Baked vanilla cheesecake

Cheesecake is very versatile and consequently there are many versions between and within countries. This is a rather basic Irish style cheesecake that can very easily be altered to one's own taste.

The amount of biscuits you need to used depends on the size of the baking tin you use (I used one a bit bigger than the classic 20cm round spring-form tin). On that note if you don't have a spring-form tin this shouldn't prevent you making a cheesecake, I used silicone bakewear and transferred the cake to a plate upside-down then onto another the right way up.

You can easily change the biscuits used to vary the flavour. I think might use cookies with a baileys flavoured filling next, though gingernuts with orange flavoured filling might also be good. Basically it can be changed quite a lot.

• 9-10 digestive biscuits, crushed
• 85g butter melted
• 600g cream cheese
• 200g (1 tub) creme fraiche
• 2 tbsp flour
• 175g caster sugar (you can adjust this a bit to taste and according to the ingredients e.g. berries might need a bit more sugar)
• 2 eggs
• 4tsp vanilla essence

Mix the crushed biscuits with the melted butter and press into the tin to make the base. Then beat together the other ingredients and pour into the base. Bake for about 40 mins at 170 degrees Celsius (180 if you don't have a fan oven). Allow it to cool, then remove from the tin and refrigerate.