New York Cheesecake

New York Cheesecake (For 12 persons)

600g Philadelphia Cheese (See Note 2 below)

10g of butter or margarine to grease your pan

185g of your favourite cream biscuits (Refer photo step 2)

160g of castor sugar

2 small eggs (for vegetarian version replace by 60ml of milk)

125 ml yogurt (Nature and sugar-free)

125 ml milk

30ml vanilla essence

50g flour

50g of raspberry or strawberry jam

1 can of cherries in light syrup (refer photo step 12) - Sold at Shoprite at Rs69

Note 1: You will need a springform pan (20cm diameter) to bake your cheesecake. Refer photo step 1.

Note 2: For your Philadelphia cheese (200g per box) you can use the light (fat reduced) and/or normal version as per your preference. In my recipe I used 2 light (400g) and 1 normal (200g) versions of Philadelphia cheese .

Procedure

Step 1: Get all your ingredients ready and lightly grease your springform pan !

Step 2: Take your favourite cream biscuits and insert them in your blender

Tip: Normally to prepare the base we use any graham crackers with butter in a blender but since I always like to innovate I have tested with cream biscuits and honestly I prefer the latter for 3 main reasons:

1. No need to use butter (the cream/filling already does the work )

2. The cream/filling is normally flavoured (vanilla/ custard/ strawberry etc..) which gives a nice twist to add more flavours to your cheesecake

3. It is super fast and handy

Step 3: Blend blend blend until you obtain a uniform powder (sand type) !

Step 4: Place your powdered cream biscuits obtained from previous step in your greased springform pan and use a spoon or the bottom of a glass to press firmly this powder until the surface is flat and smooth like in the picture below (right). Set aside to be used in step 7

Step 5: Mix your Philadelphia cheese together with your castor sugar until all sugar has dissolved and you have a smooth paste

Step 6: Add your 2 eggs ( or 60ml milk for vegetarian version), vanilla essence, yogurt, milk (125ml) and mix until you have a uniform mixture. Eventually add your flour and perform a final mix . Your cheesecake batter is now ready !

Step 7: Pour your cheesecake batter on your base made of powdered cream biscuits set aside in step 4 and your cheesecake is ready to go for baking ! Tap your pan lightly on your table surface to remove any excess air in your batter and bake in a pre heated oven at 150 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes !

Step 8: After 45 minutes baking, just switch off your oven, slightly open its door and allow your cheesecake to cool inside for about an hour

Note: If your cheesecake has got some cracks on the surface it is not a major problem. Actually they are going to be covered at decoration time (step 11) ..

Step 9: When your cheesecake has sufficently cooled down, wrap it (still in its pan) in cling film and refrigerate overnight.

Tip: Plan to make your cheesecake always on the eve for best/ mature taste on the following day ..

Step 10: The following day, take your wrapped cheesecake out of the refrigerator, unmold it and place it on your favourite cake board

Step 11: Spread your jam evenly on the top surface like below (right)

Step 12: Top up with your preserved cherries !

Step 13: Voila ! your cheesecake is ready !

Step 14: Decorate your plate for that "tichef" look ..

Bon Appetit !

You may want to create individual portions - Mini aluminium molds become handy

For the batch with individual portions (below), I made the vegetarian version that is I replaced the 2 eggs by 60ml of milk like I mentioned in the ingredients` list . Attention les papilles !...