members recipes

This is my favourite cheesecake recipe, and it is not difficult to make. The recipe is from \'bake your cake & eat it too by Tamara Milstein\'. Use fresh ricotta, from the block which you can usually get in the deli section of the supermarket or at a deli or cheese shop. I also like to use large organic eggs. I follow these instructions exactly and I have always ended up with a perfect looking and delicious cheesecake and the lemon flavour is not over-powering. I have a friend whose favourite dessert is lemon cheesecake and she adores this when I make it. Next time I make this, I will add a photo to the recipe...but it just looks like an ordinary cheesecake but tastes fantastic.

Ingredients
For the crust:
1 cup pistachio nuts
¾ cup cornflakes
50g caster sugar
100g butter, melted

For the filling:
500g cream cheese
500g fresh ricotta cheese
4 large eggs
400g can sweetened condensed milk
¼ cup sugar
Juice and zest of 3 lemons
Icing sugar, for dusting (optional)

Method
Grease and line a 24cm springform cake tin.

Place the nuts in the microwave and cook on high for 2 minutes to toast them, or you could toast them in the oven.

Then place the nuts in a food processor along wiht the cornflakes and sugar. Process until coursely grounded. Add the butter before processing further until you have a moist mix of crumbs. Press this crumb mix into the bottom only of the cake tin. Place in the fridge until you have the filling ready.

In a large food processor or mixer, beat the cream cheese with the ricotta until you have a smooth consistency. Add eggs, individually, and beat well each time. Now add the sweetened condensed milk slowly while beating, until it is all added. Next add the sugar and beat well.

And the lemon zest and juice and mix well.

Pour this mix into the chilled cake tin and bake at 200 degrees celcius for 10 minutes, then decrease the oven temperature to 165 degrees celcius and continue baking for 40 minutes, or until the centre of the cake is a little wobbly but surrounding area is set. Turn off the oven but leave the cake inside to cool as this helps it to avoid cracking, and I have never had this recipe cause a crack so I think this strategy works.

When the cake is cool, pop it in the fridge until cold.

Remove the cake from the tin and serve, icing sugar can be added if desired.