Fluffy Vanilla Cheesecake

If you’re like me, sometimes you’re just in the mood for a really good cheesecake, am I right?

This particular craving had come after indulging in a small slice of the good stuff at a friend’s birthday – one bite was all it took to reawaken my taste buds to remember just how much I was in love with the sweetly smooth concoction which holds that delicious crunch, heavenly!

So I made the executive decision whilst I was mid-weekly-big-shop that that weekend I would create the classic, the indulgent and light, never gonna be replaced; New York Cheesecake.

So here’s how I did it;

Ingredients;

Base
Approximately 8 Digestive Biscuits
90g of Melted Butter
Pinch of Sugar
Dash of Vanilla Essence 

Cheesecake Filling
3 x Packs of 200g Philadelphia (or any other good quality plain cream cheese)
250g Sugar
3 Tablespoons of Plain Flour
3 Eggs
Dash of Vanilla

(makes around 8 mini cheesecakes)

Method;

So the first thing you’re going to do is create the buttery biscuit base (now that I’ve said that, try to continue baking without singing the rap in your head, you’ll fail magnificently.) You’ll do this by taking your digestive biscuits and crushing them into crumbs, this can be done in a variety of ways; my fave is putting them in a zip-lock bag and releasing any pent-up anger using a rolling pin.

Whilst you’re doing this, you can start slowly melting your butter in a pan or in the microwave. Once it’s melted and you've pelted those biscuits into crumbs, combine the two together in a bowl and mix together until fully combined, adding the pinch of sugar and a drizzle of Vanilla Essence along the way – it’s as easy as that!

Take whatever dish or individual ramekins you’re wanting to bake your cheesecake in (I’m doing individuals but just follow the same process but on a larger scale if you’re doing just the one!) and grease them using some butter. Next your going to take about a spoonful of base mixture and plonk it into each of your ramekins, then using the heat from your fingers to spread it out, flatten it, and make sure its at a nice even level all the way round, covering the whole of the ramekin base; I even went up the sides a little for extra crunch (crazy).

So now you're going to put those bad boys in the fridge for around an hour to let them set - whilst they're chilling, you can prepare the delicious filling!

Preheat the oven to 90°, then in a large glass bowl, pop in all 3 packs of cream cheese. Beat the cheese vigorously with a wooden spoon (or pop them in a mixer if you're feeling lazy!) Until smooth; next, pop in the sugar and continue mixing, adding the flour along the way. Once it's completely combined and super smooth once again, add the vanilla essence and the eggs and continue to stir, stopping once all ingredients are fully mixed in, leaving a silky smooth consistency.

After your bases have chilled for an hour, take them out of the fridge and evenly pour the cheesecake filling into each ramekin, leaving about 1cm of spare room at the top. Next, place them all on a tray and pop them into the oven for about 10 minutes. 

After the 10 minutes, check and see how they're doing. Then reduce the oven temperature to around 60° and let them bake for a further 25 minutes.

Once your buzzer has gone off, your little cheesecakes should be ready to come out! Let them rest on a cooling rack for about 30 minutes before placing them in the fridge to set - this normally takes a few hours, but nobody'll blame you if you can't wait!

Enjoy them at a dinner party, or eat 3 at once in your pjs whilst watching Modern Family - your choice! 

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did creating it - Happy Cheesecake-ing! 

xx