Very Vanilla-ry Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 150 C / Gas 2 and lightly butter a 26cm springform tin.

Place the biscuits into a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. Pour the crumbs into a bowl and mix with the scraped seeds of 1 vanilla bean. Drizzle the crumbs with melted butter and stir to combine. Press the crumb mixture firmly into the bottom and up the sides of the springform tin and set aside.

Place the softened cream cheese and sugar into the work bowl of an electric mixer and beat for about 3 minutes on Medium speed, until the mixture is smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, incorporating each egg before adding the next one. Add the scraped seeds of 2 vanilla beans, vanilla extract, soured cream and double cream and beat on Medium-High speed for about 1 minute, until the mixture is blended and smooth.

Pour the mixture into the biscuit base, leaving about 5cm of space from the top of the tin for the cake to expand as it bakes.

Place a baking dish onto the bottom rack of the preheated oven and fill it halfway with boiling water. Place the cheesecake onto the middle rack, above the tin of boiling water and bake until a small knife inserted into the middle of the cheesecake comes out clean, about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Turn the oven off and let the cheesecake cool down inside the oven for 1 hour. Cover the cheesecake with cling film, then foil and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight before serving.