Vanilla Bean Cherry Cheesecake
VANILLA BEAN CHERRY CHEESECAKE
We don’t do sweets that often in this house. Mainly because we’d eat the whole house. But one thing we can agree on to prepare sparingly is cheesecake. I haven’t made one in almost 15 years, but hey, why not?
I love making my own crust, because quite frankly I don’t trust the thickness of the store bought kind. Just a simple graham cracker crust most days, with some browned butter y’all.
I’m a naked cheesecake kinda gal. But I do like the cherry syrup on top. Brandon prefers the fruit chunks.
Can’t go wrong with the perfect cheesecake texture swipe with a fork!
It looks great on our table, despite being just the two of us this year, and our dog.
VANILLA BEAN CHERRY CHEESECAKE RECIPE
Ingredients
2 cup graham cracker crumbs
4 tablespoons browned butter
2 cups non-fat cottage cheese
2 cups light cream cheese
½ cup Greek yogurt
3 eggs
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened frozen cherries
¼ cup sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly coat a 10-inch spring form pan with vegetable oil spray and line the bottom with a parchment paper circle cut out.
In a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and browned butter. Mix well. Press into the bottom of spring form pan. I don’t go up the sides with it. I like to see the cake. Set aside.
In a blender container, puree cottage cheese until smooth.
In a mixing bowl, combine pureed cottage cheese, cream cheese and yogurt cheese and blend with electric mixer on high until smooth, about 2 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time and blend well.
Add flour, sugar, vanilla bean paste and vanilla extract. Blend well. Pour into crust.
Bake for 50 minutes.
Turn off heat to oven and allow cheesecake to cool slowly in oven for 30 minutes more. Remove from oven and let rest for 20 minutes before refrigerating.
In a medium saucepan, combine cherries with sugar and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer until sugar is dissolved and cherries begin to break down, about 10 minutes. Add water, if necessary, to keep from scorching.
When cheesecake is cold, remove spring form sides and put the cherry sauce on top or on the side to serve.
