Saturday 5 February 2011

Raspberry and Pistachio Baked Cheesecake


Every now and again I get a sudden craving to make something really colourful. While shades of gold and brown can mean very good things (pastry, chocolate, peanut butter, brown sugar, breads...) sometimes it's nice to have something vibrant to photograph and eat. 

I know raspberries are horribly out of season. I just couldn't help myself. 


Although I love making unbaked cheesecakes, I've only made one baked one before - a Simple Baked Cheesecake. It was nice, but not a patch on the unbaked type.

A few months ago I came across this recipe from The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook online and quickly bookmarked it (so quickly, in fact, that it's down as 'Radpberry and pistachip Cheesecake'...). Finally a few days ago I found the bookmark again and decided I had to give it a try. 

Thankfully it didn't crack and behaved perfectly (see above for weirdly-lit-but-look-no-cracks!-and-isn't-apricot-jam-awfully-orange photo). 

My friend Sam had his birthday party last night and this came along with me (as did another dessert you will hear about soon...). Hence no inside photos. It seemed to go down really well - there's nothing like eating cheesecake with your fingers off a paper napkin. 


I loved the combination of flavours - the pistachio and raspberry go brilliantly. The cheesecake itself was so much better than I thought it could be - light, fluffy, not grainy at all and had a wonderful delicate flavour. 

Definitely a recipe to make again. 


Raspberry and Pistachio Baked Cheesecake
(adapted from SoNo Baking Company Cookbook, see here)

For the base:
30g shelled pistachios
30g light brown sugar
pinch of salt
65g digestive biscuits (or graham crackers)
40g butter

Before you begin, grease a 5" loose-bottom tall tin with a little butter. Get two bigs squares of tin foil and wrap the tin in them, one over the other.  Melt the 40g butter either in a small pan or in the microwave the put aside. In a food processor, pulse the pistachios until fairly fine. Roughly break up the biscuits and put into the processor with the salt and sugar. Pulse until combined and well mixed. Add the butter to the bowl and stir until well coated. Tip into the tin and press down to form an even layer. Put into the fridge to chill. 

For the filling:
450g cream cheese, out of fridge for 6 hours or so
150g golden caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp vanilla paste
2.5 eggs, beaten *
90ml sour cream

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F. Place the chilled and wrapped tin into a roasting tray. Boil the kettle. In the bowl of your stand mixer (with the paddle attached) beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, salt, vanilla extract and vanilla paste and beat for a few minutes until smooth. Turn down to a lower speed and add the egg in three stages, beating to combine between each addition. Scrape down the sides regularly. Finally, add the sour cream and beat to combine. Pour into the prepared tin - it will come up nearly to the top. Place the tray into the oven then pour the boiling water from the kettle into the tin until it comes about 1/3 of the way up the tin. Bake for 45- 50 minutes until set but still wobbly in the middle. Take out of the oven and remove the tin to a wire rack. Place a piece of foil over the top and leave for ten minutes then run a knife around the edge of the tin. Replace the foil and leave to cool down. When totally cool remove the foil and mop up any condensation with some kitchen towel. Cover with cling film and put into the fridge overnight or for 6 hours.  

*For advice on halving eggs, see my guide

To decorate:
1 punnet fresh raspberries
3 tbsp apricot jam
60g pistachios

In a food processor, pulse the pistachios until fairly fine with a mixture of smaller and larger pieces. Take the cheesecake out of the fridge, run a knife around the edge of the tin again then remove to a serving plate with strips of parchment paper around the sides. Put the jam into a small saucepan and heat until liquid. Pour through a strainer to take out any lumps. Brush the top and sides of the cheesecake with the jam. Arrange the raspberries on top. Thin down the remaining jam with 1 tbsp boiling water (more if needed) then glaze the raspberries. Finally take handfuls of the pistachios and press to the side. Clear away any excess pistachios and remove the parchment strips. Return to the fridge to set for 1 hour. 

(Serves 8-10)

23 comments:

  1. Oh I love the beautiful colors of the raspberries and pistachios here! Must taste fantastic. I know what you mean about the raspberries. In the dead of winter, sometimes the temptation to get a little burst of summer is too much for me to resist too.

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  2. You ARE brilliant. :) mucho respecto from the other side of the world!

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  3. agree!!!!!! this is a real special beauty:) ! It'll make such a lovely valentines treat... :)

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  4. What a gorgeous looking cake. But, yes, my first thought was (sorry to say that), raspberries in the winter? Oh, well, sometimes we have to let go.
    Wish I could try a slice. It looks just so delicious.

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  5. when I`m looking at this I`m really hungry :) with such delicious combo it must be awesome! I`m so glad I found your blog and I`m going to stop by your blog more often :)

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  6. This is beautiful - I love the colours, really eating with my eyes!

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  7. Absolutely gorgeous! I love that you combined pistachios and raspberries - inspired:)
    -E

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  8. I've never dressed up a cheesecake so beautifully. Gorgeous!

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  9. Oh, you make me want to go buy some raspberries so badly! This cheesecake looks absolutely gorgeous!

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  10. I love pistachios, and this is perfect! I saw your entry on the DMBLGIT competition on Bittersweet and I thought yours was fantastic - congrats for your tied win! I just hope I can capture something as stunning as you have :)

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  11. Do you mean an 8 inch pan? 5 inches seems quite small from what it looks like in your photo.

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  12. Jess :) - I do mean a 5". I halved the recipe from the original 9" pan. It looks big because my cake plate is quite small. I often scale down and use my 5" and 6" pans as I don't have crowds to feed.

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  13. How long should I bake it for if I double the quantities for a 9" pan?

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  14. Jess Joseph - The original 9" bakes for 1hr 15-1hr 20. Hope that helps :)

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  15. Hi! I made this cake, but added a chocolate ganache instead of all the raspberries on top - was delicious! I would like to post a photo of my cake and a link to your recipe in my (brand new) blog - is this ok?

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  16. This is so beautiful. I love the color contrast of the green pistachios and bright red raspberries. Yum!

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  17. I made this for a family event a couple of weeks ago, and went with your half-sized version.. within the blink of an eye, the cheesecake had gone from whole to one little slice! It was great, thanks for sharing the recipe

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  18. poiresauchocolat20 August 2013 at 18:04

    I'm so pleased you enjoyed it! It looks lovely in the photos on your blog :)

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