Baked lemon cheesecake

If you have friends at home on the afternoon or as dessert, it's the perfect cake. Quite heavy but with a strong lemon touch for the pleasure. But don't forget that it must be refrigerating overnight.

This recipe is from Bill Granger, an australian cook with restaurants in Sydney, Tokyo and London. You can find the original recipe in "Bill's Basics", one of about 15 books.

Serves 10-12

Ingredients:
125g plain sweet biscuits (Petit Beurre) or almond biscotti
50g ground almonds
70g unsalted butter, melted
500g cream cheese, softened (Philadelphia)
220g caster sugar
4 eggs
1egg yolk
greated zest and juice of 1 large lemon or 2 limes
400g soured cream or mascarpone
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

to serve: icing sugar, to dust

Preheat the oven to 140°C and grease and line the base of a 24cm round springform tin. Mix the biscuits to crumbs in a food processor, or put the biscuits in a plastic bag and crush them by rolling a pin on them. Mix together the biscuit crumbs, ground almonds and melted butter and press into the bottom of the tin. Put in the fridge while you make the topping.

Mix the cream cheese and sugar in a food processor until smooth. Add the eggs, egg yolk, lemon zest and juice and mix again. Add the soured cream and vanilla extract and mix again until completely smooth.

Pour the filling over the base and bake for 1 hour (the cheesecake will still have a definite wobble in the centre). Turn the oven off and leave the cheesecake to cool inside for 1 hour. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before covering and refrigerating overnight. Run a knife around the inside edge of the tin to loosen the cheesecake, then lift off the side. Dust with icing sugar to serve, if you like it. I don't, so I served it without and it was perfect too.