A Spoonful of Sugar

Lemon curd cheesecake

Serves 8
WW (UK) points: 4 per slice
Source: The lemon curd recipe comes from Cooking Light, and the body of the cheesecake is my adaptation of a Sue Kreitzman recipe.

Make sure your lemon curd is at room temperature before you start making the filling for the cheesecake. You can, of course, use shop-bought--I really like Duchy Originals lemon curd--but you'll have to recalculate the WW points. Presuming you care, that is!

Lemon curd

150g caster sugar
2 large eggs
zest of one lemon
170ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
30g butter

Put the sugar, eggs and zest into a small saucepan. Whisk to combine over very low heat until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is slightly lighter in colour.

Pour in the lemon juice and add the butter. Keep whisking until the butter has dissolved and the curd has just thickened. It should coat the back of a spoon thinly.

Immediately pour through a sieve into a bowl to remove any scrambled bits of egg, shell, or extra-large bits of zest. Press a sheet of clingfilm onto the surface of the curd and leave to cool. Store in the fridge once at room temperature.

Cheesecake base

46g plain flour
15g caster sugar
finely grated zest of half a lemon
15g stork block margerine or butter
1 1/2 tsp cold water

Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan oven.) Coat a 7" springform tin with low-fat spray.

Blitz the flour, sugar, zest and fat in a food processor, or rub together with your fingers. Drizzle in the water and combine until clumps form. Don't mix it into a ball, though.

Press into the base of the prepared tin and bake for 10 minutes until the base is golden. Leave the tin to cool on a wire rack while you make the filling.

Cheesecake filling

500g extra-light Philadelphia cheese, at room temperature
150g caster sugar
1 1/2 tbsp flour
1 tsp lemon zest
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 cup (125ml) lemon curd, at room temperature

Raise oven temperature to 240C (220C fan oven.)

Using an electric whisk, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Beat in the flour and gradually add the sugar, scraping the sides of the bowl down every so often. Add the zest, salt and extract--beat well. Slowly beat in the egg whites.

Pour filling into the prepared tin. Spoon over mounds of the lemon curd and swirl them together with the tip of a knife.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes then reduce the temperature to 100C (80C fan oven) for 15-20 minutes until the centre is just jiggly.

Turn off oven and leave the cheesecake to cool inside for an hour.

Open oven door and loosen cheesecake from the side of the tin with a sharp knife. Leave the cheesecake in the open oven for a further half an hour. I know this seems like a lot of fuss, but it does help the cheesecake cool gently and lessen the risk of huge cracks appearing.

Remove tin from oven and leave on a wire rack until no longer warm. Chill overnight before slicing.