This luscious baked cheesecake is made even more delicious by the addition of marinated strawberries.

Ingredients

Serves: 10

Prep: 30 mins

Bake: 50/60mins

Chill: Overnight

  • 300g digestive biscuits
  • 160g butter, melted
  • 450g full fat cream cheese
  • Dash vanilla essence
  • 100g sour cream
  • 140g caster sugar
  • 20g plain flour
  • 3 free range medium eggs
  • 1 tsp lemon zest

Marinated strawberries:

  • 400g Irish strawberries
  • 1 tbsp icing sugar
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil plus extra for garnish

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 160°C/140°C fan. Line the base of a 20cm round x 6cm deep loose bottom baking tin with parchment paper.
  2. Blitz the biscuit until a fine crumb is reached. Add the melted butter and mix. Press this buttery crumb mix over the base and up the sides of the tin.
  3. At this point you can pre-bake the biscuit base in the oven for 10 minutes for a crispier crumb. It's not essential to pre-bake though and you can choose to just chill for 20 minutes instead. For best results, insure all your filling ingredients are at room temperature before you start.
  4. Place the cream cheese, zest and vanilla into a bowl and mix to soften. Mix the sugar and flour and set aside.
  5. Add a small amount of the sugar and flour, then sour cream and then egg. Mixing between each addition. Continue to alternate these ingredients until they’re all added, and the mix is smooth. Pour this cheesecake batter into the chilled lined tin.
  6. Place in the centre of your pre-heated oven and bake for 50/60 minutes or until the filling is set but has a slight wobble in the centre. Remove and allow to cool outside for 30 mins.
  7. Once cooled, place in the fridge ideally overnight.
  8. For the marinated berries, simply cut the strawberries, sprinkle with icing sugar and chopped fresh basil and allow to marinate for 15 minutes.
  9. To serve, top the chilled cheesecake with the berries and extra basil.