SALTED CARAMEL VANILLA CHEESECAKE

I'm not sure why the recipes on my blog have gone in such a sweet direction recently.... A lot of the savoury recipes I make I'm saving for the book I'm still trying to write!! So here's another sweet one for you - and actually this time it's not one of my own recipes, though I have tweaked the original slightly as I can't help myself! Today's recipe is Eric Lanlard's baked vanilla cheesecake, with the addition of my own salted caramel sauce. It's decadent and completely OTT but isn't that what sweet treats are about?! It's also very easy to make so even a less confident cook can whip this up to enjoy.

Serves 12

For the base:
150g crushed Digestive biscuits
75g unsalted butter

For the cheese filling:
900g full fat cream cheese - always use Philadelphia - it's so much better for baking than any other brand, and believe me when I say I've tried and failed with others!
200g unrefined golden caster sugar
200ml sour cream
3 tbsp. plain flour
3 free range eggs + 1 yolk
3 tsp Nielsen-Massey vanilla bean paste

For the salted caramel:
100g unsalted butter
200g light brown sugar
220ml heavy double cream
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp Nielsen-Massey vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line the base of a 20cm spring form cake tin.

Melt the butter and add the crushed digestives, stirring to combing. Press down into base of the cake tin and bake for 10 minutes until golden. Remove and leave to cool.

Reduce the oven to 160C.

Make your salted caramel. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Once melted, add the sugar, double cream and salt and whisk until combined and smooth. Bubble gently for 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Remove from the heat and whisk in the vanilla. Leave to cool.

In a large bowl beat the cream cheese and golden caster together until smooth, then add the sour cream and flour and beat again. Gradually add the eggs and vanilla bean paste, beating well between each addition.

Pour the salted caramel on to the biscuit base, then top with the cream cheese mixture. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, or until the edges become lightly golden. Turn the oven off, but leave the cheesecake in the oven to cool, with the door open a little. This stops the cheesecake from cracking.