Beeren-Ricotta-Käsekuchen (mixed berry ricotta cheesecake)
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
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
Method
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.