Devizes Cheesecakes
In May 1799, Austen wrote to her sister, Cassandra, ‘Our journey yesterday went off exceedingly well, nothing occurred to alarm or delay us . . . At Devizes we had comfortable rooms and a good dinner, to which we sat down about five; amongst other things we had asparagus and a lobster, which made me wish for you, and some cheesecakes, on which the children made so delightful a supper as to endear the town of Devizes to them for a long time.’
Austen is good at painting pictures of domestic contentment – she certainly knew that happiness lies in small things and undoubtedly that one of those small things was cheesecake. The cheesecake of the period was somewhat akin to an almond-thickened custard baked in a pastry case, but we think this more modern take on the cheesecake would have pleased the Austen children just as well. –
Robert Tuesley Anderson, author of Jane Austen’s Table
SERVES 6
prep + cooking time: 30 minutes
115g digestive biscuit crumbs
25g unsalted butter, melted
170g cream cheese
50g caster sugar
55g soured cream
finely grated zest of ½ lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cornflour
2 eggs
raspberries, to serve
icing sugar, for dusting
- 1. Line a 6-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Stir the digestive crumbs into the melted butter and press into the bases of the cases. Chill while you make the filling.
-
Click here to pick up a copy! - 2. Place the cream cheese, sugar, soured cream, lemon zest, vanilla extract, cornflour and eggs in a bowl and beat together.
- 3. Spoon the mixture over the biscuit bases and bake at 160˚C for 20 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes.
- 4. Remove the cheesecakes from the cases and place on a serving plate. Serve warm, decorated with raspberries and a dusting of icing sugar.
This is an extract from Jane Austen’s Table by Robert Tuesley Anderson