harumi's baked cheesecake

I've had a smooth run with the baking lately with everything turning out well and better than expected. I guess work has given me a bit of a breather so until I get busy again and get too tired to bake, I will most certainly be baking away (and fingers crossed, continue to bake some good ones!) Anyway, I mentioned earlier that there was a Japanese food author that I'd grown quite fond of; here's one of her dessert recipes that I got round to making on a lazy weekend. My cousin B is quite obsessed with it and almost ate the last piece that had been sitting in my fridge for almost 2 weeks (till mum intervened and binned it).

Ingredients (I've doubled the original recipe which is is Harumi Kurihara's 'Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking') - 200g digestive biscuits, 80g unsalted butter, 500g cream cheese (at room temperature), 180g granulated sugar, 4 eggs, 400ml double cream, 6 tbsp sifted plain, 2 tbsp lemon juice.

First of all, line the cake tins with greaseproof paper (I used one 20cm tin as well as a baby 13cm tin. I do suggest you grease the tins first before you line them - I stubbornly refuse to grease my tins and just line them and it takes absolutely forever because the lining keeps collapsing. It's a really bad habit of mine and it's just one of those things that I keep doing). Place the digestive biscuits in a plastic bag and roughly crush with a rolling pin. Soften the butter and mix with the bread crumbs.

Pour the mixture into the bottom of the tin and press down lightly to make the base (The recipe didn't say to but I put both tins in the fridge to help the base set). Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

In a bowl, add the cream cheese, beat until soft with an electric mixer then add the rest of the ingredients, in order, mixing each on thoroughly first before adding the next. Continue until the mixture thickens, then pour into the cake tin on top of the biscuit base. Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes. Remove and leave to cool.

Once it has cooled, remove from the tin, discard the lining paper and leave on a rack to cool completely.

The recipe actually didn't say to chill the cheesecake before eating but I find all cheesecakes taste better after they've spent some time in the fridge.

As is the case with all Japanese cheesecakes, this one was light to the taste and you could very easily eat a lot of it in one go. I had a generous slice served up with some fresh blueberries but this is one you can easily eat plain by itself.

Anyway, after making this cheesecake, I promised my cousin B to make his chocolate cheesecake for his birthday. Post to follow!