Baked orange ricotta cheesecake recipe

This baked orange ricotta cheesecake has a decadent chocolate biscuit base and is the ultimate prep-ahead dinner party dessert.

Our baked orange ricotta cheesecake is light and fluffy with a delicious chocolate biscuit base. Baked cheesecakes can be a little tricky to cook but our recipe has just three steps. We recommend making the cheesecake the day before you want to serve it as this ensures it is properly set. You could serve this baked cheesecake for Easter or Christmas as chocolate and orange are popular flavour combinations around then.

Ingredients

• 400g chocolate hobnobs, crushed to a fine crumb
• 75g butter
• 2tbsp cocoa powder
• 150g caster sugar
• 600g full-fat soft cream cheese
• 250g ricotta
• finely grated zest of 2 oranges and the juice of 1
• 4 free-range eggs
• 1tsp cinnamon

You will need:

• 23cm (9inch) springform cake tin

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C/Gas 3. Melt the butter and mix with the hobnobs and cocoa powder. Press into your tin and chill in the freezer while you prepare the filling. Whisk the sugar, cream cheese, ricotta, orange zest and juice and cinnamon until combined. Whisk in one egg at a time until smooth.
2. Pour over the biscuit base and cook for 50mins-1hr until the edges are set but the middle jiggles slightly when wobbled.
3. Leave to cool in the oven for 1hr then chill in the fridge for 4hrs or overnight. Bring to room temperature before slicing and serving.

Top tips for making baked orange ricotta cheesecake:

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• It is best to make this cheesecake the day before you want to serve to ensure it sets and cools properly. Remove it from the fridge around one hour before you'd like to serve
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• This is delicious on it's own but if you like serve with some lightly whipped cream and a little extra orange zest
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• We love the combination of chocolate and orange but you can use plain digestive if you prefer or if you need a gluten-free option we love Gluten-free Hobnobs
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Is baked cheesecake better than no bake?

This is largely down to personal preference. A no-bake cheesecake is easier to make but requires longer setting time and can sometimes collapse. People often worry about cooking cheesecakes but as long as you remove it from the oven when the middle still wobbles and allow it to cool properly, you'll succeed every time.

For Senior Food Writer Jessica Ransom, a baked cheesecake looks a little more impressive and is great for special occasions when you want to show off a little as people think they are harder to make.

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