Decadent Baked Fudge Cheesecake with Salted Caramel Topping

Click here to follow the Brownie Girl blog

Serves 8 big slices

INGREDIENTS:

CRUST:

• 200g Ginger Biscuits (coconut or oatmeal biscuits would work well too)
• 160ml Melted Butter

FILLING:

• 2 x 230g Full Fat Cream Cheese
• 250ml Full Cream Greek Yoghurt
• 4 XL Eggs – lightly beaten
• 1 Can Condensed Milk (397g)
• 3-4 Lemons – juice squeezed and strained (should be about 100ml or just over
• 1 Vanilla Pod – split and seeds scraped out (keep the pod for vanilla sugar)
• 50g Creamy good quality Fudge (don’t use crystallized flopped fudge because it will spoil the creaminess of the finished cheesecake)

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 160 °C
2. Grease a 24cm loose bottomed springform pan with butter (I like to line the base of mine as well with baking parchment)
3. Crush the biscuits very finely to a powder – use a food processor or meat mallet but they need to be very fine
4. Add to a mixing bowl then pour over the melted butter and mix in.
5. Press the crumb mixture into the base (I use the bottom of a highball glass) and right up the sides of the pan. Place the pan onto a baking sheet or cookie pan and bake for 15 minutes
   Add all the filling ingredients (excepting for the fudge)  to your mixer or food processor
6. Process or whisk on top speed for a few seconds until just creamy with no lumpy bits of cream cheese or yoghurt
7. Pour the filling into the prepared base, scraping all of it out of the mixing bowl
8. Crumble the fudge over the top of the filling (push some of it down into the filling using a cocktail stick)
9. Place on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for one hour until it is just set then turn off the oven, leave the door slightly ajar and allow to cool completely to room temperature in the oven
10. Cover with cling film and refrigerate until needed
11. Remove from fridge and bring to room temperature before slicing and serving with a delicious salted caramel sauce

Tip: The crust needs to stand higher than the filling in this cheesecake…..the edges don’t have to be level or smooth….rustic is good!

Recipe for SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE topping can be found on the Brownie Girl Blog