Donna Hay's Caramel and Sour Cream Cheesecake

Donna Hay's Caramel and Sour Cream Cheesecake
Home Cooking



I'm having another one of those 'should I blog/shouldn't I blog' moments with regards to this cheesecake. Don't get me wrong, the cheesecake itself was fine beyond contention but my photos are disgusting!



It was the combination of poor lighting, drunk photographer and rushed serving. Sometimes, I dream about having a beautiful large kitchen and days specifically allocated to baking where I have all the time in the world to create perfect photos. Unfortunately, the reality is that these days, I only bake on special occasions and on those occasions, I'm too busy having fun/worrying about everything else to prioritize the photography.


What I've chosen to upload is a mixture of photos that I deemed as 'just acceptable'. Some aren't of the large cheesecake but rather, of a mini cheesecake I made with left over base and filling. Sorry if that confuses anyone...

I first stumbled across this recipe here. Needless for me to point out but Greedy Gourmand's photos are impeccable and are as comparable to mine as Monet's paintings are to a 3 year old's scribbles

Unfortunately, I have nothing else to blog about this week because I haven't been to any new shmancy restaurants.

I hope you like this recipe despite my poor imagery.

Donna Hay's Caramel and Sour Cream Cheesecake
Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

• 500g plain sweet shortbread biscuits
• 1/2 cup (60g) almond meal (ground almonds)
• 150g butter, melted
• 350g ricotta
• 500g cream cheese
• 1 cup (175g) brown sugar
• 4 x eggs
• 2 tbsps golden syrup
• 1/4 tsp table salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup (250ml) single (pouring) cream
• 1 cup (240g) sour cream
• 1 tbsp icing sugar, sifted
• sea salt flakes, for sprinkling

For the caramel sauce

• 1 cup (250ml) pouring cream
• 60g butter, chopped
• 1 cup (175g) brown sugar

Procedure:

1. To make the caramel sauce, place the cream, butter and sugar in a saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved.2. Increase heat to high, bring to the boil and cook for 5–7 minutes or until thickened. Set aside and allow to cool.
3. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a 22cm springform cake tin.
4. Place the biscuits and almond meal in the bowl of a food processor and process until coarsely chopped.5. Add the butter and process to combine.
6. Press the biscuit mixture into the springform cake tin. Refrigerate for 1 hour.7. Place the ricotta and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 5–6 minutes or until smooth. Add the sugar and beat for 3–4 minutes or until combined. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the golden syrup, table salt and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and beat until well combined.
8. Spoon the mixture into the biscuit shell. Place the tin in a baking dish and pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the tin. Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until firm to the touch.
9. Remove cheesecake from the baking dish and allow to cool in the tin. Refrigerate for 3 hours or until set.
10. Place the cream, sour cream, icing sugar and remaining vanilla in a bowl and whisk until soft peaks form.11. Top the cheesecake with the cream, drizzle with the caramel sauce and sprinkle with sea salt flakes to serve.


As I mentioned before, I had enough base and filling to make 3 mini cheesecakes as well, so if you don't intend to do that, expect excess. As it was, I over-filled my biscuit base because you should leave some room for the whipped cream topping.

Drunken party shot

My favorite part of the cheesecake was the biscuit crust. It's shortbread, almond meal and butter... how can that not be good?


The actual cream cheese component was nothing special but in combination with the whipped sour cream and butterscotch sauce, it made for one mean dessert.