While I realize that it’s a bit counter-intuitive to be posting a Strawberry Cheesecake recipe on the second day of the new year, as many of us are listing out our New Year’s Resolutions and getting ready to make 2017 a year of gym sign-ups and low-carb/paleo/whole 30 diets, well…
I’m doing it anyway.
Because this Strawberry Cheesecake is special:
An Accidental Recipe
The story of this strawberry cheesecake recipe is all too familiar in our family. Upon my arrival at home for the holidays, my mom—who has built up quite the sweet tooth over the years—marched me over to the refrigerator and pointed at 2 unopened packages of cream cheese left over from Thanksgiving.
(We might have gone a little overboard back in November when it came to estimating how much cream cheese we’d be needing for various dessert and mashed potato applications.)
“Sarah, can you make a cheesecake?” she asked, also pointing out a few other things in the fridge that she wanted me to get rid of apply to various meals throughout the week.
In my subsequent ransacking of said fridge, I also found a box of strawberries that must have been on sale, because they were looking a little worse for wear, and a jar of strawberry preserves. It was one of those jars of fruit preserves whose length of stay on the refrigerator door you’d rather not think too much about. There were also a couple lemons in there that had seen better days.
These kinds of fridge clean-outs are extremely common in our family, and they often yield some of our best recipes. This strawberry cheesecake is no exception.
I whipped it up for a Christmas dessert, and my mother—a connoisseur of cheesecake—proclaimed it to be the best she’d ever had. My dad loved it, my sister loved it, I loved it, and my grandmother cut off half of what was left of it the next day, put it in a tupperware, and stuffed it in her duffel bag to take home.
If that isn’t a sign that a recipe is blogworthy, I don’t know what is.
Alright, enough talk. Let’s get on with the recipe.
Strawberry Cheesecake Recipe: Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9-inch springform pan and wrap the bottom in foil. You’re going to be putting the cheesecake in a water bath, and you don’t want the water to seep into the pan from the bottom.
Break up the graham crackers into smaller pieces and put them in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until they’ve turned into crumbs. Add the melted butter and process again until the mixture resembles wet sand. Press evenly into the bottom of the springform pan, packing the graham cracker crumbs down as tightly as you can.
In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the cream cheese and mix on low speed until creamy. Add the sugar and mix on low speed until smooth. Blend in the milk on low speed as well. Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing just until incorporated. Then mix in the sour cream, vanilla, lemon zest, and flour. You don’t want to over-mix or allow too much air into the mixture.
Pour the filling into the prepared crust.
Tap the pan against the counter a few times to get rid of any air bubbles, and place it in a rimmed baking sheet filled with 1 cm of water.
Transfer the entire apparatus to the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Do not open the oven door! After 30 minutes has elapsed, turn the oven off, and let the cheesecake cool in oven with the door closed for 3 hours to prevent cracking. Chill in the refrigerator.
Meanwhile, make the strawberry sauce. In a small saucepan, add the jam, water, and sugar. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently. Simmer for 3 minutes, until the sugar is completely dissolved. (If you want your sauce really red, you can add in a couple drops of red food coloring.)
Dissolve the cornstarch into the lemon juice, and pour it into the pot, whisking constantly. Simmer until the syrup is bubbly, but no longer foamy. Remove the syrup from the heat, and allow to cool. Stir in the strawberries.
Serve the cheesecake with the strawberry sauce spooned over the top.
Sarah's Strawberry Cheesecake
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 16 graham crackers (240g)
- 6 tablespoons melted butter (85g)
For the Filling:
- 1 pound cream cheese (450g, or for US readers: two 8 oz. packages; at room temperature)
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar (135g)
- ⅓ cup milk (80 ml)
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup sour cream (120g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour (18g)
For the Strawberry Sauce:
- ¼ cup strawberry jam (about 80g)
- ⅓ cup water (80 ml)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar (35g)
- 1 ½ teaspoons cornstarch
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1/2 pound strawberries (225g, hulled and quartered lengthwise)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9-inch springform pan and wrap the bottom in foil. You’re going to be putting the cheesecake in a water bath, and you don’t want the water to seep into the pan from the bottom.
- Break up the graham crackers into smaller pieces and put them in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until they’ve turned into crumbs. Add the melted butter and process again until the mixture resembles wet sand. Press evenly into the bottom of the springform pan, packing the graham cracker crumbs down as tightly as you can.
- In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the cream cheese and mix on low speed until creamy. Add the sugar and mix on low speed until smooth. Blend in the milk on low speed as well. Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing just until incorporated. Then mix in the sour cream, vanilla, lemon zest, and flour. You don't want to over-mix or allow too much air into the mixture.
- Pour the filling into the prepared crust. Tap the pan against the counter a few times to get rid of any air bubbles, and place it in a rimmed baking sheet filled with 1 cm of water.
- Transfer the entire apparatus to the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Do not open the oven door! After 30 minutes has elapsed, turn the oven off, and let the cheesecake cool in oven with the door closed for 3 hours to prevent cracking. Chill in the refrigerator.
- Meanwhile, make the strawberry sauce. In a small saucepan, add the jam, water, and sugar. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently. Simmer for 3 minutes, until the sugar is completely dissolved. (If you want your sauce really red, you can add in a couple drops of red food coloring.)
- Dissolve the cornstarch into the lemon juice, and pour it into the pot, whisking constantly. Simmer until the syrup is bubbly, but no longer foamy. Remove the syrup from the heat, and allow to cool. Stir in the strawberries.
- Serve the sliced cheesecake with the strawberry sauce spooned over the top.
Tips & Notes:
nutrition facts
Hi Sarah!
Yours is the only recipe I’ve found that uses flour in the filling mix. Is that because the milk is probably thinner than using, say, heavy cream or is it a needed thickener for some other reason?
Hi Cory, I find that just a couple tablespoons of flour help the filling hold together and gives the cheesecake a nice balance of textures (not too light, not too dense). It can also help prevent the cheesecake from cracking.
Hi Sarah, it was my first time making cheese cake and it turned out to be great! Love this recipe! I want to make a bigger one next time by doubling all the ingredients except graham crackers. Do you know how much longer I need to bake the cake? Thank you so much!
Hey Lei, I’m not positive, since I haven’t tried it, and as we know––baking is a science. But I think you’d bake it for more like 80-90 minutes. Or perhaps even a little longer.
My cheesecake is a tall NY-style cake, using 4 packs of cream cheese. The trick to making these is to bake it for an hour – and hour + 15 min, until only the center in still jiggly. DO NOT TAKE IT OUT OF THE OVEN YET. You finish it by turning off the oven off and leaving it in there for about one more hour. Then you cool it completely before putting it away, and refrigerate for a day before serving.
I forgot to mention how to keep it from being too dense. Separate the eggs, adding yolks one at a time. At the end, beat the egg whites until stiff, and gently fold them in to the batter.
ENJOY!
Thanks for sharing!
Sarah, oh Sarah… this is the perfect cheesecake, the perfect recipe… Absolutely perfect… thirty years trying to find it and I can again enjoy perfection whenever I like (used to live in Toronto and there was a wonderful place that made it, but have been living in Spain forever now and was never able to find anything like it). Thank you for returning a piece of heaven to my life. By the way…Best blog ever.
I’m so glad to hear that, Alicia! Thank you so much for your kindest of comments. :)
I love this recipe! I wan to try to make the cheesecake but only have a ten inch spring form pan, can you please tell me how can I adjust the ingredients for the ten inch spring form pan?
Thank you,
Regards,
Cynthia
Hey Cynthia, I would just increase all the ingredients by 50% or so. You’ll get a slightly thicker cheesecake, and it may need to bake longer. :)
Hi Sarah, made this the other day when friends came home for dinner and the entire cheesecake was polished off in seconds. They absolutely loved it.
Only can you tell me an easy way to take the cake outta the pan. I ended with a few uneven sides
Hey Tara, did you use a springform pan? The cheesecake should just come away from the sides of the pan if it was greased before you poured in the filling. Then the springform pan does the rest of the work. Glad you liked the recipe!
Just know that this is perfect for Australian summer holiday entertaining right now. I’ve got visitors coming for dinner Saturday (tomorrow) night so thinking that this will be the dessert! It’ll be just the perfect dessert after a yummy BBQ!
Whoo! I would love it to be summer in NYC right now haha. Let me know how you and your guests like it, Ren!
Haha, love how your mom delegates keeping fridge inventory in mind :) Happy 2017! Gotta celebrate that with a cheesecake like this one!
Hahah thanks Fernando––Happy New Year to you too!