TEITA’S CHEESECAKE 0

This is a family recipe, kept secret for thousands of years….until NOW…..here it is, Teita’s Famous Cheesecake – even people who HATE cheesecake love this…..and it’s not THAT hard to make either!

Serves 1 – 10 people (depending on if you’re hungry etc)

INGREDIENTS

For the Base:

375 grams plain sweet biscuit (nice biscuits!)

185 grams unsalted butter

For the Filling:

375 grams cream cheese

3/4 cup caster sugar

1 tablespoon plain flour

pinch of salt

2 eggs, separated – keep the egg whites!

1 whole egg extra

1 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon caster sugar, extra

METHOD

For the Base:

Crush the biscuits finely, kinda so they look like sand is ideal, but in reality there will probably still be some chunks…..you can do this many ways, place bikkies in a tea towel, roll tea towel over and then grab a rolling pin and belt the life out of the biscuits, or you can do it in a food processor or you can put the biscuits in a bowl and use the end of a rolling pin to smash down on them – whatever – just make sure they’re crushed!

Melt the butter and then pour it over crushed biscuits, mix well. Press this combined mixture onto the base and up the sides of an 8inch (20cm) size spring form cake tin. Place into the fridge to ”set” whilst preparing the filling.

For the Filling:

In a mix-master or with a hand held beater, beat the cream cheese until it is softened, combine with sugar, flour and salt and beat well. Beat in the whole egg plus the 2 egg yolks, then add sour cream and lemon juice.

In another dish, beat the two egg whites until soft peaks form , beat in the extra sugar (the tablespoon). Then fold that into the cream cheese mixture.

Pour into the prepared crumb crust.

Bake in the oven @ approx 160 degrees cel.  for approx 1hr 15 min- 1hr 20 mins. You know when it is done when the top goes a golden brown. The top will probably crack, this is normal, do not be alarmed, yet remain alert. Shove a wooden skewer in and it should come out clean to test if done.

Once done – remove and stand – then refridgerate until firm – a few hours or even overnight.

Just before serving cover with strawberry coulis (place berries in a saucepan on medium heat with some sugar and a dash of lemon juice – melt and mash  = coulis) and then fresh strawberries and serve with whipped cream. Alternatively cover cake with whipped cream and then crumble dark chocolate on top or use rasberries or make some caramel and splash it on the top or dust with icing sugar or top it with whatever it is you want!