Strawberry Cheesecake Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 45 minutes
For Crust
- 180g/6ozs Graham crackers
- 40g/1.4ozs caster or superfine sugar
- 80g/2.8ozs butter, melted
For Filling
- 3x 250g/8.8oz blocks cream cheese (750g/1.7lbs total)
- 350g/12.3ozs sour cream
- 40ml/1.4flozs cream
- 215g/7.6ozs caster or superfine sugar
- 3 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
- 1/3 teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs, room temperature, beaten
For Strawberry Sauce and Decoration
- 100g/3.5ozs strawberries, pureed
- 50ml/1.7flozs water
- 45g/1.6ozs white sugar
- 2 tablespoons strawberry jelly/jello powder
- 4 tablespoons hot water from kettle
- 400g/14ozs strawberries for decoration
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 140C/280F fan forced and line a 20cm/8inch springform pan on the base and sides. Have a high sided baking tray ready that is at least 5cm/2inches high on the sides that will fit the springform pan. This will be the water bath.
Step 2 - Process the Graham crackers until very, very fine. Mix the crumbs with the butter and sugar and press into the base and sides. Use a straight sided glass to press this into the pan and don't worry if it doesn't go all the way up the sides to the top and isn't even at the top. Bake the crust for 18 minutes and then cool completely.
Step 3 - Put a kettle full of water onto boil. Surround the tin with 3-4 layers of foil to protect the tin from water in the waterbath. If any crumbs dislodge from the crust during baking just remove them with a spoon.
Step 4 - Heat the cream cheese in the microwave on 50% power on 1 minute bursts until very soft and a butter knife can cut through it easily with little resistance-the cream cheese should be warm, not cold at this point. Place the cream cheese, sour cream, cream, sugar, vanilla and salt in a mixer bowl with a beater attachment and beat until very smooth. Add the beaten eggs and mix these in by hand until it is combined but do not overmix. Gently pour over the crust. Smooth over the top and bake for 1.5 hours turning halfway. The cheesecake should still be a bit wobbly but will firm up on cooling. Cool with the oven door ajar for a few hours. Remove the foil and cover and refrigerate overnight or for at least 6 hours until very firm.
Step 5 - Make the strawberry sauce by placing the pureed strawberries, water and sugar in a small saucepan and heat until simmering. You should have a jammy consistency after 10 minutes. Use a stick blender to process until smooth. Heat the strawberry jelly powder with hot water until dissolved and then add to the strawberry sauce. Cool to room temperature.
Step 6 - Unclip the cheesecake and place on a serving plate. Cut the base of the strawberries so that they sit flat. I like to line up the best strawberries on the top just to see what it will look like before I dip them. Then I dip each into the cooled strawberry sauce and place back on the cheesecake. Serve with whipped cream.
This cheesecake will last for 5-7 days in the fridge covered well. It can also be frozen for up to 3 months. Some say 6 months!
Dear Reader I don't know if you noticed in these pictures but we finally have the renovated sideboard ready to show you all! It was such a labour of love (or madness depending on your perspective). Over the January holidays I started off doing the sanding and quickly tired of it but kept going until all of the sanding was done. The sanding is the most boring and challenging part, especially with Jacobean furniture that has all of those tiny details.
Once that was finished I went to the paint store to buy a base and paint and then brought them home. Mr NQN stepped in and decided that I was way too haphazard to do the painting. I could have argued back but honestly at this point I was happy to let him take the reins. So I agreed and ran away telling him that he was absolutely right, I was in no right state of mind to paint. We had a slight deadline when we had people over for a party so that made him move a bit faster.
It's not perfect by any means, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Everyone that sees it remarks on how much they love it and how it was transformed. I'm just happy to have somewhere to put things and happy that it's all over. And our career restoring furniture has come to an abrupt end, best left to the experts! I'll stick to cooking :)
So tell me Dear Reader, are you good at restoring furniture and crafts?