RASBERRY CHEESECAKE

Before I start writing about raspberries, cream cheese, and other sinful deliciousness, I need to mention a couple of things :
1) I’ll very very very likely be away on a trip end of this week (I’m taking a few days off from work, hurrah!)… destination will be revealed upon my return- but I can tell you from now that I’m very excited about where I’m going, and I think my camera is in for a real treat!

2) Today’s subject is cheesecake, as you probably guessed…and for this I need to make a confession. I’ve made cheesecake only twice in my life- this being the second time. I know, this can be a shock to some of you, but the truth is that cheesecake just happens to be one of those things I just don’t make at home…for some unknown reason. When I have a slice, it’s usually when I’m eating out.
Anyway- with that said, you can imagine that this second attempt to make cheesecake was quite a dramatic and intense experience for me as more then six years have gone by since my last home-made version. So I was crossing my fingers hoping that this would work out. I did tons of research to unlock the mystery of what makes a perfect cheesecake- from the baking time, to using or not using a water bath in the oven, to how long one should be mixing the ingredients, so on and so forth.

Finally, my gut feeling and baking experience helped lead me to a conclusion and I think I came up with a recipe (which was the result of research and a combination of many recipes) that I will keep and use again and again, because the result was just lovely! Each bite was a wonderful creamy rich experience with chunks of raspberries that reminded me spring time is very near, contrasted by a fragrant speculoos base…mmmm, pure delight!

Raspberry cheesecake (recipe for a 20cm diameter round cake mould)

200gr speculoos
25gr butter, melted
100gr sugar
Vanilla essence or pod
2 eggs
450gr cream cheese
100gr soured cream (in France, look for ‘crème fraiche’)
200gr raspberries + a handful for decoration
Raspberry coulis (optional)
Icing sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to th4/160C/350F.
Butter the sides of the cake mould, and line the bottom with parchment paper. Crush the speculoos to powder (either manually or in a mixer), and mix with the butter as to form a dough. Place this dough on the bottom of the mould, smoothing it out with your hand or the bottom of a cup. Bake for 10 mins, remove and set aside. In the meantime, mix the sugar, vanilla, and eggs and mix briefly (you don’t want too much air). Add the cream cheese and soured cream, mix at low speed until texture is creamy with no lumps. Throw in the raspberries and stir gently with a spatula. Transfer to mould and bake for 50 mins. At the end of baking time, turn oven off and leave cheesecake inside the oven for 30 mins. Remove, let cool and place in fridge overnight. Decorate with fresh raspberries, coulis and icing sugar, enjoy!

P.S: do NOT use frozen raspberries for inside the cheesecake. It will release water and you will have a soggy texture- trust me on this one!