This strawberry cheesecake is food for the gods, especially for the god of love; Cupid. Silky, creamy cheesecake with swirls of pale pink and mushy strawberries, food couldn’t get more erotic than this.
Strawberry is the fruit of love. It’s a deep pink, it could symbolise a heart and it’s in season this month and next, right in time for February. It seemed only befitting that I chose strawberries to make my Valentine’s Day bakes.
If you haven’t tried the Strawberry cobbler yet, you surely are missing out.
What makes this cheesecake an ideal choice to celebrate your day of love, is that you can bake it a day in advance and leave it in the fridge overnight. No last minute hurrying and fretting to get your dessert ready in time.
Ingredients for this Strawberry cheesecake:
Unlike the other cheesecakes I’ve made in the past, this one needs fewer ingredients. Apart from the usual butter and biscuit base, the filling needs just a handful of ingredients. This batter doesn’t use cornflour, vanilla essence or lemon juice. The flavour of course is all from the strawberries.
You’ll only need cream cheese, eggs, sugar and condensed milk to make the cheesecake filling. This churns a rather creamy and silky cheesecake. The baking time is also lesser, just between 35-40 minutes, and this leaves the cheesecake just about firm but not dry.
Like all cheesecakes, once baked, you will need to let the cheesecake cool down completely in the oven and allow it to set in the refrigerator for 2 hrs at the least if not overnight.
Why a water bath for cheesecakes:
While baking a cheesecake, it is generally recommended to bake it in a water bath. This means you put the tin with the batter in a larger dish, that is filled with hot water and put the cake to bake.
Baking a dish like this in a water bath will ensure the cake is baked in a gentle manner, from the steam that comes from the water in the tin. This is particularly helpful in ensuring the cake doesn’t over bake or dry out.
You can read more about baking cheesecakes, all the tips and tricks in this post here.
Strawberry Cheesecake
Ingredients:
For the strawberry pulp:
300 gms strawberries
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp water
For the base:
75 gms butter, melted
200 gms digestive biscuits, powdered
For the filling :
450 gms cream cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup condensed milk
1/2 cup sugar
- Line an 8 inch round tin with butter paper.
- Make the strawberry pulp first. For this, clean and quarter the strawberries. Put them in a saucepan with the sugar and water
- Heat over a slow flame, stirring in between until the strawberries soften but don’t let them turn into a pulp completely.
- This should take about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the mixture completely cool down. Set aside.
- Make the base for the cheesecake next. Mix the melted butter and powdered biscuits, until they resemble crumbs.
- Press the mixture on the base of the prepared tin, and smoothen using the back of a spoon. Leave to set in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to a 160 C.
- In a large bowl, put the cream cheese, eggs, condensed milk and sugar.
- Using an electric cake beater or a whisk, beat just until you have a smooth mixture.
- Add the completely cooled down strawberry pulp to the cream cheese mixture. Using a spatula, mix gently, making sure the pulp is distributed evenly.
- Pour the batter over the biscuit base. Place the cake tin in a larger tin.
- Fill the larger tin with hot water, to come halfway to the sides of the smaller cake tin. (Read notes on water bath above)
- Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, until the sides are firm and the cheesecake has a bit of a wobble in the centre.
- Let the cheesecake cool down completely in the oven as is, then leave it to set in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight if time permits.
- Serve the chilled cheesecake with fresh strawberries.
