Classic New York-style cheesecake served with a deliciously tangy mixed berry coulis. This is a restaurant quality dessert you can easily bake in your own kitchen! 

We’re nearly at the end of January, but I’m back and it’s time now to share my first recipe of 2019!

The New Year comes as a time of reflection and thinking about your goals for the next year. This blog has given me so many wonderful opportunities and I’ve achieved so much through being a food blogger, personally and professionally. This blogging journey has enabled me to work with prestigious companies and attend some wonderful events over the years – something I’d love to continue doing in the future. My blog is a fantastic and fun hobby and I get so much joy out of working on it, so I’m looking forward this next year where I’ll continue to share my favourite recipes.

Today, I’m serving you a virtual slice of cheesecake ready for you to bake and celebrate the weekend with.

You’re going to fall head over heels with this cheesecake. It’s creamy, incredibly light for a baked cheesecake and pairs wonderfully well with a drizzle of homemade mixed berry coulis.

This cheesecake starts with a buttery biscuit base. I like to use plain digestive biscuits as they’re not too flavourful and won’t distract or steal any glory from the cheesecake filling.

The cheesecake filling requires the usual cheesecake ingredients: softened cream cheese, caster sugar, sour cream, plain flour, vanilla extract and whole eggs and an egg yolk. I would always recommend that you use full-fat cream cheese and sour cream – using low or reduced fat varieties will not work and are likely to jeopardise the overall taste and texture.

The baked cheesecake tastes amazing alone, but I particularly enjoy cheesecake served with a coulis or a sauce. I couldn’t decide what flavour coulis I wanted to make to serve with this cheesecake. At first I thought I would prepare a strawberry sauce, but I worried it might be too sweet, next I thought about making a raspberry coulis but then I discovered the pack of frozen raspberries I thought I had in the freezer were actually mixed berries, so because I didn’t feel like rushing out to get some different fruit I decided to stick with using the mixed berries.

I also usually make my coulis/sauces with icing sugar, but again I used the last of that and forgot to replace it so I ended up using caster sugar, which works just as well and produced a deliciously tangy mixed berry coulis.

This New York cheesecake has stolen my heart. Many baked cheesecakes I have eaten have never impressed me, but this recipe changed my opinion completely! It was incredibly easy and simple to make and tasted and looked like a dessert you would be served at a restaurant.

(Serves 12)

Ingredients:

Biscuit Base: 

200g digestive biscuits

100g butter (salted or unsalted)

Cheesecake Filling: 

900g / 2lb full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature

200g caster sugar

200ml full-fat sour cream, at room temperature

3 tablespoons plain flour

3 large free-range eggs plus 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten and at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Mixed Berry Coulis: 

500g mixed fresh or frozen berries (mine included blackberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and strawberries)

4 tablespoons caster or icing sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice or water

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C / 160°C Fan / 350°F / Gas Mark 4. Grease and line the base of a 23cm / 9-inch springform cake tin.
2. To make the biscuit base: Crush the biscuits to fine crumbs. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and then add to the biscuit crumbs and stir to combine. Place the biscuit mixture into the cake tin and spread into an even layer pressing it down until firm using the back of a spoon or your fingers.
3. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden. Once baked remove from the oven and leave to cool while you prepare the cheesecake filling.
4. Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C / 140°C Fan / 320°F / Gas Mark 2.
5. To make the cheesecake filling: In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar with a spatula or wooden spoon until smooth. Add the sour cream and flour and beat again until incorporated. Gradually add the beaten egg a bit at a time along with the vanilla extract – you want to beat the mixture and not whisk it as whisking will add too much air and may cause your cheesecake to crack.
6. Pour the cheesecake filling on the biscuit base and then bake in the oven for 45 minutes or until the cheesecake is just set with a slight wobble. It should still be cream on top and a little golden around the edges. My cheesecake took an extra 10-15 minutes before I was confident that it was ready.
7. Now turn off the oven, leave the door open slightly ajar and leave the cheesecake to cool completely in the oven – this prevents the top of the cheesecake from cracking, but if it does crack it’s not the end of the world! Once the cheesecake is cool, cover it and leave to set in the fridge for at least 8 hours or for best results leave it overnight.
8. To make the mixed berry coulis: In a medium saucepan add the mixed berries, sugar and lemon juice/water. Gently heat and cook on a medium heat, crush the fruit with the back of a spoon until the fruit starts to break down and has started to reduce and the juices coat the back of the spoon. Strain through a sieve, then chill the sauce at the same time as the cheesecake – I find making mine the night before and leaving it to chill overnight produces the perfect consistency.
9. To serve the cheesecake, take it out from the fridge and allow it to sit for about 5-10 minutes before removing from the cake tin. Slice and serve with the mixed berry coulis and more fruit.

Recipe slightly adapted from BBC Food

Recipe Notes:

• Before starting to the prepare the cheesecake, you must make sure that all the ingredients for the filling are at room temperature. I always leave the cream cheese and sour cream out at room temperature for about an hour to soften.
• Cheesecake will keep stored in the fridge for up to one week. You can freeze the cheesecake for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before serving.
• You can switch the mixed berries for frozen raspberries to make a raspberry coulis or you can serve the cheesecake with caramel or chocolate sauce if you prefer.

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