Baked Cheesecake is one of my family’s most loved sweet treats. This one is smooth and subtle in flavour.

It’s my birthday week. To be honest I did not really want to celebrate my birthday this year. I just did not want to. On the other hand, I have already planned my birthday for 2021. Upon reflection on my birthday week, it was a mess. There were highs and lows. Highs like I am going to the Brisbane Lions game tonight and lows like my race in Sydney got cancelled. This is just the woes of a global pandemic I guess, the more things return to normal the more we are reminded that it’s not normal yet.

Sigh. Now take a moment to stare at Yuki’s moody black and white photo above. What is he thinking about? You may continue to read.

On a more positive note, this CHEESECAKE SLICE is amazing. It’s so light and delicious in flavour and texture and a real crowd pleaser. I made it as an experimental bake a few weeks ago and the people went crazy for it. So get on it. Give the people what they want and bake this slice.

Makes 1 slice, can be cut into 9 to 12 slices (but I am not going to tell you how to eat)

The Base

125 g butter
100 g white chocolate
124 g biscoff cookies*
100 g digestive biscuits*
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1-2 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs malt powder / milk powder

The Swirl *

1/4 to 1/2 cup dulce de leche*
100 g white chocolate

The Cheese

454 g cream cheese (room temperature)
220 g sugar
3 eggs (room temperature)
58 g thick cream / creme fraiche
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 Tbs lemon juice

To make the biscuit

Preheat the oven to 180’C (I use a fan forced oven)
Line a 9” square tin with alfoil, with over hang on all sides so you can lift the slice out easily.
Place butter and chocolate into a heatproof bowl over simmering water and heat until melted (alternatively if you have a microwave do it that way). Set aside.
Place the biscuits into a food processor and blitz until crushed, sand like texture is achieved (or into a bag, then place onto the bench and whack with a rolling pin).
Place biscuit sand into a bowl, then add the salt, malt powder, cinnamon and sugar. Stir until combined.
Add the melted butter and chocolate to the bowl and mix until wet sand / well combined.
Pour the contents of the bowl into the prepared tray and press until you have an even layer.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes until lightly golden.
Remove from the oven and cool until room temperature.
Reduce oven to 160’C for the cheesecake baking.

To make the Filling:

Place white chocolate into a heatproof bowl over simmering water and melt (or microwave it until melted).
Put the dulce de leche and melted white chocolate into a bowl and stir until homogenous.
Set aside.

To make the cheese:

Place the cream cheese and sugar into a food processor (or mixing bowl with the beater attachment and mix on medium high speed) and blend until well combined and smooth. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula, to ensure it is all mixed. If it isn’t all mixed then continue to mix.
Add the eggs one at a time and blend well after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
Add the lemon juice, vanilla and cream into the mix and combine until smooth.
Set aside.

To Assemble:

Pour half the Cheesecake mixture onto the base, then add the white chocolate dulce de leche mixture one blob at a time and swirl through with a fork / knife / skewer.
Pour the remaining cheesecake mixture on top and lightly tap on the bench to remove any air bubbles. (Lick the bowl - mixture tastes pretty good)
Place into the oven (which should be at 160’C) and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. The slice will be ready when it still has a token wobble in the centre, if you are unsure - turn the oven off and prop the door open with a wooden spoon then remove from the oven when the oven has cooled to room temperature.
Set aside to cool to room temperature and then place in the fridge to set until firm (this can be 4 - 9 hours depending on patience) and then cut into squares. You can eat it after this step.

Notes:

* If you can’t get biscoff cookies, just use Marie or Digestives or Hob Nobs (Always use digestives though, they are far superior to Marie)

* dulce de leche is condensed milk which has been simmered for hours to make a caramel but you can buy it from Coles

*You could replace the swirl with Biscoff, nutella, jam, berry coulis, lemon curd or you could just leave it out.