Decadent Baked White Chocolate Cheesecake

This is one of our favourite desserts... A smooth, creamy and perfectly decadent baked white chocolate cheesecake. As it's quite rich, we like to serve it with a raspberry or passionfruit coulis to add a hint of bitterness and a fresh sprig of mint!

We like this cheesecake to have an extra large biscuit base, just like the above photo - if you prefer a smaller, less exuberant base simply halve the base ingredients.

Let's get started...

Base

500g Nice biscuits 

240g melted butter

Filling

375g cream cheese, softened

82g (1/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon) caster sugar

3 large eggs

185g good quality white chocolate, melted 

225g (3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) sour cream

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (1/2 teaspoon natural vanilla essence)

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius (not fan-forced). If you have a fan-forced oven and are unable to turn the fan off, preheat your oven to 145 degrees Celsius.

Line the base of a 20cm diameter springform cake pan with baking paper and grease the sides with butter. 

Finely crush biscuits in a food processor. Combine the finely crushed biscuits with melted butter and firmly press mixture over the base and up the sides of the prepared pan. Pop this into the fridge while preparing the filling.

Using a food processor or electric mixer, beat cream cheese with sugar until sugar is dissolved. Don't forget to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times. When mixture is smooth, beat in eggs one at a time.

Quickly stir sour cream into melted white chocolate, stirring until smooth. Add to cream cheese mixture along with the vanilla. Beat until ingredients are combined.

Pour filling over biscuit base and bake for around an hour. When the cheesecake is done, it will be jiggly in the centre and a very slight golden around the edges. Leave cheesecake in the over with the door ajar for one hour then cover and refrigerate for several hours, or until cold and set.

When ready to serve, cut with a hot, dry knife. Store any leftover cheesecake in an airtight container in the fridge.

To make a white chocolate and raspberry layered style cheesecake, pour half of the filling over the base, sprinkle with 150g of raspberries, then pour the remaining filling over the raspberries and bake.