Mary Berry’s vanilla cheesecake is a rich, dense baked cheesecake on a buttery digestive crust, smooth and just-set through the middle with a cool soured cream top. It’s made with full-fat cream cheese, caster sugar, eggs, and real vanilla extract. Start to first slice takes about 3 hours plus a long chill.
This is Berry’s American-style baked cheesecake from Mary Berry Cooks the Perfect: Step by Step (2014), where the vanilla does the heavy lifting because there’s no fruit baked into the filling, just a whisper of lemon rind to lift it. She bakes it at a low 160C so the eggs set gently instead of scrambling, which is what keeps the texture silky rather than grainy. That low, slow approach is her whole philosophy with cheesecake.
The one thing that makes or breaks it is how you finish the bake. Berry cooks it for 40 minutes, then turns the oven off and leaves the cheesecake inside with the door shut for 2 hours. Rush this and pull it out early and the middle sinks and cracks as it cools too fast. Leave the oven on instead and the top browns and dries. The switched-off oven lets it firm up in slow motion, and that’s the trick.
Mary Berry Vanilla Cheesecake Recipe
Course: DessertCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy8
servings20
minutes3
hours40
minutes705
kcal6
hoursFrom Mary Berry Cooks the Perfect: Step by Step (2014), a baked vanilla cheesecake with a soured cream finish. Most of the time here is hands-off, spent chilling in the fridge rather than working at the counter.
Ingredients
- For the base:
60g (2oz) butter, plus extra for greasing
8 digestive biscuits, about 115-125g (4-4½oz), broken into large pieces
- For the filling:
700g (1lb 9oz) full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
125g (4½oz) caster sugar
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
1 tsp lemon juice
2 large eggs
100ml (3½fl oz) full-fat soured cream
- For the topping:
100ml (3½fl oz) full-fat soured cream
1 tsp caster sugar
Directions
- Preheat: Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan 140°C/325°F/Gas 3). Lightly grease the springform or cake tin with butter. Line the bottom with baking parchment.
- Make the base: Put the biscuits in a plastic food bag, seal the bag, and crush the biscuits with a rolling pin. Melt the butter in a medium pan. Remove from the heat and stir in the crumbs. Tip the buttery crumbs into the tin and press the mixture evenly over the bottom. Sit the tin on a baking sheet and set aside.
- Make the filling: Put the cream cheese in a large bowl and beat using an electric hand whisk on low speed until creamy. Gradually beat in the sugar, then the flour. Next, beat in the vanilla and lemon rind and juice, then the eggs, one at a time. Briefly beat in the soured cream. Pour the filling over the base.
- Bake: Bake the cheesecake for 40 minutes, then turn off the oven and leave the tin in the oven (with the door closed) for 2 hours. Remove from the oven, then loosen the cheesecake from the side of the tin using a palette knife.
- Chill: When completely cold, chill the cheesecake in its tin for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
- Finish: Mix the teaspoon of sugar into the soured cream. Remove the cheesecake from the tin and slide it onto a serving plate, removing the lining paper as you do. Spread the soured cream smoothly over the top, as near to the edge as you can. Chill for 20-30 minutes before slicing.
