Baked Curd Cheesecake
A twelve-slice curd cheesecake on a biscuit base, baked slowly in a water bath.
90 min
12 servings
Difficulty 4/5
Dessert
Prep 30 min · Cook 60 min
Curd rather than cream cheese, so the cake is lighter and higher in protein. The water bath holds the oven damp and the temperature even, which is what keeps the top flat instead of domed and split.
Per serving
310
kcal / serving
Ingredients
Written for 12 servings. Change the servings to rescale every amount.
Base
Cookies
200 grams
Butter
90 grams
Filling
Curd / Quark
750 grams
Sour Cream
200 grams
White Sugar
130 grams
Chicken Egg, whole
3 medium (153 grams)
Cornstarch
2 tablespoons (16 grams)
Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon (4.2 grams)
Lemon
1 medium (58 grams)
Steps
Heat the oven to 160 °C and line the base of a 24 cm springform tin with baking paper.
5 min
Crush the biscuits to fine crumbs, stir in the melted butter and press the mixture hard and evenly into the base of the tin. Chill it while you make the filling.
10 min
Push the curd through a sieve. This is the step people skip, and it is the reason cheesecakes come out grainy.
8 min
Beat the curd with the sugar, the sour cream, the cornstarch, the vanilla and the grated lemon zest until it is smooth.
5 min
Add the eggs one at a time and mix only until each one disappears. Air beaten in now rises in the oven and cracks the top as it falls.
4 min
Pour the filling onto the base and smooth the top. Wrap the outside of the tin in foil, stand it in a roasting tray and pour boiling water into the tray to come halfway up the tin.
7 min
Bake it 60 minutes. The edge should be set and the middle should still wobble as one piece.
60 min
Turn the oven off, open the door a hand's width and leave the cake inside 30 minutes. A sudden cold draught is the other thing that cracks it.
30 min
Chill it at least 4 hours, and overnight if you can. It slices cleanly only when it is cold through.
240 min
Serving suggestion
A spoon of sharp berry sauce balances the sweetness.
Storage
Four days in the fridge under a cover. It does not freeze well — the curd goes watery.
Notes
Use dry curd. Wet curd adds liquid the starch cannot hold and the middle stays loose.
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