Cheesecake in a Pâte Sablée Shell

Our first cheesecake!

Ingredients

serves 10 · make the day before

Pastry

  • 140 g plain flour
  • 50 g cold butter, diced
  • 40 g caster sugar
  • 1 medium egg
  • pinch fine salt

Filling

  • 500 g full-fat cream cheese, room temp
  • 450 g cottage cheese, drained weight
  • 170 g caster sugar
  • 20 g cornflour
  • 4 large eggs, room temp
  • 100 g sour cream
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • zest of 1 lemon + 2 tsp its juice
  • ½ tsp fine salt

Method

This recipe is for a 20 cm springform.

  1. Rub butter into flour and salt to fine sand. Stir in sugar. Add beaten egg, bring together without kneading. Wrap, chill 2 h.
  2. Press or roll to 3 mm into base and 4.5 cm up the sides of the tin. Patch any cracks. Freeze 30 min.
  3. Blind bake at 170 °C (150 °C fan) with beans, 20 min. Remove beans, 9 min more until pale and dry.
  4. Brush the inside with beaten egg, back in for 3 min. Cool. Drop oven to 150 °C (135 °C fan).
  5. Drain cottage cheese 20 min, then blitz alone until completely smooth.
  6. Beat cream cheese with sugar and cornflour until smooth. Mix in cottage cheese, sour cream, vanilla, lemon, salt. Add eggs one at a time on lowest speed, stopping as each disappears. Don’t aerate.
  7. Pour into the shell. Bake 55–75 min, until the centre 6 cm still wobbles and reads 65 °C.
  8. Oven off, door ajar, 1 h. Room temp, then fridge overnight.
  9. Slice with a hot dry knife.