Urgent baked cheesecake question - Nigel Slater recipe

[MrsMuddle]

I've made my first ever baked cheesecake (page 129 of Kitchen Diaries, if it helps!) and Nigel says to cook it for 50 mins, then leave it in the oven to cool.

Being a baked cheesecake virgin, my question is, how do you know if it's ready? It doesn't look ready - it's a bit pale and wobbly. Has anyone made this?

Should I leave it in for a bit longer, or trust Nigel? A speedy response would be very much appreciated. Thanks

but cheesecake should be pale & wobbly shouldn't it..... what's your oven like normally? i cook things for a bit longer on a slightly higher temperature as my oven is rubbish. it's probably fine now, nigel's normally pretty trustworthy ime.

I would say it is just right. Pale and wobbly it should be. You are now a "cheesecake pro".

OK. Thanks. Will turn it off now. I didn't know baked cheesecake should be wobbly - I've only made the cold ones with gelatine (so, hard) before. It smells delish!

By the time it has cooled in the oven most of the wobbliness will have gone.

It is like leaving a pavlova in the oven overnight (once you have switched it off) to dry out.

how was it?

Mmmmmmm just fancy a slice of cheesecake to go with mid morning coffee!!

Oh - do you have the recipe for it? I've just tried googling it but can't find it. Interestingly, the first hit on google was your thread! Spooky

It was lovely - just perfectly cooked, but very very rich. A sliver was more than enough. Eight of us ate it last night, and there's a quarter left. I think next time I'd use more lemon juice to make it sharper.

Chopchopbusybusy, I'll get the book later when I go upstairs and then I'll post the recipe. I wish I'd taken a photo - it looked so perfect.

I have more cook books than your average shop, but I make the same things over and over again, so m NY resolution is to make one new dish each week.

OK, here's the recipe.

80g butter
250g digestive biscs (I used ginger nuts)
500g mascarpone
200g cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
150g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs
1 egg yolk
an orange
a lemon
150ml double cream
half a teaspoon of vanilla extract

Melt butter, crush biscuits and mix. Put in bottom of deep 22cm loose bottomed cake tin and leave somewhere cold.

Set oven at 140 or gas mark 1.

Boil kettle

Put mascarpone, cream cheese, sugar, eggs and yolk, orange rind and lemon rind in the mixer bowl and beat. Then when it's mixed, fold in the juice of the lemon, the cream and the vanilla extract.

Put the tin onto a piece of foil, and bring the foil right up the outside of the tin. Put the tin in a deep roasting tin. Put the cheescake mixture on tpp of the crumb base and then pour the water from the kettle into the roasting tin so that it comes half way up the side of the tin.

Put in the oven for 50 mins then switch oven off and leave it in the oven to cool.

Voila - a perfect cheescake, courtesy of Nigel Slater.

As I said earlier, I'd use more lemon juice to make it a bit more tart. I also used vanilla bean paste instead of extract, so mine had lovely seeds through it.

Enjoy.