ginger until evenly mixed. Use a straight-sided glass to press the crumbs evenly across the base of the tin and 3cm up the sides. Bake on a flat baking sheet for 10 minutes, until golden brown. Brush the egg yolk over the biscuit shell, then bake for 3 minutes more to seal.

    2. Put the lemon zest, soft cheese, sugar, cornflour and vanilla in a large bowl and mix well with a spatula. Work in the eggs until smooth, then fold in the crème fraîche.

    3. Pour the filling over the base. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven to 140˚C, gas mark 1, and bake for 45 minutes more, or until set with a gentle wobble. Leave in the turned-off oven with the door ajar for 1 hour, then loosen the edges with a palette knife and cool completely. Chill well.

    4. Remove the tin; dab away any moisture from the top of the cake. Scatter the sugar over the top. With a kitchen blowtorch, brûlée until the sugar turns deep coppery brown. Serve as soon as you can. 

    This recipe first appeared in Waitrose Food magazine. myWaitrose members can download the Waitrose Food app edition for FREE. Find out more.

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