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    Brûléed cheesecake

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    Brûléed cheesecake

    Creamy, lightly spiced and with a crisp topping, this cheesecake will round off any autumnal dinner. The demerara sugar in the base provides extra crunch. 

    • Vegetarian
    • Preparation time: 25 minutes, plus cooling and chilling
    • Cooking time: 1 hour 10 minutes
    • Total time: 1 hour 35 minutes, plus cooling and chilling

    Serves: 12

    Ingredients

    BISCUIT BASE
    100g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
    250g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
    4 tbsp demerara sugar
    1 tsp ground ginger
    1 egg yolk, beaten

    CHEESECAKE FILLING
    ½ lemon, zest
    2 x 250g tubs essential Waitrose full fat soft cheese, room temperature
    125g golden caster sugar
    1 tbsp cornflour
    1 tsp vanilla bean paste
    3 eggs, beaten
    200ml full fat crème fraîche

    BRULEE TOPPING
    2 tbsp golden caster sugar

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 200˚C, gas mark 6. Grease a 20cm loose-bottomed, deep cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. Mix the digestives, butter, demerara sugar and ginger until evenly mixed. Use a straight-sided glass to press the crumbs evenly across the base of the tin and 3cm up the sides. Bake on a flat baking sheet for 10 minutes, until golden brown. Brush the egg yolk over the biscuit shell, then bake for 3 minutes more to seal.

    2. Put the lemon zest, soft cheese, sugar, cornflour and vanilla in a large bowl and mix well with a spatula. Work in the eggs until smooth, then fold in the crème fraîche.

    3. Pour the filling over the base. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven to 140˚C, gas mark 1, and bake for 45 minutes more, or until set with a gentle wobble. Leave in the turned-off oven with the door ajar for 1 hour, then loosen the edges with a palette knife and cool completely. Chill well.

    4. Remove the tin; dab away any moisture from the top of the cake. Scatter the sugar over the top. With a kitchen blowtorch, brûlée until the sugar turns deep coppery brown. Serve as soon as you can. 

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    This recipe first appeared in Waitrose Food magazine. myWaitrose members can download the Waitrose Food app edition for FREE. Find out more.

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