Glorious gluten-free cheesecake

THIS glorious cheesecake is always a hit and what's more it works beautifully for those who are gluten free.

GLUTEN free is now a big part of what we find in our recipe bases these days.

It’s not just for the coeliacs of the family, many people have developed intolerances to wheat products, which means for them, a whole line of staples is taken away from the diet.

It doesn’t mean you have to go without however – this glorious cheesecake is testament to that.

The best biscuits for the base of this recipe are the Schar digestive biscuits, most supermarkets have them, or something along those lines. You can put the biscuits into a ziplock bag and crush them with a rolling pin, or as I do, a few seconds at a time pulsed in a food processor to get the consistency you want.

For the filling of any cheesecake, I’ve long been a fan of Philadelphia cheese and that is my cream cheese of preference here. The cooking cream I prefer you’ll usually find with the milk in a plastic sachet, on supermarket shelves.

For the crust:

1. 1/2C crushed digestive biscuits

1/4 C sugar

1. Tbs melted butter

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

For the filling:

680gms cream cheese, softened

1. C sugar
2. tsp pure vanilla extract
3. large eggs

1/2 C sour cream

1/2 C heavy or cooking cream

For the topping:

1. C sour cream
2. Tbs icing sugar
3. tsp pure vanilla extract

Almond slivers

Method:

Preheat your oven to 160C and grease a 23cm springform pan. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the biscuit crumbs, sugar, melted butter, and ground cinnamon. Mix until the mixture resembles wet sand.

Press the crust mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Use the back of a spoon to compact it. Keep the sides even.

Bake the crust in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then remove and let it cool while you prepare the filling. Reduce the oven temperature to 150C.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened cream cheese until it’s creamy and smooth.

Add one cup of sugar and beat until well combined.

Mix in the vanilla extract.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Stir in the sour cream and heavy/cooking cream until the mixture is smooth and well combined.

Pour the cheesecake filling over the baked crust in the springform pan.

Bake the cheesecake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until the edges are set and the centre is slightly jiggly.

Turn off the oven and open the oven door slightly. Allow the cheesecake to cool in the oven for 1 hour.

Remove the cheesecake from the oven and refrigerate it for at least four hours or overnight to set.

Make the topping by mixing sour cream, icing sugar, and vanilla extract and the almond slivers. Spread it over the chilled cheesecake and dust with additional icing sugar.