We are well into July and even though we should be bathing in a beautiful sunshine by now (as calendar suggests), we are still waiting for “proper” Summer to make an appearance.
As much as I love hot summer days, current temperatures keep giving me excuses to “fire up” the oven and bake some summer themed treats to try and substitute the real thing.
Below you will find the recipe for delicious and very summery baked strawberry cheesecake (pure taste of summer). Feel free to substitute strawberries with any other summer fruits that become available throughout the season, it’s very universal and simply scrumptious 🙂
Ingredients for the shortcrust base:
170g plain flour
30g cornflour
half tsp baking powder
130g unsalted butter at room temperature
80g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Put all the ingredients in the food processor and mix until you get consistency of crumble. Put it in a bowl and chill in the fridge for 30-60 min.
Take half of chilled crumble and put it in a 25cm springform cake tin lined with baking paper. Press the dough onto the bottom of the dish with your fingertips and bake for 15-18 min in the oven preheated to 180C (until it is lightly browned).
Ingredients for the cheesecake:
500g of Quark cheese (mix in the food processor on its own first until it becomes super smooth)
250g Mascarpone
3 large eggs
3 Tbsp plain flour
165g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
450g strawberries/raspberries/blueberries/blackberries or mixture of all
2 Tbsp cornflour
All the ingredients should be at room temperature.
Put all of the ingredients (with the exception of last two) in a food processor and mix until combined (not too long as we do not want to put too much air into the mix). You can do all the mixing by hand if you prefer.
Sprinkle the cornflour over the fruits and mix gently.
Put the cheese mixture onto the pre-baked base and put the fruits on top pressing in gently but only just. Sprinkle with remaining chilled crumble.
Bake at 170C for about 50 minutes until cheesecake is just set and lightly browned on top. Cool in slightly opened oven. Serve sprinkled with icing sugar if you wish.
Bon appetite!