Ingredients

• 900g/2lb full-fat cream cheese
• 200g/7oz caster sugar
• 150ml/5fl oz soured cream
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 3 free-range eggs
• beaten
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 50g/1¾oz butter
• 170g/6oz set honey
• 300ml/10fl oz double cream
• ½ tsp salt
• 150g/5½oz digestives
• roughly crushed
• 75g/2½oz unsalted butter
• melted
• 30g/1oz demerara sugar
• 50g/1¾oz dark chocolate chips or chunks
• 50g/1¾oz toasted hazelnuts
• roughly chopped

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3. Grease the base of a 20cm/8in round cake tin (not loose-bottomed)
• and line it with baking paper.
• Put the cream cheese
• sugar
• soured cream
• flour
• eggs and vanilla paste into a large bowl and give it all a good mix
• just for a minute or so
• until it is all well combined. You don’t want to mix for too long and incorporate any air.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin
• tap it on the worktop to release any trapped air
• then level the surface. Bake on the lower shelf of the oven for 1 hour.
• As soon as the hour is up
• open the oven door
• leaving it slightly ajar. Pop a wooden spoon in the door to keep it just open and let out the heat slowly. Now turn the oven off.
• Don’t take the cheesecake out until the oven is completely cold – this recipe is more about patience than anything else. Once the oven is cool
• put the cheesecake into the fridge to chill overnight.
• The following day
• make the honey salted caramel. Melt the butter in a small pan over a medium heat. Add the honey and cook on a medium– high heat for 10 minutes
• until the caramel is golden brown. If it starts to catch
• turn the heat down slightly.
• After 10 minutes
• pour in the cream
• give it a mix and allow it to just come to the boil. Take off the heat and stir in the salt. Set aside.
• For the tiffin crumble
• put the biscuits into a zip-lock bag and crush them very roughly. I like a good mix of big pieces
• small bits and lots of crumbs. Empty into a bowl.
• Melt the butter and pour it onto the biscuits. Leave to cool for about 10 minutes
• while you take the cheesecake out of the fridge and turn it out on to a serving plate or platter.
• Add the sugar
• chocolate and hazelnuts to the buttery biscuit chunks.
• Now for the back-to-front bit. Put the tiffin mixture on top of the cheesecake
• but not in any neat fashion or packed tightly
• just piled on top in peaks and troughs.
• Reheat the caramel if it has cooled too much
• and serve with slices of cheesecake and crumble.