BAKED CHEESECAKE WITH SEASONAL BERRIES
There is some divisions between the baked versus unbaked camps, but we are firm fans of both. Depending on where you may be in the world, you may use cream cheese, quark, ricotta, mascarpone or whipped cream to make the main body of your cake, and for the base, a plain or spiced biscuit crushed to a sandy dust, held together with melted butter. Whatever cheese you use or variety you prefer, you just can’t beat a classic cheesecake for a delicious dessert. A classic cheesecake can be transformed into many different forms, just choose your favourite seasonal topping.
Ingredients
250g biscotti or ginger biscuits
125g Lewis Road butter, melted and cooled
4 free-range eggs
115g caster sugar
600g ricotta
150g Zany Zeus mascarpone cheese
50g plain flour
Grated zest 1 lemon, plus a squeeze of juice
To serve
Fresh seasonal fruit of your choice
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C
Lightly grease a 23-cm spring form cake tin and line with baking paper. Put the amaretti in a food processor and pulse to crush to a fine dust. Add the melted butter and pulse well to combine. Tip the crumbs into the prepared tin and spread evenly over the base. Bake for 10 mins in the preheated oven
Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 160C
To make the filling, wipe out the food processor and, using a beating attachment, lightly beat the eggs and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Swap the attachment to a blade; add the ricotta, mascarpone, flour and lemon zest and squeeze of juice and continue beating until well combined. Pour the filling over the biscuit base
Bake for 45 mins, or until just set with a slight wobble in the middle. Switch off the oven, open the door a little and leave the cheesecake to cool completely