members recipes

After experimenting with several recipes, none of which I was fussed about, I finally took it upon myself to come up with one of my own. The great thing about a cheesecake is that once you have mastered a basic cheese filling that you love you can top with your your own sweet sauce creation - the variations are only limited by your imagination!

Ingredients
THE BASE:
12 Digestives or similar biscuits finely crushed
25gm Butter (melted)
THE FILLING:
500gm Kraft Phillidelphia cream cheese softened
395gm Can skim sweetened condensed milk
4 teaspoons of vanilla EXTRACT (NOT ESSENCE!)
3 Teaspoons gelatine
THE TOPPING:
55gm Unsalted butter
85gm Light brown sugar
65ml Whipping cream
1/2 cup lightly toasted and roughly chopped pecans

Method
Mix the melted butter in with the biscuit crumbs, pour into a 23cm round silicone cake pan and spread evenly along the surface. Refrigerate
Place the cream cheese in a large mixing bowl, pour over the condensed milk and add the vanilla
Dissolve the gleatine in a third cup of cold water over some warm-hot water and pour into the cream cheese mixture. Beat for several minutes until mixture is very smooth and creamy. Pour mixture over base and spread evenly then place in the freezer (yes freezer! Trust me it will be much easier and cleaner popping the whole thing out when it is frozen and much cleaner to cut as well)
In a small sauce pan place in the butter and melt down over low-medium heat, add in the sugar and whipping cream and stir until sugar has dissolved.
Add in the pecans and continue stiring for another 2-3 minutes, lowering the heat if it seems to high.

To serve cut a wedge of the cheesecake leave out at room temperature for about 30 minutes to thaw and top with some of the sauce slightly warmed (about 10 seconds in a microwave should do the trick)