Strawberry Cheesecake

I’ve wanted to make a cheesecake for a long time. The last time I had a cheesecake was in a restaurant and it was a strawberry one. It tasted amazing so I had no hesitation with what I wanted to prepare. I have a heart shaped baking pan, which I had never used before, and quickly found its application. Perhaps because St. Valentine’s Day is on its way, or just because I’m in a romantic mood, but the idea of a strawberry cheesecake in the form of a heart seems very tempting to me. For the base I used digestive biscuits and the cream cheese is Philadelphia, but you’ll get the same result with any other cream cheese. It’s an easy to follow and relatively quick recipe, but bear in mind that the cheesecake needs time to cool and has to be refrigerated overnight.

Ingredients:

400 ml sweetened condensed milk (1 can)
280 g strawberries
225 g cream cheese
125 g digestive biscuits
75 g butter
30 g sugar
3 eggs
1 Tbsp. corn starch
2 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. vanilla
Juice of half a lemon

Preparation:

Blend the biscuits to obtain very fine crumbs. In a bowl combine biscuit crumbs, softened butter, sugar and cinnamon. Press the mixture onto the bottom of an ungreased baking tin and refrigerate for half an hour.
Preheat the oven to 150º C.
Puree the strawberries and corn starch in a blender until a smooth mixture is formed. Pour into a small saucepan or skillet, bring to a boil and stir the sauce until thickened (about 3-4 minutes). Set aside to cool.
Beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually add the condensed milk. Mix in the lemon juice, vanilla and eggs.
Finally add the strawberries and stir until well combined. Pour the strawberry mixture over the base.
Bake for 50 minutes . Allow to cool for around 10 minutes, then use a knife to loosen the strawberry cheesecake from the walls of the baking tin and leave to cool for one hour. Refrigerate overnight.
You can decorate with fresh strawberries, or even with chocolate topping.