Easy Baked Raspberry Cheesecake

Despite being a huge cheesecake fan, I'd never made a baked one before, only the kind that you leave in the fridge to set and requires no cooking.  For a Jubilee barbecue last week, I thought I'd have a go at using some of the lovely, in-season raspberries I was seeing everywhere.  I planned on using ricotta but had to abandon this idea when I couldn't find a vegetarian version in the supermarkets, booooooo!

I used this cream cheese based recipe from the BBC instead but changed it a bit as I wanted a thicker base, more coulis and more fruit! Here's my version of the recipe:

Baked Raspberry Cheesecake

12 digestive biscuits
75g butter
600g cream cheese
2tbsp plain flour
175g caster sugar
2 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
150ml soured cream
500g raspberries
2tbsp icing sugar

20cm springform tin

1. Heat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4.

2. Crush the biscuits anyway you please - I use a deep mixing bowl and the end of a rolling pin - until you have fine crumbs.

3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat then stir in the biscuit crumbs

4. Press the base mixture into the tin.  Bake for 5 minutes then leave to cool.

5. Beat the cream cheese, flour, caster sugar, eggs, egg yolk and cream until light and fluffy. Stir in 200g of raspberries and pour onto the base.  Bake for 40 minutes until set but still slightly wobbly in centre.  Leave to cool.

6. Place 100g of raspberries into a pan with the icing sugar and gently heat until they begin to break down and the juices flow. Mash them with a fork and push the mixture through a sieve into a bowl or jug, discarding the seeds.

7. When the cheesecake is cool, decorate with the remaining 200g of raspberries, then pour over the raspberry coulis.

It turned out bloody delicious, albeit a little cracked which I believe can be caused by a few different things, such as abrupt changes in temperature.  It was no problem as I just used strategic fruit placement to cover the cracks....

The only thing I would change next time is to use even more fruit!  I'd like to add a few more to the mixture and have a few more on top.  The tartness of the fresh raspberries cuts through the creaminess of the cheesecake perfectly.

Raspberries are in season in the UK from now until September so make the most of them while they're at their best (and cheapest!).

Jenny

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