Ginger cheesecake

The perfect pudding for Valentine's Day. You hated the ginger, but decided that cheesecake in general was rather nice.

I can't claim credit for the recipe - I pinched it from a little booklet that came with Olive.

Makes enough for 8 greedy people. You'll need

10-15 ginger biscuits, smashed to pieces
25g melted butter
600g cream cheese (I used Quark, which is virtually fat-free)
1 tablespoon flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g caster sugar
284ml soured cream
100g crystallised ginger, finely chopped (you could also use the stem ginger in syrup, I guess, as long as you drained it really really well)

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C. You'll need a 20cm tin - preferably one of those springform ones, where the sides come apart. Grease it well.

Mangle the biscuits with a rolling pin, until they look like breadcrumbs. Mix with the melted butter, press into the base of the tin, and bake in the oven for 5 minutes.

Sling the cream cheese in a mixing bowl, and add the flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and half the soured cream. Beat everything together until it's smooth - you loved this bit.

Chuck in the chopped crystallised ginger, and stir. Pour everything into the tin, and smooth it out carefully. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes - take the cheesecake out near the end, and give it a little shake. If it's still wobbly in the centre, bung it back in for another 5 minutes.

Once you're happy with it, pour over the rest of the soured cream, and stick back in the oven for 5 minutes. Bring it out, and then leave to cool in the tin.

You might want to sprinkle a little icing sugar over the top, if you're being truly decadent. But otherwise just dig in.