Tags: baked cheesecake berrysauce cheesecake cheesecake recipe
So I’d walked into a store a few weeks ago to pick up some strawberries that I was going to use on a cake when I saw cream cheese right in front of me. If you live in Zambia, you’ll probably attest to the fact that cream cheese is pretty hard to come by. I had been wanting to make a cheesecake for the absolute longest time so I was pretty excited and immediately added the cream cheese to my shopping bag.
It was a brand I’d never used before but it having “made in Zambia” on there sealed the deal. I had to give it a try.
It is a ‘The Moo Range’ cream cheese (See picture below)
I had a pretty good experience with it. The taste was a little different from what I’m used to but it was very pleasant. Let’s bake the cake, shall we?
Ingredients
Crust
2 cups graham cracker crumbs / tennis biscuit crumbs (about 15 whole graham crackers, crushed)
1/3 cup (28g) confectioners’ sugar (if using tennis biscuits, leave sugar out)
7 tablespoons butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon salt
Filling
600g cream cheese, at room temperature
3 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Instructions
Select a pie pan whose inside top dimension is at least 10 and whose height is at least 1 1/4″.
Preheat the oven to 180°C
Make the crust by stirring together all of the crust ingredients, mixing until thoroughly combined.
Press the crumbs into the bottom and up the sides of the pie pan, making a thicker layer on the bottom than on the sides.
Make the filling by mixing together the room-temperature cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Mix in the eggs and vanilla, again mixing until smooth. To avoid beating too much air into the batter, use a mixer set at low-medium speed.
Pour filling into the pie pan and spread it evenly.
Bake in your preheated oven for 30 minutes.
It will still have a jiggle in the middle, that’s perfectly normal.
Take it out of the oven and please it on a wire rack to cool. DO NOT TAKE IT OUT IF THE BAKING PAN.
Once it’s completely cold. Wrap it in cling film and place it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
Serve in slices as is or top with fruit or berry sauce.
