Cheesecake

This is a simple and creamy-delicious no-cooking cheesecake recipe. I've seen variations on this posted all over the place, but was clued into it by a blogger friend a few years ago.

For the base:

Crush about a dozen digestive biscuits (plain or chocolate) until they reduce to fine crumbs. Mix with a generous spoonful of ground almonds and about 3 or 4 oz melted butter. Press the mixture into a greased baking tin. Use a tin with a separate bottom so you can remove later. Pop the base in the fridge while you make the filling.

Filling:

Beat together 1 lb/500g cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and a dash of cream, together with 1/2 lb/200g melted chocolate. Spread over the base and refrigerate.

Flavors:

The original recipe used melted Toblerone, but you can use pretty much any chocolate - milk, dark, white. This is also good to make plain cheesecake with just vanilla essence as flavoring, or add fruit essence such as lemon.

You can also finish off with toppings such as grated chocolate, or fruit and a fruit gel.

Tips:

To crush digestives, place them in a ziplok bag and press with a rolling pin.

The amount of cream will depend on the cheese you use. The original recipe called for blocks of Philly, which is quite solid so I add a lot of cream - about 1 cup. If  using a softer cheese, say spreading cheese from a tub, use less cream or it will end up too runny and might not set. You should end up with a thick mixture that will barely pour.

The consistency will also depend on the flavoring you use. Adding chocolate will help it set, but you could opt for other kinds that don't thicken as much.

If you are using chocolate, break it into a metal mixing bowl and set over a pan of simmering water. Get this going early on because it will take a while to melt over a gentle heat. In fact, this step largely dictates the overall preparation time.