Strawberry Mascarpone Cheesecake

Hi everyone! Hope you guys are well! The holidays are fast approaching and I like to share with you all one of my favorite desserts, CHEESECAKE. It’s not just any ordinary cheesecake; it’s an Italian cheesecake that I have learned 7 years ago from watching Giada’s cook show. I don’t have a sweet tooth but there are a few desserts I like love and cheesecake was one of them. Over the years I made many errors and trials on this recipe but I think I finally got it down. Its sweet but not overly sweet, and I love how the mascarpone cheese compliments the regular cream cheese. Want to see how I make this? Continue reading.

Ingredients

Crust:

1 box of speculoos cookies (can be found at Trader’s Joes, or you can use half a box of graham crackers) 3 tablespoons of melted butter 1 9 inch spring form pan

Filling: 2 8 oz package of cream cheese 2 8 oz containers of mascarpone cheese 4 eggs, room temperature 1 ¼ cups of sugar juice of half a lemon 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 1 cup of fresh strawberries 3 sheets of foil

Directions:

For the crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Finely grind the cookies in a food processor, and then add in the 3 tablespoons of melted butter. This will help form the crust.
Pour the crust into the spring form and bake this for 10 minutes.
Cool and reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees.
In the meantime make the strawberry puree. Using a food processor puree the strawberries (this does not have to be finely pureed, chunky bites is what we are looking for). Set aside for later use.

For the filling:

Using a Kitchen Aid mixer (if you don’t have one, an electric mixer will work just fine), attach the paddle part in, put the cream cheese in and let that beat for a few minutes.
Add in the mascapone cheese and let that beat until smooth.
Add in the sugar and the eggs one at a time.
Add in the vanilla extract, a couple minutes later add in the lemon juice. The juice will help keep the cream cheeses moist and not clumpy.
Occasionally scape down the sides of the bowl to make sure all the ingredients is incorporated. Then add in the strawberry puree.
Pour the mixture into the crust that has been cooled.
We have to bake this in a hot water bath. Wrap the spring form pan with the 3 sheets of foil to prevent water seeping into the pan while it bakes in the water bath.
Place the spring from pan into a roasting pan, fill the roasting pan to about half way with hot water and place this into the oven at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Once your 1 hour 10 minutes are up, check to make sure the center of the cake isn’t too wobbling.
Transfer the cake to a rack to cool.
Refrigerate the cake for 8 hours or up to 2 days.
Ready to serve.