Cá Phê Dá

Coffee Cheesecake

This is a rich, velvety, baked cheesecake. Very grown up!

View Instructions

Servings

Depends on how much you can eat

Ready In:

3 hours plus 8+ hours chilling time

Calories:

If this matters, just move on….

Good For:

Perfect for entertaining

 

About this Recipe

By: Sharyn

This recipe was inspired by Cá Phê Dá, Vietnamese Egg Coffee. It’s a dessert coffee, that sounds truly awful, but is in fact just yum. 

This recipe has all of the rich deliciousness of Cá Phê Dá , but none of the eww factor of raw egg yolk.

 

Ingredients

  • 120gm butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
  • 300g digestive biscuits, 
  • 1 tbsp caster sugar

For the filling

  • 1kg full-fat cream cheese
  • 1 x 400g can condensed milk
  • 50g muscovado sugar
  • 3 tbsp plain flour
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 5-6 tbsp extra strong espresso coffee
  • 2-3 tbsp Kahlüa
  • 3 large eggs, plus one yolk

Follow these useful tips to a creamy delicious cheesecake.

Cheesecake needs full fat for its creamy texture, if you use low fat cream cheese it will result in a runny cheesecake.

Bring the ingredients to room temperature, cold cream cheese is difficult to whip up (even in a food processor). If you over whip you can get too much air into the mix causing it to rise too much in the oven and then sink when cooled.

Don’t shortcut, first whip the cream cheese until it is smooth before you add the other ingredients. Don’t take the cheesecake out of the oven until it has cooled, and you must refrigerate for at least 8 hours before it can be served.

Don’t use instant coffee to make this – you will lose the lovely depth of the espresso. If you can’t make espresso at home, you could buy a couple of short blacks from a good coffee shop, or substitute with a good quality drip or brewed coffee.

If you don’t trust your oven, cover the base of the cheesecake springform pan with foil and place it in a water bath (bain marie). The water should come halfway up the springform pan.

This recipe is not difficult to make. In fact the only difficulty is how long you are going to have to wait until you can eat it. It’s perfect for dinner parties. Make it the day before, or in the morning, and serve with chocolate swirls or a fruit garnish on top. Depending upon how heavy handed you are with the coffee and Kahlüa the flavour can be very rich,  a little will go a long way, so serve with cream or ice cream to accompany.

Your cheesecake can be stored in the fridge completely covered and will be just as lovely for up to 5  days. But please remember, you must not leave it out of the fridge to warm up between serves, or you risk food poisoning.

Step by Step Instructions

Step 1

Preparation

  • Heat the oven to 160 degrees.

  • Line the base of a 23cm springform cake tin with baking paper and grease the sides.

Step 2

Biscuit Base

  • Melt the 120gm butter.
  • Whizz the biscuits and sugar in a food processor until fine crumbs – there should be no biscuit chunks.
  • Stir the melted butter into the biscuit crumbs and sugar until evenly mixed.
  • Press the mixture into the base of the prepared tin making sure to the crumbs come up the side of the pan, covering the springform base seam to avoid leakage. 
  • Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and leave to cool while you prepare the filling.
Step 3

Cheesecake filling

  • Raise the oven temperature to 200°C conventional.
  • In a food processor, beat the cream cheese until smooth, then gradually add the condensed milk, sugar, flour, vanilla extract, coffee and kahlüa. Start with minimum amount of coffee and kahlua, and taste before adding more.
  • Whisk in the eggs and yolk, one at a time. The filling should be smooth, light and a little airy.
Step 4

Bake

  • Pour the filling into the tin and bake for 20 minutes then reduce the oven to 100°C conventional and bake for a further 30 minutes.
  • When it has reached this point, turn off the oven and open the door for a cheesecake that’s creamy in the centre, or leave it closed if you prefer a drier texture. Either way, leave it to cool in the oven for 2 hours. The cheesecake may crack slightly on top as it cools.
Step 5

Chill

  • Once cool, cover the cheesecake loosely with foil and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.
  • When ready to serve, run a round bladed-knife around the inside of the tin and slide the cheesecake off the bottom onto a plate, slipping the baking paper out from underneath before serving.
Serve!