New York Cheesecake

My favourite city, and one of my favourite desserts. The best cheesecake in NY is probably Lindy's, and here's my stab at replicating it.

If like me, you find cheesecakes heavy and too much a few bites, then you'll really love this recipe. The sour bite of lemons counter the heavy creaminess of the cheesecake and the sour cream gives it a nice fluffiness.

Maybe my NY dreams will come true one day, but till then, cheesecake seems to be the closest thing.

"Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There's nothing you can't do
Now you're in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Hear it for New York"
Empire State of Mind II, Alicia Keys

• 1 cup digestive biscuits (about 10 pieces)
• 5 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 (8 oz) blocks cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 lemon, zest and juice (Didn't have any in the fridge today so replaced with 3 tablespoons bottled lime juice concentrate.)
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 180C and grease a 18-inch spring-form tin.

Whizz the digestive biscuits in a food processor until you get a fine crumb the texture of sand. Mix the digestive crumbs with the melted butter and mix well. Press into the base of the tin and set aside. Here's a little trick to get a nice flat crust: use a drinking glass to press the crumbs down and smooth out. Works like a charm!

Blend cheese in an electric mixer till smooth. Add sugar and sour cream and blend well. Add lemon zest, juice and vanilla. Add flour and blend, scraping bowl down as you go. Add eggs one at a time, blending well in between.

Pour into pan and bake for 15 minutes, then turn temperature down to 100C and bake another 1 hour. The cake will be still slightly wobbly when removed from oven, but don't worry, it will firm up when chilled.

Let cool completely and chill for at least 2 - 3 hours before removing from the tin.

With this basic recipe, you can make all sorts of variants.

• Lemon cheesecake - 2 lemons instead of 1
• Orange cheesecake - Juice and grated rind of 2 oranges. You can add a teaspoon of orange flower essence as well.
• Fruit cheesecake - 2 cups of your favourite fruit, chopped into small bits
• Mocha cheesecake - 3 tablespoons of instant coffee powder
• Chocolate cheesecake - 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• Chocolate marble cheesecake - Flavour 1/3 of the batter with 2 tablespoon cocoa powder and drizzle randomly over the white batter. Stick a skewer in and give it a couple of stirs.
• Oreo cheesecake - 1.5 cups finely crushed Oreo cookies (without the cream filling)
• Baileys cheesecake - 5 tablespoons Baileys liquer
• Green tea cheesecake - 3 tablespoons of matcha green tea powder

And if you want to have a fruit topping, simply open a can of your favourite fruit (cherries, raspberries, blueberries etc), set aside 3 tablespoons of the syrup into a small bowl and put the rest into a pot. Dissolve 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in the reserved syrup. Add to the pot then bring to a boil. When the mixture thickens up, pour over the warm cheesecake in the tin and refrigerate for 3 - 4 hours to set.