another weekend away
Recipe: lime cheesecake with blackberry sauce
The travel continues – this time to beautiful Pagosa Springs, Colorado. We are visiting with the ILs this weekend. Jeremy and I took a slightly longer route on the way out in order to survey the remainder of the autumn colors. We are now at the tail end. The high winds and snow storms on tap for this weekend will surely put the kibosh on any more golden aspen stands. The temperatures have dropped and the winds were chilling on the drive. It’s both sad and happy… sad to see the fleeting glory of color stripped from the trees and carpeting the ground, but happy to feel the cold snow pelting my face.
that’s a big farmer or a small tractor
what’s left
I dropped our skis off to get tuned today before we left Boulder. Heeeeeeee!
Now if you think the lime meltaways or the shredded beef tacos were enough to finish off my bag of limes, you are surely smoking crack. I used up a few more for a delightful cheesecake recipe. The rest were juiced before they shriveled up into small weaponry. I am not a huge cheesecake fan, but this recipe for lime cheesecake (originally key lime cheesecake, but I don’t seek those out often) is different. The texture is lighter and I love anything with a mild tartness to play against the creaminess.
mix the crust
softened cream cheese
I know some cheesecake recipes call for pastry crust, but honestly, I love the traditional graham cracker crust. It just works so well with cheesecake flavors. Oh wait, I also like to use crushed chocolate cookies (Thin Mints are great too) for a chocolatey crust… But as far as the lime is concerned, I am graham cracker all the way.
lime zest
adding the eggs one by one
The recipe makes a nice 9-inch cheesecake. I made six 4-inch cheesecakes with a little extra crust. Maybe I should have piled the crust higher? The small springforms do funky things to the thickness ratios, which I try to preserve from the 9-inch version. In any case, if you make mini cheesecakes just be sure not to make them too thin (short).
mix in zest
prepare to bake
It is an easy cheesecake and I like to add a pan of water to the oven to prevent rifting of the surface(s). I typically bake the cheesecakes until there is the slightest jiggle in the center, and then let the cheesecakes sit in the oven (turned off). This results in a creamy texture rather than a dried out and crumby texture. Even though I don’t dig on cheesecake much, I think overbaking a cheesecake is a crime.
can you believe these were frozen?
making the sauce
While the cheesecakes were cooling, I threw together a quick blackberry sauce. Actually, I usually make a raspberry sauce. When I hopped over to the local market in our mountain town, I saw frozen blackberries were half the price of the raspberries. I just boil the berries in sugar and then put the mess through a food mill. It’s a nice marriage of flavors (come now, what isn’t awesome with lime?!) and another one of those deceptively light desserts to keep in the files.
drizzle blackberry sauce
dig in
Lime Cheesecake with Blackberry Sauce
[print recipe]
Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts
crust
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
6 tbsps sugar
6 tbsps butter, melted
filling
3 8-oz. pkgs cream cheese
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 limes, juice of
2 limes, grated peel of
sauce
10 oz. fresh or frozen blackberries or raspberries
3/4 cup sugar
Combine graham cracker crumbs with butter and sugar with whisk. Press into bottom of 9-inch springform pan (or 6 4-inch springform pans); refrigerate. In large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth; gradually beat in sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time, blending until smooth. Add remaining filling ingredients, beating until smooth. Pour over prepared crust. To minimize cracking, place a shallow pan half full of hot water on lower rack during baking. Bake at 325°F for 55 to 65 minutes or until set (25-33 minutes for 4-inch pans). Turn oven off; let cheesecake stand in oven 30 minutes with door open at least 4 inches. Remove from oven; let stand 10 minutes. Remove sides of pan; cool to room temperature on wire rack. Refrigerate overnight or up to three days. In a pan, boil berries and sugar until sauce thickens. Deseed through a food mill or sieve. Let cool and serve over cheesecake.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Those cheesecakes look particularly tempting and good! It is one of my favorite desserts! I love the flavor combination…
Cheers and have a great weekend,
Rosa
October 11th, 2008 at 2:17 am
I don’t dig on cheesecake at all…. But I think friends and family are gonna love it!
You made 6 4″ of these! I bet your neighbours benefitted? No? hehe
October 11th, 2008 at 2:55 am
The photos kill me. I want to like eat my monitor. Like right now. I might even slip on the drool on the floor. Good lord that all looks tasty! :)
October 11th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Hi, I usually just lurk but had to say how wonderful the photos are today. I particularly like the one of yellow leaves between leafless trees and the cheesecake itself. Brilliant. Have a good holiday.
October 11th, 2008 at 4:40 am
The big farmer with the small tractor made my day!
October 11th, 2008 at 6:50 am
You know, I *didn’t* dig on cheesecake, mostly because it seemed kind of difficult. Touchy.
But you make it look easy. And your recipe is lovely and simple. So maybe I’ll try this. After the shredded beef tacos. Those are on the list first, because OMG.
October 11th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Gorgeous – both the scenery and the food!
October 11th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Oh yum. All this cheesecake is driving me insane. I am so making a cheesecake the minute I can go back to dairy. This is two lime cheesecakes I have seen this week. Oh help Lord, I need me some cheesecake.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Fantastic! I could eat cheesecake morning, noon and night! I just made one myself. ;)
October 11th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
My ever expanding waistline, thanks you. My doctor on the other hand, wishes that you would post rabbit food….oh, but don’t listen to her. She doesn’t know what she speaks. The joy of my life would become extinct if I listened!
;)
October 12th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Not only do they look beautiful (even the frozen blackberries look beautiful – how did you manage that???), but lime cheesecake and blackberry sauce sounds wonderful.
October 12th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I’m going to make these just because limes are on sale here (8 for $1!!!). Also, were the blackberries IQF? I’m never sure how to defrost them so they look as plump as yours instead of a watery mess like mine. In the fridge perhaps?
October 13th, 2008 at 12:49 am
Oh, I so totally agree. Graham cracker crusts marry beautifully with limey (heh) cream. Unfortunately I’ve tasted a lot that were too sweet! Ugh. Your proportions look very reasonable :)
Now, now, there’s no need to throw your ever-so-useful food mill in our faces! Ha ha ha! :P (To be fair, I did see one in Surfas and Sur La Table– now I’m wondering why I didn’t get it…)
October 13th, 2008 at 7:05 am
Hmm…did you use springform pans for these? Any tips if so?
October 13th, 2008 at 8:16 am
I’m a sucker for mini food, Jen, so I’m all for your mini cheesecakes! So adorable! And I’m very interested to try limes and blackberries together – such favorites of mine, but I have never tried them together!
October 13th, 2008 at 9:16 am
yum! your pictures are beautiful!
October 13th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Beautiful. You are SO giving me a craving. I haven’t had lime cheesecake in a long time.
Does your food mill manage to get all the seeds out?
October 13th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Excellent! Personally, I like crushed vanilla wafers for a crust. :D I’m craving pumpkin cheesecake with cinnamony whipped cream…. mmm………. Love the mini springform pans.
October 13th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Looks amazing! Lime anything is so yum!
October 13th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Rosa – the berry sauce is great with this cheesecake!
Mrs. E – yup, we gave most away :)
Aaron – ha ha, that’s a good one.
Manda – so glad you de-lurked! Thanks so much.
Clumbsy – I didn’t notice the funny proportions until Mr. J mentioned it to me!
Fiona – cheesecakes aren’t all that hard to make… but they are finicky sometimes. Try it, you’ll see how easy it is! Yeah, I would take shredded beef tacos over cheesecake ANY day :)
Judith – thanks!
Peabody – you should be able to whip some up in NO time!
Susan – you are too funny. We must be on the same wavelength.
Margie – I like to think of reading food blogs as perusing a menu.
Beatrice – I was surprised that the berries were so lovely when they came out of the bag! I dumped them into a bowl and let them defrost. Aren’t they perfect looking?
DivaDivine – 8 for $1. Dang! What a steal! I don’t know what IQF is, but they were some random brand in my local grocery store freezer. Not bad. Most of the time, they are pulverized.
Manggy – yeah, this is a tad sweetish, but you can reduce the sugar some and it would still be great. Why didn’t you get one so we could be twins?!?
Sherry – yes, 4-inch springforms. Treat them the same as a regular 9-inch. Not sure what you mean by tips. If you have specific questions, I’d be happy to answer.
Patricia – you’ll like the combo! Mini foods are fun, I think because they are cute and because you feel like you can sample many since they are “small” ;)
Sara – thank you.
Nate – yes, my foodmill actually works great! My friend got it for me on Amazon. It’s AWESOME!!
irene – that sounds great, I’ll have to try that sometime too. And pumpkin cheesecake…. ooooooh.
Lori – agreed :)
February 25th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
yummy…. thanks for good sharing.. love from here
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Fazile – you’re so welcome!
July 29th, 2010 at 9:13 pm
So, I saw your blog in someone’s blogroll, and was so thrilled by your title I had to visit.
I have never been one for cheesecake, but the idea of pairing limes and blackberries is so creative I might try it. Also, your pictures are beautiful.
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