Strawberry Cheesecake

One of the best things to happen in the recent times with regards to food, is that Britannia has now launched their own cream cheese. It is readily available in most stores. I found it irresistible to try itout in making a cheesecake then. Still, I found that the cream cheese is slightly salty. I don't know if it is supposed to be that way, but it has lent a tanginess to my cheesecake.

The cake turned out technically perfect. There were no cracks on the surface, and neither was it undercooked. The best part is that the process of making the batter lasted only about ten minutes. So I can safely claim that it is easy.

Overall rating for the cheesecake is 8.5

Ingredients

• 225 g cream cheese
• 1 and 1/4th cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tbsp strawberry crush
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4th cup fresh cream

For the crust

• 3 cups crushed digestive biscuits
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease the baking tin with  a little butter.

Mix the ingredients for the crust in a mixing bowl. Pat it compactly in the baking tin and push the baking tin in the oven for about 4 minutes. Remove it from the oven and keep it aside.

Now in a large bowl, take the cream cheese and sugar and beat on a medium speed for about three minutes till the cheese is uniformly creamy. Add the vanilla essence, strawberry crush and beat again for thirty seconds. Now add the eggs one at a time and beat on a medium speed till they are completely incorporated into the batter. Add the cornstarch, and the cream and beat on a very low speed for about 30 seconds. You don't want to overmix the batter.

Pour this batter into the baking tin on top of the crust and push it into the oven. Put a small container containing water at the bottom of the oven. This helps to prevent cracks in the cake. Technically, the recipe said I had to bake it for 50 minutes. However, I found that in my OTG the cake got baked in 20 minutes. So instead of telling you how much time it should be in the oven, I'll tell you how to know when it is baked.

The edges of the cake become raised and completely set, and the exact center of the cake is very slighly wiggly. You know your cake has baked then. Remove it and cool it on a wire rack. Chill overnight in the freezer.

Serve cold with fresh cream and sliced strawberries!

Happy Cooking!