Cheesecake

I spent the weekend close to home cooking up a storm. I haven't made cheesecake before - I always thought it was one of those hard to do recipes and to be honest I don't really like cheesecake, it always seems so heavy and I tend to favour chocolate desserts, but it turns out it's really easy to make and with the amount of cake I ate, I can no longer say cheesecake is not my thing.

250g packet plain sweet biscuits
125g butter, melted
750g Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup caster sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons plain flour
4 eggs
300ml sour cream
Raspberries (fresh or frozen), for decoration

Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease a 22cm spring-form pan and line the base with baking paper.

Process biscuits until they resemble fine breadcrumbs. Add the butter and process until combined. Press mixture into the base of the pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Use an electric beater to beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and lemon rind in a large bowl until just combined. Beat in the flour. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the sour cream until just combined. Pour into the base and bake for 1¼ - 1½ hours or until just set and the centre wobbles slightly. Turn oven off and allow to cool for 2 hours, with door ajar (this prevents cracking). Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Top with raspberries and serve.