baked vanilla cheesecake

A belated Eid Mubarak to all! It was my second Eid-ul-Fitr as Mrs Hendricks *happy dance* and what a busy yet exquisitely beautiful day it was. The only problem is, there’s simply not enough hours in the day to get to everyone I’d like to see – I’m sure most of you with large families would concur. Nonetheless, I had a lovely day with both my families (Marks and Hendricks) and glad I got to see some of my dearest friends.

On Eid, it’s tradition to get together with the rest of my siblings and have lunch at my parents place and thereafter supper with my husband Raaziq’s, family. For lunch, I took what seems like the easy route and made two desserts, a Pavlova and a baked cheesecake 🙂
When making cheesecakes, I usually opt for the classic refrigerated version and therefore decided to attempt a baked vanilla cheesecake.

With it being my first attempt, I thought it would be best to follow the recipe quite diligently and to find the best ingredients. I found it quite difficult and somwhat aggravating to get my hands on a premium cream cheese which was both halaal and not low-fat/fat-free – but after running around the manic mall (day-before-eid, last-minute shopping) I finally found my saviour – the Lancewood Superior Cream Cheese. This recipe also requires a vanilla pod – this I found at Simply Spice in Kenilworth Centre for only R6 and my oh my did this just transform the recipe. Vanilla pods are magical!

Ingredients:

Base:

Melted butter, for greasing
250g plain sweet biscuits
125g butter, melted

Filling:

3 x 250g tubs cream cheese, at room temperature
250g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
1/2 lemon, juiced
6 eggs
3/4 cup cream

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Brush a springform pan with the melted butter to lightly grease.

2. Place the biscuits in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely crushed. Add the butter and process until well combined.

3. Press the biscuit mixture over the base of the greased pan. Place in the fridge while making the filling.

The magical vanilla pod

4. For the filling, beat the cream cheese, castor sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl until the mixture is light and creamy. Add the lemon juice, eggs and cream. Beat until well combined and the mixture is light and fluffy.

5. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until golden and just set in the centre. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.