A rich, creamy cheesecake cut by a sharper fruit topping. Simply delicious.
‘There is a tradition at Leon that if the team at one of the restaurants does something special, we bake them a cake. I baked this one for Remi and his team at our Cannon Street branch after they posted record sales. Putting the gingernuts in the base is a trick I learned from my mum. I figured they would go well with the blueberries’ Henry Dimbleby.
Serves: 8–10
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes–1 hour
What You’ll Need:
- 125g digestive biscuits
- 125g gingernuts
- 90g unsalted butter
- 550g cream cheese
- 125g caster sugar
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- seeds from 1 vanilla pod
- 200g crème fraîche or soured cream
- 100g thick Greek yoghurt
- 3 large free-range eggs
For the blueberry topping:
- 2 small punnets of blueberries
- 2 teaspoons cornflour
- 3 tablespoons water
What To Do:
- Heat the oven to 160°C/325°F/gas mark 3.
- Crush the biscuits to a fine powder in a food processor. Decant them into a bowl. Melt the butter and pour it over the biscuit crumbs, stirring to fully coat them.
- Press the biscuit mixture into the base of a deep 20cm springform or loose-bottomed cake tin, then put it into the fridge to firm up.
- Beat the cream cheese, caster sugar, lemon juice and vanilla seeds together until creamy. Mix in the crème fraîche and yoghurt, then the eggs and beat until smooth.
- Spoon the filling over the chilled biscuit base. Smooth over the top and bake in the oven for 45 minutes, or until the filling has set (it may need a further 10 minutes).
- Place the tin on a wire rack to cool completely, then run a small paring knife around the inside of the tin to help release the cheesecake from the tin.
- Toss the blueberries in the cornflour and put them in a small saucepan with the water. Heat whilst stirring until the blueberries are bubbling and start to break up. Allow to cool then spoon over the top of the cheesecake.
- Cherries are always welcome on a cheesecake, as are cranberries. Add a teaspoon of almond extract for the cherry version, and finely grated orange zest with the cranberry version.
Recipe from ‘Leon- Baking & Puddings’ by Claire Ptak and Henry Dimbleby