Brûléed cheesecake

Name: Brûléed cheesecake
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 1 h 10 min
Total time: 1 h 35 min
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 100 g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing; 250 g digestive biscuits, finely crushed; 4 tbsp demerara sugar; 1 tsp ground ginger; 1 egg yolk, beaten

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.

Please note, the ingredients in this recipe are not certified kosher as sold by Waitrose.

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Vegetarian

Serves12
CourseDessert
Prepare25 mins
Cook1 hr 10 mins
Total time1 hr 35 mins
Plusplus cooling and chilling

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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 Essential Waitrose full fat soft cheese
125g golden caster sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
3 eggs, beaten
200ml Full fat creme fraiche

Brulee topping

2 tbsp golden caster sugar

Method

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.
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.
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.
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.