The legendary cheesecake

The cake to reach for when you want to impress. It is not difficult, but it bakes for a long time and cools for even longer, so make it the day before.

20 cm tin

Ingredients

• biscuits — 200 g
• butter — 80 g
• cream cheese — 600 g
• sugar — 150 g
• vanilla in any form — 10 g
• double cream 33–35% — 250 ml
• eggs — 3
• berries to decorate

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C.
2. Blitz the biscuits to crumbs in a blender or food processor. Add the melted butter and mix again.
3. Line the base of a springform tin with baking paper. Tip in the buttered crumbs and press them firmly and evenly into the base and up the sides to form a tall rim.
4. Bake for 10–15 minutes.
5. Once the base is baked, take it out and lower the oven to 160°C for the cheesecake itself.
6. In a deep bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with a whisk. Stir until smooth. Do not use a mixer here, or the mixture aerates and the cheesecake turns out too loose.
7. Add the eggs one at a time, continuing to whisk.
8. Pour in the cream and stir until smooth.
9. Carefully pour the filling into the tin, up to the top of the biscuit rim.
10. Put a tray of water in the oven with a rack above it. Set the cheesecake on the rack and bake at 160°C for about 1.5 hours. It will rise as it bakes and may crack a little. When the surface is lightly browned and a wooden skewer comes out dry — a few crumbs are fine, it should just not be wet with filling — the cheesecake is done.
11. Take it out and leave it to cool at room temperature for about an hour, then chill until completely cold. This takes 3–5 hours, ideally overnight.
12. Decorate the finished cheesecake with berries or a berry sauce.

Tips

• Leibniz biscuits are recommended: they give a crisper base. Any plain shortbread-style biscuit will do instead.