Vanilla Cheesecake, How You Doin'?

Recently I have had two cravings which have been pretty much constant.
1) New York style vanilla cheesecake
2) Watching FRIENDS

Now these two cravings, if I satisfied them every time I were tempted, would definitely lead to the failing of both my healthy eating and revising hard targets...

(Unfortunately, I seem to get rather too tempted, too much of the time. But we won't tell anyone that.)

So, whilst I'm currently NOT watching FRIENDS I thought I'd share my Vanilla Cheesecake with you! I've made this a couple of times now, and it's been absolutely delicious both times. My housemates at university and my family both loved it! And, more importantly, so did I!

It has a lovely creamy topping, and the base is surprisingly easy to make! Who knew it was just biscuits?!

You'll need:
150g digestive biscuits
75g butter
900g cream cheese
200g caster sugar
200ml sour cream
3tbsp plain flour
3 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
2tsp vanilla extract

Aaand here's what to do!

First thing's first: preheat the oven to 170 degrees C and grease and line a 23cm cake tin, preferably either spring form or loose-based so you can actually get your cheesecake out (I learned this the hard way!)

Crush the biscuits by putting them in a sandwich bag and banging them against the counter/with a rolling pin. A fantastic way of relieving any anger or stress, just make sure the bag doesn't rip!

Melt your butter and stir into the crumbs. Then place this mixture into the cake tin and spread and flatten it so it covers the base of the tin evenly. Bake this in the oven for 10 minutes until golden, then leave to cool.

Beat your cream cheese and sugar together in a bowl until smooth.

Add the sour cream and flour, continuing to stir.

After beating the eggs separately, add these to your mixture with the vanilla essence. It will seem like a lot of mixture but don't worry!

Pour this mixture over the biscuit base once it has cooled, making the top surface as smooth as possible.

Bake this for 45 minutes, until the cheesecake is set. Once cooked, turn off the oven but leave the cheesecake in there to cool with the door slightly ajar- this should take around an hour or so, and prevents the surface from cracking.

And there you have it! A yummy rich, creamy vanilla cheesecake for everyone to enjoy, and perfect in front of an episode of FRIENDS snuggled under a blanket!

N x

(Recipe adapted from http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/new_york_cheesecake_20451)