Menu

Blueberry Cheesecake Bars with streusel almond topping

  • July 5, 2021

Here’s hoping you all had a fun and happy Fourth of July, celebrating with family and friends. We spent the day with family, enjoying a delicious clambake, with these blueberry cheesecake bars for dessert. The recipe comes from a website called  Valeries Kitchen, although I gussied it up a bit with the addition of a streusel topping. You could omit that if you like, but it gave it a nice crunchy contrast to the creamy cheesecake filling. Made in a 13″ x 9″ pan, it serves a crowd. I cut it into 20 individual pieces, but you could make your pieces smaller, or larger.

Make sure to chill it unsliced at least four hours, or preferably overnight, to make it easier to slice.

They’re sure to be a hit with any crowd, whether you’re celebrating a holiday or just enjoying an ordinary day at home.

Click here to connect with me on Instagram and find out what’s cooking in Ciao Chow Linda’s kitchen each day (and more

Save Print
Blueberry Cheesecake Bars with streusel almond topping
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • From www.Valerieskitchen.com
  • FOR THE CRUST:
  • 2 cups graham cracker crumbs (you'll need 14 whole rectangle shaped graham crackers)
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 8 tablespoons butter, melted
  • FOR THE CHEESECAKE:
  • 16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature (reduced fat or regular)
  • ½ cup sour cream (light or regular)
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 pint fresh blueberries (about 2 cups)
  • STREUSEL TOPPING (optional):
  • 4 tablespoons buttter
  • 1 cup flour
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ cup sliced almonds
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
  2. Make the streusel topping by mixing the flour, sugar and cinnamon with the butter, using your fingers to blend the butter with the other ingredients.
  3. Stir in the almonds and set the streusel topping aside while you prepare the cheesecake.
  4. Coat a 13- x 9-inch pan with non-stick cooking spray.
  5. For the Crust:
  6. Break 14 graham crackers in half and place in the bowl of a food processor.
  7. Process until they are fine crumbs.
  8. Add the sugar and melted butter and process again to combine well.
  9. Transfer the crumb mixture to the prepared baking dish and press down to form an even layer.
  10. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned.
  11. Remove dish from the oven and let cool slightly while you prepare the filling.
  12. For the Filling:
  13. Add cream cheese and sour cream to a large bowl and using hand or stand mixer, beat on medium speed until smooth.
  14. Add in the sugar and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes.
  15. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
  16. Blend in the vanilla extract, salt, lemon zest and lemon juice. Fold in the blueberries gently with a wooden spoon until evenly incorporated.
  17. Pour the mixture over the graham cracker crust and gently spread into an even layer with an offset spatula.
  18. Scatter the streusel topping over the cheesecake.
  19. Bake for 35 minutes or until the center appears to be just set.
  20. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature.
  21. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before slicing and serving.
 

Torta Dolce di Ricotta with cranberry topping

  • December 2, 2019

Are you wondering what to serve for dessert during the holidays? This delicious and beautiful ricotta cheesecake would be perfect on your table, with its festive cranberry topping.

The recipe is from a wonderful cookbook called “Feast of the Seven Fishes” by Daniel Paterna. While the book contains many seafood recipes and is an ode to the Brooklyn neighborhood where Paterna was raised, this showstopper of a cheesecake really captured my attention. It’s shown without any topping in the book, and you could surely enjoy this cake even without any embellishment. Containing ricotta, rather than cream cheese, it’s not at all heavy and it’s easy to make too.

One tip — I didn’t roll out the crust with a rolling pin as the recipe says. I didn’t even refrigerate it for the recommended half hour. Using my hands, I pressed it into a disk over a piece of parchment paper, then kept pushing with my palm and fingers until it reached 14 inches in diameter.

I then lifted the parchment and pressed it into the greased pan. Don’t worry if some breaks off. It’s easily patched together.

Here’s what the cake looks like as I pulled it from the oven. It puffs up a bit from the eggs, but will sink a bit after removal from the oven.

The little recess on top is a perfect nest for the topping, if you choose to add one. I love cranberries and typically have leftover cranberries after Thanksgiving, but you could serve this plain and simply dusted with confectioner’s sugar, or use other fruit — raspberries, strawberries or whatever you like — to crown this beauty. Buone feste!

Click here to connect with me on Instagram and find out what Ciao Chow Linda is up to in the kitchen (and other places too.)

Save Print
Torta Dolce di Ricotta with cranberry topping
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • CRUST:
  • 2 cups all purpose flour, plus extra to dust board and pan
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • zest of one lemon
  • ½ cup unsalted butter, softened, plus extra to grease the pan
  • 2 large eggs
  • FILLING:
  • 8 large eggs
  • 3 pounds ricotta cheese, drained of excess water
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1½ cups sugar
  • zest of 2 oranges
  • juice of 1 orange
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • FOR THE CRANBERRY TOPPING:
  • 1 bag of fresh cranberries
  • ¾ cup water
  • ¾ sugar
  • zest of one orange
  • ¼ freshly squeezed orange juice
Instructions
  1. FOR THE CRANBERRY TOPPING:
  2. Place the cranberries, water, sugar, orange juice and orange zest in a pan.
  3. Turn the heat to high and cook until the cranberries are popping and release their juices.
  4. After about five minutes, remove from heat and refrigerate for a couple of hours, to thicken.
  5. FOR THE RICOTTA TORTA:
  6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour a 10-inch springform pan, then set aside.
  7. To make the crust, place the flour, sugar and zest on a pastry board or clean, dry flat surface.
  8. Mix thoroughly to combine.
  9. Add the butter and work it into the dry ingredients.
  10. Gather the mixture into a mound and create a well in the center.
  11. Add the eggs, beating with a fork and grabbing the dry mixture until the dough begins to form.
  12. Shape into a disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  13. Meanwhile, make the filling by combining the eggs, ricotta cheese, vanilla, sugar, orange zest, orange juice, lemon juice in a large mixing bowl.
  14. Mix thoroughly and set aside.
  15. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place on a large board or clean, dry flat surface, lightly dusted with flour.
  16. Using a floured rolling pin (I just used my fingers and palms of my hand and pressed it onto a piece of parchment paper) roll the dough out into a large circle, approximately 14 inches in diameter.
  17. Now roll the dough over the rolling pin and carefully unwind it over the baking pan, gently easing it to fit evenly in the bottom and up the sides of the pan.
  18. (I lifted up the parchment paper and placed the dough into the pan. Don't worry if some of it breaks. You can easily patch it.)
  19. Pour or spoon the filling mixture into the crust, leaving about ¼ inch below the rim of the pan.
  20. Place the pan in a preheated oven and bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes, until the center is slighy firm.
  21. Cool for at least 2 hours.
  22. Spread the cranberry topping over the cake.
  23. Carefully run a knife or spatula around the sides of the pan to remove it, so that no crust is pulled away when you release the spring of the pan.
 

Ricotta cheesecake with rhubarb raspberry topping

  • May 23, 2018

I’ve got plenty more recipes and posts coming to you from my time in Sicily at the Anna Tasca Lanza Cooking School, but since rhubarb season here in the Northeast U.S. is so brief, I’m posting another rhubarb recipe first.

Besides, it was my husband’s birthday recently and one of his favorite desserts is a ricotta cheesecake. Pairing the cheesecake with a rhubarb raspberry topping seemed a natural.

In order to minimize our indulgence, I made it in a small pan – a 6″ cake pan with a removable bottom. This will easily serve four people, but if you want to make it in a larger, springform pan that’s traditionally used for cheesecakes, just double the recipe below.

I made an almond flavored crust, and followed through with the almond flavoring in the cheesecake too.

Having recently returned from Sicily, where we cooked with sheep’s milk ricotta still warm from our visit to a cheesemaker in Vallelunga, I went on the hunt to find some here.

 I did track some down at Valley Shepherd Farms Creamery in Long Valley, New Jersey, more than an hour’s distance from where I live. Fortunately, I didn’t have to make the drive, since they come to the farmer’s market in my town, as well as many other places in New Jersey and New York. It is a bit pricey, another reason to make a small cheesecake. But you could also use cow’s milk ricotta, as long as you drain it thoroughly to eliminate a lot of the moisture.

I first pressed it through a sieve to eliminate any clumps.

After baking the crust, and mixing the cheesecake, I wrapped the pan in aluminum foil and baked it in a bain marie (water bath). I find that baking a cheesecake with a bain marie makes for a more even bake and eliminates the hard, brown edges that sometimes rise higher than the center of the cheesecake.

However, whether due to the water bath or something else, you need to bake the crust until it’s really well cooked, or you could end up with a softer crust than you might like.

After baking let it cool completely before adding the topping. In fact, wait to add the topping until just before serving. I used a combination of rhubarb and raspberries cooked in orange juice and sugar, but you could add strawberries instead of the raspberries, or use only rhubarb. The sauce is also delicious mixed in with yogurt for breakfast (or over ice cream).

Slice and spoon more of the sauce on top if you like. (And of course, I like. Wouldn’t you?)

Save Print
Ricotta cheesecake with rhubarb raspberry topping
 
Ingredients
  • Uses a 6" removable bottom cake pan. Serves four
  • Double quantities if using a larger springform pan
  • For the Crust:
  • ½ cup slivered almonds
  • 2 T. flour
  • 2 T. sugar
  • 1 T. melted butter, cooled
  • ½ large egg yolk
  • ¼ tsp. vanilla extract
  • ¼ tsp. almond extract
  • For the Cheesecake:
  • 3 eggs (actually a half of one of the egg yolks I used for the crust, above)
  • ¾ tsp. vanilla extract
  • ¼ tsp. almond extract
  • 1 lb. ricotta (sheep's or cow's milk)
  • 1 T. orange zest
  • For the Topping (this is enough for the cheesecake plus extra for using on ice cream or yogurt):
  • 4 large stalks rhubarb
  • 1 cup raspberries
  • juice of one orange
  • ½ cup sugar
Instructions
  1. Make the crust by placing the almonds, flour and sugar in a food processor and processing until it looks like grainy sand.
  2. Add the melted butter, ½ egg yolk, vanilla and almond extracts.
  3. Press into the bottom and sides of the cake pan, which has been buttered ahead of time.
  4. Bake at 325 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until browned.
  5. Let it cool.
  6. For the cheesecake:
  7. Put the ricotta through a sieve and drain overnight if it's very moist.
  8. In a food processor, add the ricotta, eggs, sugar, vanilla, almond extract and orange zest.
  9. Blend for a few minutes until everything is well mixed.
  10. Pour the filling into the crust, then wrap the pan in aluminum foil.
  11. Place the pan into another pan and pour water around the cheesecake pan, making sure not to spill any into the cheesecake.
  12. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour and 15 minutes, longer if using a larger pan.
  13. It does not need to be "brown" on top. It should retain its pale color.
  14. For the topping:
  15. Slice the rhubarb into small pieces.
  16. Place the orange juice and sugar into a pan with the rhubarb pieces and raspberries.
  17. Cook at high heat until it reaches a boil, then lower and cook for about five minutes, or until the rhubarb pieces just start to break down.
  18. Let cool, then pour over the cheesecake just before serving.
 

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Fig, Orange and Mascarpone Cheesecake

  • December 4, 2017

Looking for a delicious showstopper dessert to serve this holiday season? The new cookbook “Sweet” by Yotam Ottolenghi  & Helen Goh is filled with possibilities, including this rich cheesecake I made for a party recently. The recipe includes dried puréed figs spread over a graham cracker and walnut base, but doesn’t require the fresh figs shown in the photo. But since my supermarket had some real beauties on the shelf last week, I couldn’t resist adding them as decoration, smeared with a little quince jelly to add some shine.

As if a graham cracker, walnut and butter base isn’t wonderful enough, the recipe calls for you to cook some dried figs in orange juice with spices and smear that over the graham cracker base. You can use American measurements, but whenever possible, I like to use metric measurements, (included in the recipe) which are so much more accurate.

After slicing the figs, they may weigh a teensy bit less (especially if you’re a taste-tester, as I am.)

After they’re cooked, I blitzed them in a food processor to obtain a purée,  something the book’s recipe doesn’t ask you to do.

But the technique avoids having lumps in the purée and provides a smooth spread to smear over the graham cracker crust.The recipe also doesn’t call for baking the cake in a hot water bath. In fact, at the beginning of the cheesecake chapter, the authors say they’re not huge fans of the technique. I am, however, and looking at the photo of this cheesecake is proof that the technique works. See the cheesecake pictured in the book below, included next to the recipe? You’ll see very raised and very rounded outer edges, as well as a very browned (too browned in my opinion) top and side crust.

However, after covering the bottom and outside edges of the pan with aluminum foil, and baking it in a bain marie, the cheesecake I baked came out of the oven with a perfectly even height from the center to the edge. You have to be really careful when putting the pan in the oven and removing it, though, since spilling hot water on yourself can be very hazardous. But it will be worth it once you bite into this beauty.

Save Print
Fig, Orange and Mascarpone Cheesecake
Author: 
Recipe type: dessert
 
Ingredients
  • =Base
  • 3½ oz/100 gr. graham crackers (about 6½ sheets), roughly broken
  • ¾ cup/80 g. walnut halves, finely chopped
  • 4 Tbsp/60 gr. unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
  • 9 oz/260 gr. soft dried figs, tough stems removed, sliced into ¼ inch/0.5 cm strips
  • 1 cup plus 1 Tbsp/250 ml orange juice
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • ⅛ tsp. ground cloves
  • =Filling
  • 1 lb. 2 oz/500 gr. cream cheese at room temperature (I used 1 lb. only)
  • 1 lb. 2 oz./500 gr. mascarpone (I used 1 lb. only)
  • 1¼ cups/250 gr. granulated sugar
  • finely grated zest of 1 large orange (1 tbsp)
  • 4 large eggs, whites and yolks separated
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. To make the base, grease the base and sides of a 9-inch/23 cm round springform pan and line with parchment paper, making sure that the paper rises at least 2 inches/5 cm above the rim; the cake rises a lot in the oven. (I lined only the bottom and buttered the sides and it was fine).
  2. Place the graham crackers in a food processor and process to form fine crumbs; the consistency should be that of dried breadcrumbs. Place in a medium bowl and add the walnuts and melted butter.Use your hands or a large spoon to combine; the mixture should be the consistency of wet sand. Spoon the crumbs into the pan, using your hands to press them into the base, then place in the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up. (At this stage, I baked the base in a 400 degree oven for 8 minutes. Next time, I would bake it for 10-12 minutes, since the base still softened after the cheesecake was baked.)
  3. Place the figs, orange juice, cinnamon stick and ground cloves in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated but the mixture is still moist. (At this point, I blended it until smooth in a food processor - removing the cinnamon stick.) Set aside to cool, remove the cinnamon stick, then spread over the base. Return to the fridge.
  4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  5. To make the filling, place the cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment in place. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute, until smooth, before adding the mascarpone, sugar, orange zest, egg yolks and vanilla extract. Continue to beat until all of the ingredients are incorporated and the mixture looks smooth and creamy, scraping down the paddle and sides of the bowl from time to time, if you need to.
  6. Place the egg whites in a separate clean bowl and whisk (either by hand or with an electric mixer) until firm peaks form. Fold a third into the cream cheese mixture, followed by the remaining two-thirds.
  7. Pour the filling over the chilled fig and graham cracker base. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 75-80 minutes, until the cheesecake is a light golden brown at the edges and the center is only just firm. (Before putting in the oven, I wrapped the bottom of the springform pan with aluminum foil, then placed the pan in a bain-marie, or hot water bath. It helps the cheesecake to bake more evenly and avoids formation of raised edges. I baked it for 75 minutes and it was still slightly wobbly in the middle. Don't worry, it firms as it cools.)
  8. Turn off the oven but leave the cheesecake inside for an hour or so, with the door propped open with a wooden spoon. Allow it to come to room temperature before covering in plastic wrap and keeping in the fridge for 4 hours.
  9. When ready to serve, release the springform pan, remove the parchment paper (that is nearly impossible to do without flipping it over, so I left it on) and transfer to a cake platter. (I decorated the top with sliced figs that were brushed with quince jelly.)
  10. The cheesecake is best served chilled, straight from the fridge, and cut with a warm knife (dip the blade in hot water and wipe dry before using.)