If you have a sweet tooth then the dessert is the best part of any meal, but trying to make one yourself can be quite daunting.
But that’s where the cheesecake comes in. The humble dessert is quick and easy to make, even for those who aren’t well versed in baking, and it always looks impressive on the plate. Gordon Ramsay says when it comes to desserts “simple is always the most impressive”, and his recipe for a baked New York cheesecake is “so straightforward, yet so delicious”. You’ll only need seven ingredients for this recipe and it will be ready to go in the oven in just 10 minutes.
To start, add 500g cream cheese to a bowl and then mix in 200g of sugar. If you’re mixing the ingredients by hand rather than using an electric mixer it’s worth leaving the cream cheese out of the fridge for five to 10 minutes before you start to allow it to soften.
Cream the sugar and cream cheese together until the mixture is smooth and creamy, then add in your eggs. The recipe uses three eggs and Ramsay whisks these in a separate bowl first, then folds them into the mixture bit by bit. Eggs are what make a baked cheesecake taste lovely and light and will give the dessert that deliciously creamy texture.
Explaining the process in a video on YouTube, Ramsay says: “Add the eggs to the mixture bit by bit. Doing it this way it’s more efficient. A, you’re incorporating a lot of air and B, the mixture doesn’t separate.
“Of course you can use an electric mixer but why go to the gym when you can just make a cheesecake a day. A cheesecake a day, keep the bingo wings away.”
Once the eggs are mixed in, add in three tablespoons of flour. Ramsay says this will stop the cheesecake from going lumpy. He then grates in the zest of a lemon to add some “freshness” to the dessert before folding in 300g of fresh raspberries, being careful not to crush them.
Then simply grease a cake tin with butter and pour in your mixture, giving the tin a tap on the worktop to ensure there’s no air bubbles.
Ramsay says: “Now take your cake tin and just tap it. The mixture hits the bottom of the cake tin, the raspberries rise and you’ve got raspberries at the top, the middle and the bottom. It also stops all those little pockets of air trapping underneath the mixture and the cake tin, so there’s no holes in the cheesecake.
Once the mixture is in the tin, pop it into the oven to bake at 180C for 35 to 40 minutes until it turns a light, golden brown colour on top.
Ramsay adds: “Look at it. It’s one of the simplest yet the most stylish cheesecakes anywhere. Beautiful.”