Beeren-Ricotta-Käsekuchen (mixed berry ricotta cheesecake)
An Italian-leaning cheesecake, ricotta blended smooth rather than left grainy, folded through with mixed berries so they sit suspended through the filling instead of only on top. It bakes lighter and less dense than a cream cheese cheesecake and needs the ricotta well drained first or it never fully sets.
Christoph's ricotta cheesecake, blended smooth and folded with whole berries rather than left grainy with fruit only on top.
Ingredients
Written for a 24 cm round tin
Units
Temperature
Servings
Base
- 160 g flour rounded
- 60 g sugar rounded
- 1 g fine salt rounded
- 80 g cold butter, cubed rounded
- 1 egg yolk rounded
Filling
- 900 g ricotta, well drained overnight if wet rounded
- 140 g sugar rounded
- 4 eggs rounded
- 25 g cornstarch rounded
- 1 lemon, zest only rounded
- 5 ml vanilla extract rounded
- 300 g mixed berries, fresh, or frozen and not thawed rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Rub the cold butter into the flour, sugar and salt until it looks like coarse crumbs, then work in the egg yolk just until a dough forms. Press into the base of a 24 cm springform, about 2 cm up the sides, and chill for 20 minutes.
- Blind bake at 190°C for 12 minutes, until pale gold, then reduce the oven to 165°C.
- Blend or beat the ricotta until smooth, a full minute or two longer than seems necessary; ricotta straight from the tub is grainy and this is the step that fixes it.
- Beat in the sugar, eggs, cornstarch, lemon zest and vanilla until fully combined and smooth.
- Fold in the berries gently, keeping them whole, then pour the filling over the warm base.
- Bake at 165°C for about 55 minutes, until the centre wobbles gently as one piece over an area about the size of a coffee saucer.
- Cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then chill at least 2 hours before releasing and slicing.
Notes
- Blending the ricotta smooth is not optional. Left as it comes from the tub, the filling bakes visibly grainy; a minute in a food processor or with a hand mixer fixes it completely.
- Drain wet ricotta before using it. Some brands are much wetter than others; if liquid pools when you open the tub, tip it into a sieve for at least an hour, longer overnight, before weighing it out.
- Frozen berries added unthawed bleed less colour into the filling than thawed ones, which is why they go in straight from the freezer rather than defrosted first.
- It keeps for 4 days in the fridge, covered, and the crust stays crisper if the cheesecake is kept uncovered on the counter for the first hour after slicing, then covered.
Ingredient substitutions
- Mixed berries can be any single berry in the same weight; raspberries and blueberries both hold their shape particularly well through baking.
- Ricotta can be part-replaced with mascarpone, up to a third of the total weight, for a richer, less grainy result without changing the method.
- Lemon zest can be orange zest for a warmer, less sharp aroma.
- For a gluten-free base, swap the flour for a gluten-free all-purpose blend in the same weight; the filling itself contains no gluten.
From Christoph Mayer