Baked Vanilla Cheesecake (serves 6)

A good baked vanilla cheesecake is an uncommon thing of beauty. A balance between subtle flavour and light texture. I often thing back to several New York deli's that made the very best cheesecakes, ones that even got New Yorker's talking.

Once I decided to bake a cheese I wanted to create a different kind of fruit sauce to go with it. I do think busy chefs tend to go for the tried and tested rather than giving something else a try. Although a good Vanilla Cheesecake is quite light it is still rather rich so you need something to cut through that richness.

I came with a sauce made from Papaya (Paw paw) and Passion fruit.

Both these fruits are rarely used on their own let alone in combination and yet the resulting sauce worked supurbly with the cheesecake. 

Pastry

200g (8oz) Plain flour

125g (5oz) Unsalted butter

50g (2oz) Caster sugar

1 large egg

Pinch of salt

Filling

625g (1 lb) Cream cheese

3 Eggs separated

1Tbsp vegetable oil

50g (2oz) cornflour

1 vanilla pod

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

225g (9ozs) Caster sugar

Papaya & Passion-fruit sauce

6 ripe passion fruit

2 Ripe papaya 

1. Rub the butter with the flour until you have a fine crumb texture and add the salt.

2. Whisk the sugar into the egg, then gently stir the egg mix in until the pastry comes together in a ball, refrigerate for 1 hour.

3. Rub a little butter onto a 10inch (25cm) flan tin with removable bottom.

4. Preheat oven to 175C gas mark 4

5. Roll out the pastry thinly on a floured surface then line the flan tin.

6. Beat the cream cheese, oil, sugar, egg yokes and vanilla extract until smooth.

7. Slice the vanilla pod lengthwise and stir the vanilla seeds into the cream cheese mix.

8. In a separate clean bowl whisk the egg whites until very stiff then fold into the mix.

9. Pour the filling carefully into the pastry case and bake on the middle shelf for 50-60 minutes move to a lower shelf if getting too brown.

10. Turn off oven and let your cheesecake cool in the oven with the door ajar.

11. Peel and deseed the papayas then dice into small pieces.

12. Scoop the passion fruit into a small non-stick saucepan and add the papaya.

13. Cook on a gentle heat until the papaya is soft enough to puree.

14. Puree then rub the sauce through a very fine strainer to remove the passion-fruit seeds and chill.

To Serve

Remove the cheesecake from the flan tin and dust lightly with icing sugar if you wish.

Slice with a sharp knife and serve with the chilled sauce. 

Chef's Tips

One of the biggest reasons the top of a baked cheese splits open is it is baked to fast, or cooled too fast (hen

Dip your knife into hot water and wipe with a towel between slices to help give you clean looking slices. Instead of throwing away expensive empty vanilla pods keep them in a sealed jar covered with Caster sugar to infuse the sugar with real vanilla flavour.

*If you like the appearence of my sauce then make sure the Papaya is diced small and evenly,then reserve a small amount. When straining the sauce don't remove all of the Passion Fruit seeds.

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