Heavenly light fruit flavored cheesecakes

I make several fruit cheesecakes that follow the same pattern. All are based on making a curd from the fruit. For most of these I use a standard graham cracker crust which is just the pack of graham crackers ground up, 1/3 cup brown sugar a teaspoon of cinnamon and 5 1/3 Tablespoons of melted butter.

For the raspberry and strawberry though I like to make a chocolate crust using a pack of ground up chocolate wafer cookies with 1/3 cup white sugar and 5 1/3 Tablespoons of melted butter. (usually don’t use the cinnamon)

Spray your spring form pan with PAM
Remember to chill your crust after you get it pressed into the spring form pan

To make the fruit curd you take 1 cup of pureed fruit. (if it’s something with small seeds like raspberries, strawberries or blackberries I strain the seeds out using a fine strainer or cheesecloth – that takes a while)

Fruit curd

1 cup of pureed strained fruit
2/3 cup sugar (only use ½ cup with peaches)
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons lemon juice (for raspberry and strawberry use orange juice)

Whisk the cornstarch and sugar together then whisk in the fruit.
Cook over medium heat stirring constantly till mixture comes to a boil continue to boil stirring constantly for 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice
Let cool for 10 minutes while making filling

Preheat your oven to 350

Filling

3 8 oz packages cream cheese
½ cup sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 egg whites
1 cup whipping cream

Beat first 4 ingredients together till well combined and smooth
Beat in egg whites till just combined
Stir in whipping cream till fully combined

Pour half the cream cheese mixture into the spring form pan. Pour ¾ cup of the fruit curd evenly into the spring from pan on top of the cream cheese. Add the rest of the cream cheese. Using a spatula turned sideways mix the fruit curd all through the cream cheese being careful not to scrape up any crust (or very little).
Note: you can also just beat the curd in.

Wrap the bottom of spring form pan with aluminum foil. Put spring form pan in baking sheet half filled with water in the oven. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes. When cheese cake is just set it’s done. You should be able to touch it in the center without getting any cream cheese on your finger.

Let the cheesecake cool on the stove for 30 minutes then chill in the refrigerator along with the remaining fruit curd for at least 6 hours.

Topping

1 cup of fruit. (for strawberries or peaches this would be sliced thin)
Remaining fruit curd from earlier
3 teaspoons of lemon juice (orange juice for raspberry or strawberry)

Stir juice into the curd until well combined. Pour in fruit and mix until coated with curd mixture. Spread fruit curd mixture evenly on top of cheesecake. Chill of 30 minutes.

Another topping I like to make is fruit flavored whip creams. You can make this by beating one cup of whipping cream to soft peaks, then add 3 tablespoons of sugar or honey. I prefer honey. Beat for about a minute. Then add 2 - 3 tablespoons of the leftover curd. Be careful to not add too much of the fruit curd or you'll break the whipped cream.

I usually remove the cheesecake from the spring form pan before adding the topping. A tip for removing the spring from pan especially if you have a crust that runs up the sides – angle a sharp knife slightly into the pan side as you cut all the way around the edge before releasing the spring form.