Here’s your traditional New York Cheesecake recipe, but the raspberry ripple takes it somewhere else. Watch out for cracks…enjoy!

Prep

1. Base: Break the biscuits up a bit then pulse/blitz them in a food processor until fine, or tip into a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin.
2. Melt the butter gently in a pan. Remove from the heat, add the fine crumbs and stir well.
3. Press the mix down over the base of a 20cm loose bottomed cake tin. Chill.
4. Ripple: Tip the raspberries and sugar into a small pan. Heat very gently, stirring till the fruits fully release their juices.
5. Tip the mix into a sieve over a bowl. Push the fruit through with the back of a wooden spoon, discarding the seeds left in the sieve.
6. Scrape any extra puree left on the other side of the sieve. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 170°C/Gas 3 (low heat means less chance of cracking).
7. Filling: Get a big mixing bowl. Add the cream cheese and stir to loosen it up with a wooden spoon.
8. Stir in the sugar, vanilla extract, sour and double cream, then sift the flour and cornflour over the mix. Stir together using a metal spoon. Don’t beat it.
9. Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat well with a fork. Dribble them into the mix gradually, stirring rapidly with the wooden spoon until fully absorbed.
10. Add the lime zest and lemon and lime juice.
11. Break the chocolate into bits, tip into a heatproof bowl, sit over a pan of barely simmering water (with the base clear) and leave until melted.
12. Remove from the heat and stir till smooth. Cool for a minute before stirring into the egg mix. Get the tin from the fridge. Pour in half to two-thirds of the mix. Smooth to the edges of the tin using a spatula or back of a metal spoon.
13. Drizzle the raspberry purée over the top in irregular lines or swirls. Spoon over the remaining mix and smooth it gently to the edges.

Cook

1. Bake in the oven for 35–40 minutes until firm-ish at the edges but only just set and still wobbly in the centre when the tin is shaken a bit.
2. Turn off the oven, leaving the cake in there for an hour as it cools down. (Take it out now and it will crack and won’t firm up enough.)
3. Remove from the cooled oven and place on a rack for 10 minutes to rest.
4. Carefully run a thin blunt knife between cake and tin to loosen, then pop the cake back in the oven with the door open and leave for another hour.
5. Take the cheesecake from the oven and leave to cool before removing the sides of the tin and chilling in the fridge for 2 hours.

Plate

1. Serve plain, or dot with a layer of raspberries or summer berries.

From Sam Stern’s Cookery Course for Students in the Kitchen (Quadrille)

Photograph by Chris Terry