WITH MY VARIATIONS ….
For the biscuit base you need
1 packet (200 g) digestive biscuits or half digestives and half ginger biscuits; you can use gluten free biscuits if you wish
50 g (60 ml) light brown sugar
100 g (110 ml) butter, melted
Optional 5ml ground ginger and 5ml ground cinnamon
For the filling you need
1 kg smooth cream cheese
210 g (250 ml) caster sugar
45 ml cake flour or gluten free flour
5 extra large or 6 large eggs
125 ml cream
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out or 5ml vanilla paste
Optional: 25ml orange zest (zest from 2 oranges)
To prepare the biscuit base
- Place the biscuits, sugar and spices in a food processor and blend until the mixture is super fine.
- Melt the butter and add it to the crumb mixture, blending it well.
- Line the base of an 18 cm loose-base cake tin (7.5 cm deep) with baking paper. Spray the tin with non-stick food spray. (Tip: You can also bake this cheesecake in a standard 23 cm cake tin, but you’ll lose some of the height. The baking time stays exactly the same.)
- Press the mixture onto the bottom and halfway up the cake tin. Then, let it chill in the fridge while you move on to the filling.
To prepare the filling
- Heat the oven to 120 °C.
- Place the cream cheese, caster sugar and flour in the bowl of your mixer.
- Whisk all the ingredients together for 2 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape the sides of bowl with a spatula and folding it in to ensure you’ve got it all.
- Add the eggs one by one and whisk well after each egg has been added.
3. Add the cream and whisk for 5 minutes. Then, add the vanilla seeds or paste and orange zest and mix well.
4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and place the tin on a baking tray before popping it into the oven to bake for 2 hours. Switch the oven off and let the cheesecake cool in the oven. This is important helps to prevent it from tearing.
5. Decorate it any way you like! I used preserved orange slices and fresh rosemary.