Amarula Cheesecake

Perhaps I'm getting back into baking. Perhaps not everything I bake from now on will look like it's been dropped from a height. However, even when cake-making was my foremost passion, I'd never, ever, think to bother with baking a cheesecake. The water bath, the surface cracking, the eggs, the weird method of cooling; why not just bung it in the fridge? Well, it's a fair argument, but this wasn't difficult, not at all. With a food processor, a large pan, and a nifty spring form tin, I made a decent baked cheesecake; maybe you could make a great one?
I don't know if you've seen my latest tiramisu recipe, but if you have you will notice the common ingredient- the beguiling South African liqueur called Amarula- it's a sweet cream liqueur, with a slight spicy-cinnamon vibe to it that works divinely in a smooth creamy dessert. I continued the theme from my tiramisu, thereby included toasted Brazil nuts in the buttery biscuit base and a pinch of cinnamon to offer the crumb a mighty sun tan.
If you can't get Amarula, you may substitute Bailey's but Amarula is the only cream liqueur Bailey's has outsold and is thus very accessible, and oddly cheap.
1)Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2)In a dry frying pan (you may as well use the tin you cook the cheesecake in its water bath in) toast 100g chopped Brazil Nuts until golden and aromatic, then obliterate in a food processor with 250g digestive biscuits and 2 tsp ground cinnamon. Once they're sandy and fine, pour 100g melted unsalted butter down the funnel and continue to mix until the mixture starts clumping. Spread evenly over the base of a spring form tin around 20cm in diameter because I like a wide thin cheesecake not a doorstop thick one but it's up to you.
3)Have everything at room temperature for at least an hour before you begin. Separate 6 eggs, dropping the whites into a glass lined with a freezer bag and (surprise surprise) freeze them for future use. Place in the food processor which has been thoroughly cleaned, along with 625g cream cheese, 150ml sour cream, 225g caster sugar, 20g cornflour, 2 whole eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract or bean paste and 200ml Amarula liqueur. Blend on low speed until everything is just combined. The objective here is to mix everything thoroughly but not beat in air, obviously some will be beaten in as it's unavoidable but if you airate everything it will rise and crack as it falls again. You could also use a stand mixer (you lucky bastard) but use the paddle attachment, not the whisk and again, low speed. Before filling the tin wrap the tin with tin foil and then clingfilm to ensure no leakage occurs. Pour the liquid batter into the prepared tin and allow it to settle so you can pop any large bubbles with a skewer. Pour the batter in a pan larger than the tin itself, I used my paella pan of course giving you an excuse to make my paella.
4)Place the tin within the pan in the open oven with the drawer out and carefully pour boiling water around the cheesecake about halfway up the tin. Shut the door and turn the heat down to a very low 160 and bake for 45 minutes to an hour until set, but slightly wobbly in the middle. Allow the same principle as a baked custard, such as creme brulee.
5)When cooked, prop the oven door open just a crack with something like oven gloves and leave to cool entirely like that. When cool, leave in the fridge until you're ready to serve.