Time for my favourite dessert from the Jamie Oliver Ministry of Food book. The vanilla cheesecake. So good it almost makes me say nom. But I hate that word so no.
It’s a recipe which has never failed for me although the description calling it a “vanilla” cheesecake is a little deceptive as the citrus flavours in the cheesecake burst through with every mouthful. In his book Jamie adds a raspberry coulis topping – I never have. I’ve never felt it needed it.
So without further ado you will need:
150g butter, plus an extra knob for greasing the tin
200g Digestive biscuits
100g rolled oats
1 vanilla pod
600g cream cheese
150g caster sugar
1 lemon
1 orange
300ml double cream
Grease a 23cm springform cake tin with butter and set aside. Wrap your digestives in a clean tea towel and then, using a rolling pin, bash them up until you have fine crumbs or you could whizz them up in a food processor for less mess.
Put a pan over a low heat, add the oats and toast them gently until they turn darker in colour. Cut the butter into cubes and add it to the pan along with your biscuit crumbs. Gently stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture combines. Remove from heat and spoon into your cake tin, smoothing it out evenly.
Gently push down on the biscuit base using the back of a metal spoon, or your hands – you want it to be flat and even. Put the base in the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour.
Cut your vanilla pod in half lengthways and gently drag the edge of your knife along the insides of the pod to scrape out the seeds.
Put all the cream cheese into a mixing bowl, and add the vanilla seeds, caster sugar, lemon and orange zest and the juice from the lemon. Give it all a good stir until nice and smooth.
In another bowl, whisk your cream until it gives you soft peaks. Add half of it to your cream cheese mixture and fold it in. Then fold the remaining cream in. Once everything is blended, spoon the mixture over the biscuit base and smooth it out.
Place your cheesecake in the fridge for at least an hour.
If you wanted to add a fruit topping or coulis then do so after the final chill just prior to serving.
This makes a huge chunk of cheesecake and its very rich so you don’t want to serve massive slices. Once you have made this once I am sure it will become your go to cheesecake recipe!
