Cheesecakes are among the easiest cakes to make at home, and produce very impressive professional looking results.
A common recipe is to use crushed shop bought biscuits for a crumbly, loose base at the bottom of the pan.
That looks like too much work to me!
I’m quite a fan of shortbread, and incidentally, it makes an incredibly good base for a cheesecake-
Instead of crushing up packets and packets of fairly ordinary tasting biscuits, par baking some awesome shortbread tartshells for your cheesecake yourself can produce a much more impressive result.
Adjusting the amount of sugar in the recipe will result in a harder, or softer, more crumbly base effect: more sugar= harder, less = crumbly and buttery.
Makes up to 2 large 30cm tart pan cheesecakes.
Ingredients:
225 gms Butter
110 gms Rice flour
125 gms Raw, or caster sugar (raw is cheaper)
260 gms sifted plain flour.
Method:
- Soften butter in the microwave for 30 seconds or so in a large mixing bowl.
- Introduce sugar, creaming the butter with the sugar
- Tip in rice flour, combining well
- Gradually add in flour, mixing well.
- The mixture should be slightly dry, crumbly, and certainly not doughy in appearance; and the crumbles should not have a greasy sheen.
- Spread crumbly mixture into tart trays, pressing down firmly to create a smooth surface that is around 5-7mm thick.
- Lay extra crumbles around the edges of the pan, pressing firmly against the edge, form a crust of 3-6mm thick.
- Bake at 180 degrees for ~25 minutes, till golden brown.
Cheesecake:
Ricotta cheese, available at most supermarket deli counters, at $7-$9/Kg is cheaper and produces a better result, but packaged mascarpone or phillidelphia can also be used
Ingredients:
700gms ricotta cheese
100gms sugar
3 large eggs
400gms berries, cherries or chopped fruit
Alternate fillings can be oranges, pears, apples and cinnamon, drissled with maple syrup
Method:
- Crack 3 eggs into a large mixing bowl.
- Break egg yolks with a fork, and scramble.
- Add in sugar and cheese.
- Mix thoroughly, consistency of egg/cheese should be liquidy and sloppy, like thick Greek yoghurt.
- pour cheese mix into par baked shortbread tartshells, whose tart pans have not been removed.
- Sprinkle fruit over surface of cheese filling liberally, patting down where necessary.
- Bake filled shells for 35-45 minutes at 180 degrees, or until exposed fruit looks jammy and sticky.
Let cool on racks, and pop tarts out of the pans when warm, but not hot.