A little bit about how to make a cheesecake

Cheesecakes are tricky. They can sink, crack, fall apart, and the ratio of base to filling has to be perfect.
But they are delicious. And when you bring it to a dinner party, people know you've made the effort.
You can have a baked cheesecake or a refrigerated one which includes gelatine. Personally, I prefer making baked cheesecakes, it is challenging and a thousand times yummier.

I think the first cheesecake I've made was with Stef, we made white chocolate passionfruit. Since then I have made oreo cupcake cheesecake, lemon and vanilla, chocolate chip, white chocolate blackberry... Although I have yet to perfect a baked cheesecake, here are a few tips.

~ Use a springform tin (that's a cake tin with sides you can take off) otherwise you won't be able to get your cheesecake out :P
~ For the biscuit base I normally use one packet of Arnott's Nice just with butter, no sugar needed. Gingernuts would be quite nice too.
~ It's really difficult, I find, to have biscuit base up the sides of the tin. Because you don't know how much filling you have, so you need to judge how high to make the sides. To press the sides down firmly and make the edge of the base and the sides at 90 degrees, you can use a straight edge plastic cup to aid you in creating a firm base.
~ Refrigerate the base as you make the filling, the melted butter will re harden and keep it together.
~ Use full fat cream cheese that has been softened. I read somewhere that the fat content of cream cheese affects the outcome of the cheesecake. It helps to cream it by itself before adding the sugar, so it's smoother.
~ Sometimes I forget to scrape the sides of the bowl as I mix. This makes the filling a little lumpy :/
~ Make sure the oven is hot when you put the cheesecake in. Do not open it when it's baking. This is because cheesecake reacts to sudden temperature changes and so it will sink if you do open the oven and let cool air in.
~ The sides will start to brown up when the cheesecake is cooked. When it looks slightly wobbly in the centre, turn off the oven and leave it in there for about another hour. Take it out, and leave it to cool completely in the tin before refrigerating it.
~ Before serving, take it out of the tin. Cut with a wet knife.
~ Serving cheesecake with cream or ice cream? :O That is like, fat on fat! Eat it with fruit and you can have another slice ;)

Have a go?

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

1 packet Nice biscuits

100g butter, melted

250g cream cheese
1 can condensed milk
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp flour

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. 

Crush biscuits in a food processor.

Mix with melted butter. Press into bottom and up the sides of springform tin.
Beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add sweetened condensed milk; beat well. 

Add vanilla and eggs, and beat until smooth. Toss half of the chocolate with the flour to coat (this keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the cake). Mix into cheese mixture. 

Pour into prepared crust. Sprinkle top with remaining chocolate chips.
Bake for 1 hour. Turn off oven and leave the cake in the oven to cool in the oven for another hour. Remove from oven and cool completely. 

Refrigerate before removing sides of pan. Keep cake refrigerated until serving. 

Did your chocolate chips sink?? Mine did :(

And to conclude, check out my friend's blog that I feature in!  http://effortlessly-beautiful.tumblr.com/post/27687189938/a-thing-of-beauty-is-a-joy-forever-its-loveliness  I gave her the recipe to the chocolate vanilla swirls :)

Signed,
Elisa