So last weekend the OH had a go at making creamcheese. It would be fair to say that the first attempt, although it tasted like cheese, didn’t really set like cheese. Basicly, this cheese would have made a swift dash for freedom at any angle off the horizontal! So I adopted it, in the interests of avoiding food waste, and in the interests of having a go at making a baked cheesecake -something I’ve never tried making before.
But of course, it couldn’t be as simple as all that – oh no – this creamcheese was made with goats milk. If you’ve never tried goats milk, it has a rather pungent aroma and taste, and many people find it a bit off-putting. I quite like it, but I wasn’t sure how it would work in a dessert. Quite well is the answer!
I used a recipe from taste.com.au, and increased the quantities by half. But I ended up with too much filling!* So I’d multiply the biscuit base mix by a half again, but leave the filling the same.
Baked Lemon (Goats)Cheesecake
Ingredients (serves 12)
- 250g plain sweet biscuits (I used digestives)
- 150g butter, melted
- 500g cream cheese, softened (I didn’t need to worry about the softening bit!)
- 3/4 cup caster sugar
- 3 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- Icing sugar mixture and double cream, to serve
Method
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Preheat oven to 160°C/140°C fan-forced. Grease a 6cm-deep, 20cm round springform pan. Process biscuits until finely chopped. Add butter. Process until combined. Press mixture over base and side of prepared pan. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
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Meanwhile, beat cream cheese, sugar and lemon rind together until smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until combined. Add lemon juice. Beat for 1 minute. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
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Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until filling is just set (mixture may wobble slightly in centre, but will firm on standing). Cool in oven with door slightly ajar. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until cold. Dust with icing sugar and serve with cream.
So we ended up with this absolutely enormous cheesecake, and no idea what to do with all of it. Fortunately between several friends and work colleagues we were able to dispose of it all 🙂 And on Friday morning, the Financial Controller came up to my desk and said: “There appears to have been a mistake: there’s no cheesecake in the kitchen today!” No, not today, Sharon, sorry. So I think we can rate that one as a bit of a hit!
*So what to do with all the blooming left-over cheesecake filling? In this case, I mixed in 100ml of a home-made Orange and Chilli Liqueur given to us as a wedding favour by friends, heated it gently in a pan until it simmered very lightly. Poured it into a tub, let it cool completely, then shove it in the freezer. Presto! – sort-of-icecream! And very nice it was too 🙂