Discover the Delicious Story of Cherry Cheesecake with an Easy Sweet Recipe at Home

Iconic desserts this, iconic desserts that, when was the last time you had a cheesecake?! Today is the perfect day to pick up one or more than one cherry topped cheesecake to bite into and “oh my god” your worries away, as the cheesecake melts in your mouth. We highly recommend baking a cherry cheesecake if you have an oven!

The Origin Story

Cheesecake has many varieties and not all of them stick to the iconic New York style graham crust and Philadelphia cream cheese filling. Some of them have sponge cake, crushed cookies and even pastry as the crust. As for the filling, cream cheese isn't always the norm and some recipes even do away with the crust. Whichever cheesecake you might've heard or tried, you must have come across a cheesecake with a beautiful red compote or sauce on top; that is from the cherry that is converted into a sweet sauce.

The Greeks have had cheesecakes since the ancient ages of the first Olympic games and so did the Romans after them, bringing with them the cheesecake recipe to Europe during their invasion and conquering spree. It wasn’t until the 1500 that the recipe for cheesecake was documented and it soared to popularity, even more and became iconic.

The modern iteration of cheesecake, as we know it today, did not emerge until the late 1800s, 1870 to be particular. This was driven in part by the development of cream cheese as a primary ingredient for the cheesecake. Because it was in the 1870s, that Philadelphia Kraft began mass-producing cream cheese, the creamiest version of the cheese, making it the key ingredient of cheesecake. This made cheesecake being widely available and more avenues to experiment.

While all of this was happening, two particular fruits – blueberries and cherries, were being used as a sauce over the cheesecakes. This was a kind of coulis being made from the two fruits and it’s hard to pinpoint the source but it's highly likely to have emerged around the 1800’s itself when cheesecake was being made by everyone. So, here’s celebrating the goodness of the dessert with a recipe from scratch.

Cherry Cheesecake Recipe

Ingredients

Cake Batter:

• 145 gm digestive biscuits (crumbled)
• 45 gm butter (melted )
• 450 gm cream cheese (room temperature)
• 150 gm granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 750 ml full-fat sour cream
• 10ml vanilla extract
• Cherry Topping:
• 680 gm fresh or frozen (thawed and drained) pitted cherries
• 100 gm granulated sugar
• 60 ml water
• 15 ml cornstarch
• 5 ml almond extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C and properly grease the sides of a 23cm springform pan.
2. In a small bowl, mix the crumbled digestive biscuits and melted butter and press this mixture into the bottom of the prepared springform pan.
3. Bake for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool.
4. In another large bowl, use a hand mixer to beat the cream cheese and sugar until well combined. Now add the eggs one at a time, mixing again on low speed after each egg. Blend in the sour cream and vanilla until the batter is smooth and keep the hand mixer aside.
5. Pour the batter over the cooled crust and use a spatula to scrape the batter from the bowl as needed.
6. Bake for 60 minutes, until the edges are set but the center is slightly wobbly. Turn off the oven, run a knife along the edge to loosen the cake, and let cool in the oven with the door ajar for 1 hour.
7. Once cooled, remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool completely at room temperature before refrigerating for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
8. Now, to prepare the cherry on top of the cake: In a saucepan, combine the cherries, sugar, and about ⅔ of the water, heating them until warm.
9. Pour the remaining ⅓ of the water in a small bowl and add the cornstarch to dissolve and form a paste. Quickly pour this into the warm cherry mixture and cook for 2 minutes.
10. Stir in the almond extract, mix and remove from heat and let the topping cool completely, then pour over the cheesecake to finish it.