I had an urge to bake a pie last night and while I know technically, this is a cheesecake, it looks enough like a pie to satisfy my urge. Before I tried making them, I’ve always thought that cheesecakes were extremely difficult to bake, then I came across this recipe on Simply Recipes and it turned out to not be as difficult.

Last night, I tweaked the recipe a little as I’ve become obsessed with using coconut oil in baking as it just smells sooo good! I did two pies, one a straight-up cheese cake/pie and another with coffee swirls. 

Beating the crap out of digestive biscuit crumbs

Whisking cheese mixture

Baked biscuit crust

Unbaked cheese pie

Coffee swirls!

After product

All ready for the tummy

Bliss

Below is my tweaked recipe:

Crust

• 400 grams digestive biscuits
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 5-7 tablespoons of coconut oil (or butter, if preferred)

Filling

• 500 grams cream cheese (room temperature)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup whipping cream
• Coffee syrup (I used instant coffee with enough hot water to make a thick syrupy mix)

Method

• Preheat oven to 170 deg Celsius (middle rack) and prepare 2 9-inch pie tins (I used disposable aluminium tins)
• Put digestive biscuits into a blender or food processor till finely ground (or use a rolling pin and crush the heck out of the biscuits like I did)
• Mix the sugar, salt and coconut oil with the crushed biscuits
• Use half the mixture and press it into one of the tins, making sure it goes all the way up the sides of the tin. Try your best to pack it as tightly as possible, otherwise it’ll be very crumbly as you eat the cake/pie
• Put the prepared tin into the oven and bake for 10 minutes
• Do the same with the remaining mixture and tin
• After taking the baked crusts out of the oven, turn it down to 160 deg Celcius
• Cut the cream cheese into chunks and beat with an electric mixer for about 4 minutes
• Add in sugar and beat for another 4 minutes
• Add in salt and vanilla and mix till incorporated
• Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg
• Add in sour cream and beat until well mixed
• Add in whipping cream and beat until well mixed
• Divide mixture into half and pour into both tins with the baked crusts
• For coffee swirls, drip coffee syrup into the cream cheese mixture
• Bake cheesecakes for 50 minutes to an hour
• Let cheesecakes cool for about an hour
• Cover cheesecakes with aluminium foil and place in fridge for 4 hours or overnight
• Serve chilled or at room temperature