Baked cherry cheesecake

Ingredients

2 cups plain sweet biscuit crumbs (I used McVite’s Digestive
biscuits)
75g unsalted butter, melted
375g Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
500g ricotta
4 eggs
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 tablespoons cold water
1 ½ cups caster sugar
1 ½ cups morello cherries (I buy the 680g glass jar)
Finely chopped zest and juice of 1 lemon
Fresh cherries, to decorate
1 teaspoon icing sugar, to dust

Method

Butter the base of a 22cm springform pan and line with non-stick baking paper. In a bowl, combine biscuit crumbs and melted butter. Press firmly into the base of the pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 150°C.

Mix cornflour and water together in a small bowl to make a runny paste. Place cream cheese in a food processor and whiz until smooth, add ricotta and whiz again to combine. Add the eggs, cornflour mixture, sugar, lemon zest and juice. Whiz until all combined. Pour 2/3 of the cream cheese filling into pan, sprinkle cherries over, and then cover with remaining cheesecake mixture.

Place onto a baking tray (just in case there is overflow or seepage from the springform pan). Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Check to see if the cheesecake is set in the middle, if not, bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Cool in pan, then run a knife around the edge of the pan, release sides of pan and transfer to a serving plate. I leave the cheesecake on the base of the pan.

Refrigerate until cold or needed. Just before serving, top with fresh cherries and dust with icing sugar (place icing sugar in a tea strainer and sprinkle from a height). What an impressive dessert! Serve with thick cream.

Related Christmas recipes:

Serving Suggestions

Note

I love baked cheesecake. And the lemon and cherries in this version cut through the richness. A nice cool alternative to Christmas pudding.
Best of all, cheesecake can be prepared a day or two ahead of serving and kept nice and cold in your overloaded fridge. Added bonus: the taste improves while you are worrying about the turkey, doing a last minute clean of the house and wrapping presents at 11pm on Christmas Eve!
Store leftover cherries in the jar in the fridge and use later in muffins or cakes.