No-Bake Cherry Cheesecake

No-Bake Cheesecake with Roasted Cherries

This is not your typical no-bake cheesecake; this grown-up version has tangy goat cheese, mascarpone, cream cheese and sour cream for a more refined taste and super creamy texture.

Crust for No-Bake Cheesecake with Roasted Cherries

For the crust, I did a combination of butter cookies and biscoff cookies; the biscoff cookies added a little additional depth of flavor to the vanilla butter cookies.

No-Bake Cheesecake with Roasted Cherries

No-Bake Cheesecake with Roasted Cherries

The filling is extra-fluffy, with homemade whipped cream, and becomes ice-cream-like when frozen. I really like the vanilla bean in this, because the seeds add a little crunch, but you can certainly substitute vanilla extract for the bean.

Zinnias and Cherries

No-Bake Cheesecake with Roasted Cherries

No cherry pitter? No problem. A bottle and a chopstick works just fine, and it catches all the pits for a really easy clean-up.

Beer Bottle Cherry Pitter

Beer Bottle Cherry Pitter

If you don’t want to start your oven, you could also make the cherry sauce on the stove top, but you’ll probably want to add a little bit of water if the cherries don’t release their juices right away.

Roasted Cherries

I made roasted cherries to accompany the cheesecake, but macerated strawberries, blackberries or a spiced cranberry sauce would be awesome with this too.

No-Bake Cheesecake with Roasted Cherries

No-Bake Cheesecake with Roasted Cherries

 

No-Bake Cherry Cheesecake

Cheesecake adapted slightly from Martha Stewart; Cherries adapted slightly from Jeni’s Splendid Ice-Creams
Makes 10-12 servings 
 
Cherry Cheesecake is always delicious, but this would also be wonderful with fresh, macerated strawberries, blackberries or even a spiced cranberry sauce for the holidays. 
 

For the Crust
Vegetable oil cooking spray, for pan
1 1/3 cups vanilla wafer or shortbread cookies, finely ground (6 ounces)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Salt
 
For the Cheesecake
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
4 ounces mascarpone cheese (1/2 cup), room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese (1/2 cup), room temperature
2 ounces soft fresh goat cheese (1/4 cup), room temperature
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, pod reserved for another use (or 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract)
1/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (optional)
1 cup heavy cream
 
For the Roasted Cherries
3 cups of fresh or frozen pitted red or black cherries
2/3 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch 
squeeze of lemon juice (optional)

 

For the crust, coat a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray (I didn’t have spray so I used butter); line bottom with a round of parchment. Stir together cookies, butter, sugar, ground cinnamon, and a pinch of salt; press evenly into bottom of pan; I pressed mine slightly up the sides as well. Refrigerate while making filling.

For the filling, beat sour cream, 1/3 cup sugar, the cheeses, vanilla seeds or extract, and lemon zest (if using) with a mixer on medium speed until very smooth, about 4 minutes. Pass mixture through a fine sieve into a large bowl. Whisk heavy cream and remaining 1/3 cup sugar until medium peaks form; fold into filling mixture, and spread evenly onto crust. Smooth top, and freeze until firm, at least 2 hours. Make roasted cherry sauce while cheesecake freezes.

For the roasted cherries, preheat oven to 400-degrees F. Combine cherries, sugar and cornstarch to 9-inch square baking dish, tossing to mix. Roast for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the juices have become thickened and bubbly; stirring every 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool completely, then refrigerate until ready to use. You may want to add a small squeeze of lemon juice to the cherries to balance out the sweetness.

Before serving cheesecake, refrigerate for 45 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake; release sides to remove from pan, and transfer cake to a serving platter. Spoon cherries over cake, if serving all at once.


Comments

  1. Shafaq says

    Is there a substitute for goat cheese in this recipe? I would LOVE to make this but I’m not a fan of goat cheese ._.

  2. JJ says

    Instead of a mixer, can I use a food processor for the sour cream and cheese filling? If not, can I do it by hand? I don’t have any mixers.

    Thanks

      • JJ says

        Thanks for the quick reply! Sorry, but I have another question. I was reading other recipes, and many call for confectioner’s sugar for the filling. Does this recipe need powdered sugar for the filling, or just regular granulated sugar?

          • JJ says

            I don’t make desserts often, so I decided to do a test run before I have guests over, and this was delicious!! I used more cream cheese instead of the goat cheese, and it was incredible. It wasn’t specified, so I used full fat cream cheese and full fat sour cream. Does it matter if I use the light versions or would that not taste as good?

          • says

            I prefer the full fat stuff; you can try it with Neufchatel and low fat sour cream if you like, however the taste or texture might end up a little different.

    • says

      If you’re going to sub in somthing that has already been whipped, you’ll actually need two cups. Heavy cream when whipped doubles in volume. I don’t think this will turn out great if you are thinking of using the canned stuff as a replacement. I’m not a fan of cool whip but I think that would maintain it’s body better than the canned stuff. Hope that helps!!

    • says

      Hi Angela, I’m not exactly sure. I think you’d want to include the whipped cream too. It helps lighten the filling. Has anyone else tried using quark?

  3. Sanni says

    Hi, i was just searching for a no bake cheesecake recipe and i discovered that many of them uses gelatin in their filling – and this recipe does not. Does this set just fine? How long do you suggest freezing/refrigerating this for it to set? Thanks!

  4. Joanne says

    This is one expensive cheese cake! I sourced all the cheeses and heavy cream at my local grocery store (I’m in Edmonton, AB, Canada) and they’d cost almost $40!

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