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. . . well, not literally I hope.

Cheesecake is another one of those scrummy desserts and treats which we all love but many of us don’t realize exactly how easy they are to make.  You don’t have to buy them from the store or wait until you’re out to dinner, you can make your own cheesecake at home, it’s not scary, it doesn’t hurt . . . go on, you can do it. Home made cheesecakes taste even better than store bought ones (usually) so be a devil and go for it.

Before we go any further I must just confirm that there are two completely different types of cheesecake, there are the ones which you bake, and the ones which you don’t. Which are the best? Well that depends on you. Why not try both kinds and make up your own mind.

So how do you go about making a cheesecake to die for, well, let’s see.

Simple Cheesecake Which Needs Only Chilling . . . No Baking

The “cake” bit of these cheesecakes is generally a biscuit base, just crush up some sweet biscuits and stir in with some melted butter to make it a bit sticky and “cakey”.

Cheesecake Base

• Graham cracker crumbs are best for the base really, you’ll need around 1 1/4 cups.
• 1/3 cup of melted butter
• 2 tb sugar

Cheesecake Topping

• 2/3 cup water
• 16 oz softened cream cheese
• 12 oz chocolate chips
• 1 envelope gelatin
• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup of whipped whipping cream

Cheesecake – How To Do It

• Mix the biscuit crumbs with the melted butter and sugar, and press firmly onto the bottom of your pan. Put this to cool while you’re making the topping.
• In a small saucepan, sprinkle the gelatin over the water and leave it to stand for about a minute. Heat and stir gently until the gelatin just dissolves, then move it from the heat.
• Beat together the cream cheese and chocolate until it’s light and fluffy, then stir in the condensed milk. Next you can stir in the gelatin water and fold in the whipped cream. Pour this over your biscuit bottom.
• Chill in the refrigerator for a few hours until set (should be about 3 hours).

How easy is that? Right, what about those cheesecakes which need cooking?

New York Cheesecake, New York Cheesecake . . . so good we’ll name it twice!

Stuff you’ll need for the base:

• 1 1/4 cups of graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 6 tablespoons of butter (margarine will do the job just as well)
• small teaspoon of cinnamon

Stuff you’ll need for the filling:

• cream cheese – 2 lbs of the stuff, lovely
•  1 cup of sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 or 1 1/4 tablespoons of lemon juice

Stuff you’ll need for the topping:

• 2 cups of sour cream
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• teaspoon vanilla

New York Cheesecake . . . How To Do It

• Mix the base ingredients together and press firmly into the bottom of the pan (like above)
• Combine the sugar, salt, eggs and lemon juice and beat smooth
• In a separate bowl cream the cream cheese a little at a time until smooth
• Add to the egg mixture and mix well (beat it . . . go on, give it a good beating)
• Pour into the pan and bake at 350 degrees F for about an hour.
• Spread the topping onto the cheesecake and bake for a further 15 – 20 minutes at 475 degrees F. Pop it into the refrigerator before serving (once it’s cooled down a bit of course) and then add a fruity pie filling of your choice – cherry is good, blueberry is even better . . . yum.

Okay, you know the score by now, here are a couple of videos, slightly different to the above recipes but hey . . . there are hundreds of cheesecake recipes to choose from . . . go on, live a little.

He’s obviously never tried any of our recipes!