Serves: 10
Preparation: 35 minutes plus chilling
Cooking: 1 hour 25 minutes
Ingredients
For the base:
● 50g walnuts
● 175g ginger/digestive biscuits
● 110g butter, melted
● ½ tsp ground cinnamon
For the filling:
● 400g cream cheese, at room temperature
● 75g light brown muscovado sugar
● 2 eggs
● ½ tsp vanilla extract
● 1 tbsp cornflour
● 200g unsweetened apple purée, bought or home-made
● 100ml sour cream
For the topping:
● 2 Cox's apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
● 15g butter, melted
● 1 tbsp light brown muscovado sugar
● ½ tsp ground cinnamon
● 25g walnuts, roughly chopped
● Maple syrup to serve (optional)
Method
● Heat oven to 200°C.
● Line a 22cm loose-based tin with baking parchment paper.
● Roast the walnuts in the oven for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes.
● Pulse the biscuits, butter, cinnamon and walnuts in the food processor until combined and finely crushed.
● Transfer to the tin and press down onto the base.
● Bake the base for 15 minutes.
● Make the filling by whisking the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and cornflour together in a food processor until thick and creamy.
● Fold in the sour cream and apple purée. Mix until thoroughly combined, then pour over the biscuit base and smooth the surface.
● For the topping, place the apples, butter, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and toss gently with your hands until all the apple slices are evenly coated. Lay slightly overlapping slices of apple in a circle, starting at the outside of the tin, working towards the centre until the top is completely covered.
● Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C.
● Place the cake on a baking tray and bake for 50 minutes.
● Scatter the remaining chopped walnuts over the surface of the cheesecake and bake for a further 10 minutes. The cheesecake should still have a slight wobble in the centre.
● Leave to cool in the oven and then refrigerate for a minimum of 6 hours or overnight.
● To serve, run a knife around the outside of the tin, release the cake and serve sliced and drizzled with maple syrup. Will keep three days, covered in the fridge.
