Anzac Baked Cheesecake

Anzac day is upon us and while the cookies are wonderful, this Anzac baked cheesecake, well takes the cake.

Ingredients

Base:

• 200g marie biscuits
• 2tbsp desiccated coconut
• 1tsp golden syrup 
• 120g melted butter
• pinch of salt

Cheesecake filling:

• 500g cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups of caster sugar
• 2tbsp flour
• 3 eggs

Anzac crumble and topping:

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• 3/4 cup of caster sugar
• 150g unsalted butter
• 4tbsp golden syrup
• 1tsp baking soda
• extra golden syrup to drizzle on each slice

Method

1. Preheat oven to 140C and butter and line a 20cm springform cake tin with baking paper.
2. Make the base: roughly break marie biscuits into food processor and process until it becomes a fine crumb. Add the coconut and salt.
3. Melt butter in a small pot with golden syrup just to combine and then add to dry ingredients. Blitz a few times until it all comes together.
4. Pour out mixture into lined cake tin and press the crumb down into the bottom of the tin and around the edges to form the base. I use a flat bottomed drinking glass to gently pat down the bottom and press in the sides.
5. Make the cheesecake filling: beat the cream cheese until smooth and creamy then add flour and beat until just combined.
6. Add sour cream, sugar and vanilla until just combined.
7. Add room temperature eggs in one at a time until just combined. We don't want to overmix and aerate the batter, however let the mixture absorb each egg before adding the next.
8. Pour filling into the biscuit base lined cake tin and pop in the over for 1 hour.
9. Cool the cake in the tin before refrigerating for a few hours. In the meantime you can make and snack on the Anzac crumble.
10. Keep the oven on but adjust the temperature to 160C for the crumble/snacking cookies.
11. The Anzac crumble is essentially an Anzac biscuit recipe so I like to use half the batch to make Anzac cookies while I wait for the cheesecake to completely cool. Place all the dry ingredients into a bowl - flour, oats, coconut, caster sugar.
12. Melt the butter in a small pot over the stove and add golden syrup. Once combined add the baking soda which will bubble up so make sure there is enough room in your pot to allow for rising. Let it bubble a little and then take it off the heat and pour into the dry ingredients.
13. Mix with a wooden spoon and pour 1/3 of the batter out onto a flat tray. Bake at 160C for 10 minutes. As soon as you take it out, use a spoon to move the crumble around because otherwise it all melts together into a big flat cookie. Use the rest of the Anzac mix to bake cookies 160C for 12 minutes. You can snack on these or use them to decorate the cheesecake.
14. Once completely chilled, take the cheesecake out of the cake tin and top with the Anzac crumble. Drizzle a generous zigzag of golden syrup over each slice and enjoy with a cup of tea while you commemorate our Anzac soldiers.

I love seeing your creations! If you make this dish hashtag #olivesundays and tag @olivesundays on instagram to be featured on our stories! Happy cooking!

Olives x