Strawberry cheesecake

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Crush 270 g of graham crackers, by hand for larger crunchy pieces or in a food processor, and put them in a big bowl.

Mix in three tablespoons of granulated sugar, then 70 g of unsalted butter, bringing it together with a spatula until it clumps when squeezed but is not wet.

Spray a nine-inch springform pan, dump the crust in, and press it up the sides about an inch and then firmly into the bottom with a glass cup.

Bake 10 to 15 minutes at 350F until it takes a golden hue and smells fragrant.

Beat three eight ounce packages of room temperature cream cheese about three minutes until broken up and creamy, without beating in air.

Add 250 g sugar and mix on medium low about two minutes until fully incorporated, not light and fluffy.

Whisk the three eggs and set them aside; add 120 g sour cream to the batter.

Add about two teaspoons of lemon zest and two teaspoons of vanilla extract and mix until distributed.

For a pink cheesecake, warm a quarter to a third of a cup of strawberry jam, pass it through a sieve and mix it in, with a drop of food colouring if it is not pink enough.

Sprinkle in a quarter teaspoon of salt, add the eggs and mix on medium low until incorporated, scraping the bowl down with a clean spatula so no cream cheese lumps go back in.

Tap the mixture on the counter, pour it into the cooled crust and give it a shimmy.

Bake at 350F for 15 minutes, then reduce to 300F and bake about an hour, until there is a little jiggle in the middle and the edge has risen.

Instead of a water bath, add a ramekin full of water to the oven halfway through the bake.

Wash, hull and halve two pounds of strawberries, keeping the smaller nicer ones back for the top and cooking the giant ones.

The cheesecake can be made up to two days in advance and kept in the fridge; make the topping the day of.

Put half the strawberries in a large pan with 100 ml water, a quarter cup of granulated sugar and a teaspoon of cornstarch, stir, and boil over medium heat about five minutes, stirring frequently.

Mash the softened strawberries with a potato masher to a puree and keep cooking about 10 minutes until the sauce is thickened and holds a streak, stirring so the edges do not burn.

Pour the sauce over the reserved raw strawberries so the residual heat softens them, stir, and off the heat add a teaspoon of vanilla; set aside until lukewarm.

Run a knife along the edge and the bottom, unmould onto a cake plate, top with the strawberries and arrange them so they are not covered by the puree.