Strawberries = summer.

The smell of strawberries instantly evokes hot weather to me. This is not so much the case where I live in New Zealand, where most summer days are not really what I consider ‘hot’. But, on the days that the temperature does rise above 25 Celsius/77 Fahrenheit and the sun is shining, you can make the most of it since everything is so close and accessible; beaches, parks, lakes, mountains. It’s amazing. Also, during summer we get 15/16 hours of sunlight and at 9pm it’s still light outside. It’s my favourite season.

This cheesecake is a perfect summer dessert. It’s creamy and sweet and just delicious. I brought it to a Christmas barbecue at my friends’ house and it was very well received!

This recipe has three parts: the base, the filling and the topping.

Let’s start with the base. You’ll need ground digestive biscuits and melted butter. Digestive biscuits are semi-sweet biscuits made with wheat flour, which gives them their distinctive texture and flavour. If you can’t find/don’t like digestive biscuits you can use any other biscuits you want. Place them in a food processor and blend to a fine crumb. If you, like me, don’t have a food processor, use a blender (I did it in three or four batches).

Mix the ground biscuits with the melted butter. The mixture will look like wet sand.

Put the biscuit mixture in a springform pan lined with baking paper (recipe called for a square baking tin but I prefer making cheesecake in a springform pan), spread it down evenly and press it down. Bake for 15 minutes at 150°C until golden. Set aside to cool.

Part two: the filling. You’ll need cream cheese, vanilla extract (recipe called for vanilla bean but it’s quite expensive so I used extract), sugar, eggs, cream, lemon juice and lemon zest.

Whisk all the filling ingredients until smooth. Pour on top of the cooled base.

Bake at 110°C for 60-70 minutes until just set. The cheesecake should be slightly wobbly when you take it out of the oven, kind of like jelly. Leave it to cool inside the turned off oven for a while, this should prevent the cracks you see on the photo from happening (don’t worry, if the cheesecake ends up cracking anyway like mine did, no one will be able to tell once you pour the topping over it). Keep it in the fridge while you make the topping.

Tip: be very careful when removing the cheesecake from the springform pan. Do it once it’s completely cool. I made the mistake of not using enough baking paper for the base (you want the diameter of the baking paper to be significantly bigger than the base) so it was not very easy to remove. My angel of a husband and his MacGyver skills prevented a cheesecake tragedy. 

Now the topping: mix together sour cream, cream and icing sugar.

Pour the topping over the cooled cheesecake. Smooth it over, then place in the fridge to chill and thoroughly set.

Add fresh strawberries (recipe called for dehydrated strawberries but I don’t have a dehydrator and also, I like them fresh).

Bonus track: strawberry purée to serve with the cheesecake! Use a hand blender (or a regular blender) to purée a handful of strawberries with a little bit of caster sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice.

To serve, cut slices with a hot knife and garnish with the strawberry purée. Store the cheesecake in the fridge, uncovered.

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Baked Vanilla Cheesecake with Strawberries

From The Great New Zealand Baking Book, copyright © Kevin Hopgood from Hopgood’s

Servings: 8 | Prep time: 10-15 mins | Cook time: 1 hour 25 mins, plus cooling | Skill level: 1 (easy)

Ingredients

Base

• 1 pack Digestive biscuits
• 35 g melted butter

Filling

• 1 vanilla bean
• 180 g sugar
• 500 g cream cheese, at room temperature
• 5 eggs
• 250 g cream
• juice and zest of 1 lemon

Topping

• 50 g sour cream
• 20 g cream
• 15 g icing sugar

To serve

• 100 g sugar
• 100 ml water
• 300 g strawberries
• a little caster or icing sugar
• a squeeze of lemon juice

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 150°C. Line a 25 cm square baking tin with baking paper.

Place Digestive biscuits in a food processor and blend to a fine crumb. Drizzle in the melted butter and combine. Spoon biscuit mix into the base of the tin, spread it out evenly and press it down. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Set aside to cool.

Turn the oven down to 110°C. Split vanilla bean down the middle and scrape out seeds. Combine the seeds with all remaining filling ingredients and whisk thoroughly until smooth. Pour on top of the cooled base and bake for 60–70 minutes or until just set. The cheesecake should still be slightly wobbly when you take it out of the oven; you want the residual heat to finish the cooking to achieve the right texture. Leave the cheesecake to cool.

Whisk all topping ingredients together, then pour over cheesecake. Smooth it over, then place in the fridge to chill and thoroughly set.

Place sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Cool. Slice 5 strawberries and brush with syrup, place on baking paper in a dehydrator and dry until crisp. (If you don’t have a dehydrator, dust the slices with caster sugar instead.) Purée the remaining strawberries with sugar/icing sugar and lemon juice to taste.

To serve, carefully take the cheesecake out of the baking tin, cut slices with a hot knife and garnish with strawberry slices. Serve with purée (and extra strawberries, if wished).

Where to buy the book:

Bookreps New Zealand

Whitcoulls

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