Baked Lemon Cheesecake

I'm a big lover of cheesecake but as far as I can remember I have never made a baked one so when I spotted a New York Cheesecake in this month's Asda magazine I thought I would try out my new Great British Bakeware springform cake pan and give it a go.

I adapted the recipe slightly as I wanted to use ginger biscuits for the base instead of digestives, and then I had to adapt it further as I'd read the recipe wrong and not bought enough cream cheese or sour cream which meant I couldn't make the topping so I created a topping of my own instead.

Baked Lemon Cheesecake

110g butter, melted

225g Ginger biscuits, crushed

400g Full Fat Cream Cheese

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Grated zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 2 large lemons

300ml Sour Cream

3 eggs + 1 yolk, beaten

1/2 tbsp Cornflour

2 tbsp Caster Sugar

• Mix the melted butter & biscuit crumbs together and press into the base of a loose bottomed or springform cake pan - I used a 23cm pan
• Bake in a preheated 180 degree (C) oven for 10 minutes, set aside to cool
• Reduce the oven temperature to 160 degrees (C)
• Beat the cream cheese, vanilla, lemon zest, 2 tbsp of lemon juice and sour cream together in a large bowl until smooth
• Add the cornflour & caster sugar and mix well
• Add the beaten eggs and stir until just combined
• Pour mixture into the cake pan and smooth the top
• Bake for approx 1 hour
• Mix the cornflour and caster sugar with 2 tbsp of the remaining lemon juice until smooth and then add the rest of the juice
• Heat gently in a microwavable bowl in the microwave on short bursts until it boils and thickens
• Pour over the cheesecake and smooth over the surface
• Allow to cool in the tin and refrigerate before turning out
• Decorate with fresh fruit to serve

Butternut Squash & Coconut Soup with Tear & Share Bread

I'm going to get back into weekly soup making and I've started with my usual, simple, Butternut squash. Instead of adding any cream (or milk as I usually do) I added creamed coconut to give a different flavour. The Knorr stock pots are also a great way to add flavour easily and I really like the Herb Infusion which I add to quite a lot of dishes.

Butternut Squash Soup

Large butternut squash

1 Knorr Herb Infusions stock pot

1 Knorr Chicken stock pot

50g sachet of creamed coconut 

boiling water

• Peel and deseed the squash and cut into large chunks
• Add to a slow cooker with 1 pint of boiling water and the stock pots
• Cook on high for 2-3 hours until squash is soft
• Stir the coconut cream into boiling water to dissolve & add to the slow cooker
• Blend with a stick blender until smooth, adding more water if necessary

Tear & Share Bread

200ml water (room temp)

150ml milk (room temp)

1 tbsp Olive oil

1 tsp salt

475g Strong White bread flour

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp fast acting dried yeast
grated cheddar cheese (optional)

• Add ingredients to your breadmaker in the order relevant to your breadmaker & set to 'dough'
• Remove the dough from the pan and place onto a floured surface
• Cut into 16 equal pieces and roll each into a ball
• Place the balls into a greased baking tin, evenly spaced apart - I used a 10" round tin
• Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for around an hour
• Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with grated cheese (optional)
• Bake in a preheated 200 degree (C) oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown - I was distracted by the telephone and left mine in the oven a bit longer than I would have liked!