Baked Caramel and Apple Crumble Cheesecake
I love a Baked Cheesecake and my other half loves an Apple Crumble, so I thought I would pop the two together with a bit of salted caramel for good measure. This isn’t a cake baked lightly and it is packed with flavour, perfect for a celebration or a friends get together or just because you have a glut of apples.
Ingredients
For the biscuit base
400g Digestive Biscuits
85g Melted Butter
25g Demerara Sugar or soft brown sugar
For the Cheesecake
700g Full Fat Cream Cheese
1tbsp Vanilla
85g Salted Caramel (from a jar or homemade)
75g Sour Cream
135g Caster Sugar
2tsp Corn Flour
4 Eggs
For the Apples
2 Bramley Apples
2 ½ tbsp Demerara Sugar
3 tbsp water
For the Crumble
70g Plain Flour
30g Caster Sugar
20g Demerara Sugar
50g Butter
¼ tsp Salt
For the finished cake
2 or 3 tbsp of the caramel mix
Method
Preheat your oven to 180c/160c Fan, 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or Gas Mark 4, and line the base of an 8 inch loose bottom baking tin.
Crush the biscuits and mix in the sugar and butter, tip into the bottom of the baking tin and press down and up the sides as high and even as you can (this protects the delicate cheesecake filling), I use a potato masher to get the base nice and even. Pop the base into the pre heated oven for 14 minutes. Take out and leave the oven on. Place a baking tray on the bottom of the oven and put the kettle on.
Add your cream cheese, vanilla and caramel to a bowl and mix with a stiff spatula, (you can use your mixer, but I don’t find that I don’t need it) if your caramel is a little stiff, pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to loosen it up so that it will incorporate well into the cream cheese.
Add the sour cream, sugar and flour to the mix and mix in until almost combined. Wisk your eggs in a bowl and then add into the cream cheese mix. Give this a good mix, you can swap to a whisk at this point. When it is smooth and creamy tip into your cake tin (I wrap a piece of tinfoil under the bottom of mine and slightly up the sides just in case of any spillage). Pop this into the oven on the middle shelf and tip about a centimetre of boiled water into the baking tray on the bottom of the oven.
Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 150c/130c fan 302f gas mark 2 for the last 45 to 50 mins. If you give the tray a little jiggle there should be just a very slight wobble in the centre, and the internal temperature should reach 65 degrees Celsius.
Turn off the oven and pop a folded tea towel or oven glove in the door to wedge it open slightly and leave in there until cooled, or at least 3 to 4 hours, remove from the oven and pop into the fridge to chill completely.
Peel your apples and split into quarters, take out the core and slice each piece into about 4 or 5 slices, not too thin.
Add to a pan with the water and sugar and bring to a boil, simmer for about 8 minutes or until they are tender, but still with a little bite. You don’t want them to break down. Leave them in the pan with the heat off until cool. Drain from the liquid before use.
Pop the oven onto 200c/180c 360f gas mark 6.
Rub together the butter flour and sugar to make the crumble mix, line a baking tray and spread out in an even layer of about ½ a centimetre. bake in the centre of the oven breaking up and moving the mix around 2 or 3 times for 12 to 15 mins.
Remove the cheesecake from its baking tin using a clean hot knife, run this around the outer edge very carefully so as not to break up the edge, and release from the tin.
On the cooled cheesecake, spread on a thin layer of caramel, top with the drained apple slices arranged in a fan and sprinkle on the crumble mix.
To cut the cheesecake, have container of boiling water and a sharp knife, using kitchen towel dry off the knife and make one neat cut, repeat this for every cut to ensure a beautiful slice each time.
