Baked Vanilla Cheesecake with very berry compote 
Here’s a delicious pudding for a family party – the quantities given will fill a 10” tin. This is a firm favourite with our customers and staff at Tebay Services made by our in-house bakers Richard and Ruby.

Base   
250g digestive biscuits, crushed           
125g butter 

Filling  
750g cream cheese           
150g butter           
60g caster sugar           
250g icing sugar           
3 free range eggs separated           
A few drops of vanilla extract 

Set the oven to a moderate 150 degrees centigrade

•  To make the base, line a 10” cake tin with greaseproof paper. A good tin to use would have a spring form tin with a removeable base. Melt the butter. Combine with the crushed digestive biscuits and the press this mixture into the base of the tin to make a nice smooth surface. 
• To make the filling, it’s much easier if the cream cheese has been softened first. Let it stand at room temperature before use or very gently warm it in a microwave – but don’t use the highest setting!
• Beat the egg yolks with the caster sugar – you should notice the mixture lighten in colour. Beat in the cream cheese until smooth.  
• Gently melt the butter and leave to cool for a few minutes. Add to the cream cheese mixture. Sieve the icing sugar and beat into the mixture. Add a few drops of vanilla extract at the same time.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the 3 egg whites until white and fluffy. Take a small spoonful of egg whites and mix this into the cream cheese mixture. This just helps loosen the mixture – so you can now fold in the remaining egg whites to keep the mixture as light as possible.
• Pour this mixture over the biscuit base. Put the cheesecake in the oven and bake for 1 hour.
• After 1 hour, the cheesecake should be set to a “wobbly set”. To test - gently shake the tin from side to side: the mixture should just have a little wobble but still hold its shape. Turn the oven off and close the door. Leave the cheesecake in the oven for 30 minutes: this will stop the top of the cheesecake cracking.
• The cheesecake needs to cool in the tin before turning out and serving – otherwise you’ll see a lot of squidgy broken cheesecake pieces: they still taste delicious but just don’t look so good!

 We like to eat our baked vanilla cheesecake with our very berry compote. Graham, our chef, came up with this quick cheeky recipe which you can make with fresh or frozen fruits. 
1kg of mixed berries – blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants
450g granulated sugar
Half a teacup of water 

Put all the ingredients in a pan and gently simmer until the sugar has dissolved. Take care not to cook for too long otherwise all the fruit will break down. Instead, aim to keep juicy pieces of whole berries in a luscious dark red sauce. 

If you don’t eat all of the compote with the cheesecake, then we can highly recommend it for breakfast with natural yoghurt or just dolloped over a scoop of ice cream for a sort of healthy afternoon treat.