Mrs Blumenthal's cheesecake

Description

I can still remember not being able to wait for the whole day that my mother's cheesecake had to rest before being eaten.

Ingredients

75g/3oz unsalted butter
12 digestive biscuits
1 level tsp salt
375g/13oz full-fat cottage cheese
375g/13oz best-quality cream cheese
5 whole eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
210g/7½oz sour cream
65g/2½oz cornflour
160g/5½oz caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.
2. Melt 65g/2½oz of the butter in a small saucepan and remove from the heat.
3. Using either a food processor or a rolling pin and a plastic bag, crush the biscuits until fine. By hand, mix in the melted butter and add the salt.
4. Use the remaining butter to grease a 25cm/10-inch springform cake tin, and spread the biscuit mix over the base, pressing down firmly so that it forms a compact, even layer.
5. Now, rub the cottage cheese through a fine-meshed sieve into a bowl using the back of a spoon. Add the cream cheese and mix well.
6. Put the egg whites into a separate large mixing bowl. Beat the egg yolks into the cheese mixture and add the vanilla extract. Stir in the sour cream. Sieve the cornflour over this and mix.
7. Add the sugar to the egg whites and whisk until they form soft peaks. Mix a third of the egg whites into the cheese mixture to loosen it, then delicately fold in the rest of the egg whites.
8. Pour on top of the biscuit base in the greased cake tin. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, then turn the oven off and leave until cold. The cake will rise and then fall again during cooking.
9. When cold, remove from the cake tin and serve. This can be made the night before serving.