Cheesecake (Yes, You read it right!)

Woah! This one took some serious work! Well not typing it, but getting it right. After umpteen failed attempts (Ask my Mum and Saloni), I got this right only after we got a spanking new convection oven. This one, a Samsung, is a Microwave + Grill + Convection. Looks nice, works even better!

This one needs careful attention throughout. It’s a Baked Cheesecake. My benchmark was the Philadelphia Cheesecake from Defence Bakery, Defence Colony, Delhi and this one came quite close. Here’s what you’ll need:

Cream Cheese – 200 g (I use Amul Creami Cheese. It’s far cheaper than the imported variety and makes for a good cheesecake. Though I must warn you that I haven’t tried this recipe with any other cream cheese)

Cream – 50 mL

Powdered Sugar – 5 Tablespoons

Eggs – 1 Full and 1 Yolk

Vanilla Essence – 1 Teaspoon

Digestive Biscuits or Oreo Cookies – About 5 Digestive or 10 Oreos without the stuff in the middle.

Butter – 2 Tablespoon, Melted

1. About 30 minutes before you start preparing, put the Cream Cheese out in the open, in the pack, to soften it. Keep the Cream in the freezer about 10 minutes before your start. Pre-Heat your oven to 180 degrees. You need a convection oven and not an old-school grill oven for this.
2. The crust is essential so don’t skip it. You can choose between a digestive biscuit crust or an Oreo crust. I use Britannia Digestive Biscuits. Put the biscuits/cookies in a food processor to break them down and turn them into crumbs. Mix the melted butter into the crumbs and spread the mixture on to a glass bowl lined with tin foil or butterpaper. The lining to make the extraction post-chilling easier.
3. Put the softened cream cheese in a bowl and, using a whisk, smoothen it. Add the chilled cream and the sugar. Keep whipping and mix really well. Add the full egg and the single egg yolk and mix really well again. Depending on your taste, add vanilla. A teaspoon of vanilla essence helps retain the cream cheese flavour without too much interference, but takes out that yolky smell and flavour.
4. Pour the mixture into the bowl with the crust and put it into the oven at 180 degrees C and let it bake for an hour. You’ll need to check after an hour to see whether it’s set. Do this by putting a toothpick into the cake. It should come out almost clean and the cake would feel spongy and not liquidy. Once done, let it stay out in the open for about 30 minutes till it cools and then shove it into the refrigerator for about 2 hours. You need to enjoy this one cold!

If you’re a cream lover, I strongly suggest you whip some cream and put it on top of the cheesecake when once it cools. You’ll probably need about 30 more minutes of cooling to have the whipped cream settle on the surface.