Our raspberries just started to ripen over the past weekend, almost two weeks later than normal. But that comes as no surprise after it took so achingly long for our Midwestern winter, followed by a cold and extra rainy spring, to finally depart.
Which makes these vibrant and tasty garden delights seem all the more well deserved!
Picking and enjoying fresh raspberries from the yard feels very natural to me. Growing up on the farm, we had a large raspberry patch, and spent a great deal of time tending to it. I can still envision Mom gently washing the buckets of berries at the sink and the late night bowls of vanilla ice cream toppled with ruby heavenlyness.
When Blake and I were considering buying our current home, the already established raspberry patch was a definite plus in my book. And, since moving in, our family has enjoyed every last bite!
When our berries hit their peak week of producing, we can pick almost a gallon bucket of berries every day. It’s impossible for us to consume them all before they spoil. While we eat plenty of fresh berries every day, and give them away to grateful friends and neighbors, there still needs to be a plan to make sure none of them goes to waste.
We freeze some for future use. And we make a couple batches of our favorite quick and easy Raspberry Blackberry Freezer Jam. It’s so fabulous smeared on a piece of buttery toast, a warm popover, or a fresh steaming yeasted waffle.
And when I’m feeling really indulgent…
I make this Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake!
Do you want to know my criteria for cheesecake recipes?
- First of all, the cheesecake can’t be wimpy in stature. I pass by any recipe that doesn’t use at least 24 ounces of cream cheese. If you’re going to make a cheesecake, it might as well be eye catchingly tall and indulgent!
- It needs to incorporate a hot water bath during baking. I find this method just works better, by eliminating (most) cracking.
And a plus would be that the recipe includes sour cream, as I like its texture and tang. Although this Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake does not have any sour cream in it, it does fit my main bullet points, and I think it’s one of the best cheesecakes I’ve ever made (or ate anywhere!). It’s super creamy and luscious, delicately tangy, and swirled with the softly sweet taste and scent of fresh raspberries. The beautiful berry marbling always elicits oohs and ahhs. Every time I make it, I’m reminded of the expression on my mother-in-law’s face when I made this for the first time on her birthday many years ago. I thought she was going to cry.
This cheesecake really is special enough for tears of joy. And I do hope you’ll find that out for yourself by giving this tried and true recipe a go.
Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake
Ingredients
- FOR THE CRUST:
- 1 c. finely ground graham crackers
- 2 T. unsalted butter melted
- 2 T. sugar
- FOR THE RASPBERRY PUREE:
- 6 oz. raspberries
- 2 T. sugar
- FOR THE CREAM CHEESE FILLING:
- 32 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
- 1-1/2 c. sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 4 large eggs at room temperature
- ALSO NEEDED:
- boiling water for the hot water bath
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Wrap the exterior of a 9″ springform pan, including the base, with a double layer of foil. Set aside.
- For the crust, stir together cracker crumbs, melted butter, and 2 tablespoons sugar in a medium bowl. Press crumb mixture firmly onto bottom of pan. Bake until set, about 10 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack. Reduce oven temperature to 325°.
- Heat water for the hot water bath (to prevent cracking). Set a medium pot of water on the stove to boil.
- Prepare the raspberry puree by processing raspberries in a food processor until smooth, about 30 seconds. Pass puree through a fine sieve into a small bowl, to remove most of the seeds. Discard the solids. Whisk in the 2 tablespoons sugar and set aside.
- Time for the cream cheese filling! Put cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on medium speed until fluffy. This should take about 3 minutes. Then, with the mixer on low speed, add 1-1/2 cups sugar in a slow, steady stream. Add salt and vanilla and mix until well combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing each until just combined. Do not overmix! Pour cream cheese filling over your baked crust.
- Drop raspberry puree by the teaspoon on top.
- With a wooden skewer or toothpick, swirl sauce into filling. You should have some raspberry puree left over. Save it to serve with your slices of cheesecake. (Or it makes for an awesome raspberry lemonade!)
- Now for the hot water bath. Set cake pan inside a large, shallow roasting pan. Carefully ladle boiling water into roasting pan to reach halfway up sides of cake pan. Carefully transfer roasting pan to oven. Alternatively, you can set the cake pan inside the roasting pan, place it in the oven and then ladle the boiling water into the roasting pan. Whatever you feel more comfortable with is fine by me. Bake until cake is mostly set, with just a slight bit of jiggle in the center, 60 to 70 minutes. Don’t wait until the cake is completely set, as you run a higher risk of cracking.
- Transfer cake pan to rack to cool completely. Refrigerate uncovered for at least 6 hours. Letting it set overnight is even better. It firms up and gets completely chilled. Before unmolding the springform pan, run a knife around the edge of the cake. Serve slices with some freshly whipped and slightly sweetened cream, a drizzle of left over raspberry puree, and a sprinkling of fresh raspberries, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition Information:
This is Martha Stewart’s recipe exactly, yes?
Its in the oven looks scrumptious…
I love your site! I especially love this cheesecake. I made it today, instead of graham crackers, I used Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. Loved the slight toasted cinnamon flavor with the raspberry. Delicious!
This recipe was perfect! Exactly what you want a cheescake to be and perfect balance of raspberry flavor.
I cooked these in small heart-shaped springform pans (about 3″ diameter), cut the recipe in half, and they fit just fine. Cooking time for these smaller tins were 45 minutes.
Thanks for the recipe!
I use 1/2 cream cheese, and 1/2 ricotta for a taller, cakier cheesecake. Also, my daughter used my recipe whenever she had to do a dish for job ( chef , for 10 yrs) ,… but made the crust from either ground macadamia or pinion nuts with the butter & sugar. Amazing ! I was VERY fond of Drambuie liqueur, and very often flavored the cheese with that instead of vanilla,…well, ok, a little MORE !
Thanks so much for posting the recipe and directions. I’m not a familiar face in the kitchen but I think I’m gonna try this out since my boyfriend’s birthday is next week and this is his favorite. I’m so excited!
And also can I use digestive biscuit instead of graham crackers plz reply soon
Hey hi, can I use cherry instead of raspberry for this recipe
Hey there! I just have to say, this is an awesome recipe. I’ve made it four times now (tried a few flavour modifications on it, too) and it’s impressed my family and friends without fail. Thanks for posting it!
Wow. 4 times? That’s awesome! Thanks for coming back to let me know. :)
I’m making this for my moms birthday this weekend:) I’m scared though I’ve never made cheese cake. I don’t have the a springform pan or a roasting pan so I’m using a disposable round cake pan and a large casserole dish. Wish me luck! :) I hope it turns out as good as yours looks :)
Hello Brenda, Bo Frieberg was my pastry teacher at the Ca. culinary academy, I’m making these cheesecakes for people here in Japan, I just hope they turn out as beautiful as the one you made in the picture ! I’m also going to chop up just a bit of white chocolate and add to the cake to make it a Raspberry white chocolate swirl Christmas cheesecake, Wish me luck, So far I have 6 orders.
The addition of white chocolate sounds wonderful!
One more question Brenda, If using frozen raspberries can you add a couple drops of red food dye to brighten up the color ?
Sure!!
With this recipe can you just add 1 big tablespoon of sour cream to it ? What would this do to this recipe ?
I’m sure that a bit of sour cream would be just fine. I actually love sour cream in cheese cake!
Best cheesecake I have ever made or have eaten. It taste great and is beautiful. Making another one today. Almost the end of raspberry season. My daughter also loved it and is requesting I make it for Christmas! Thank you!
Made this for Christmas. Used frozen raspberries and chocolate graham crackers. Best cheesecake I’ve ever had!!! Yummy. Perfect creamy texture and not overly sweet!
I bet the chocolate crust was fabulous with this!! Thanks for coming back to let me know! :)
Wow. I’ve been wanting to make this for a few months now. I was wondering, would this work with a square pan?
that looks gorgeous! i wish mine turned out as nice as your cheesecakes. mine always gets slightly brown on the top (i use an electric oven, not convection) and never stays the sort of color yours is in the picture. any tips on how to prevent that happening?
I made this with strawberry puree and it turned out amazing! Thanks so much for your step-by-step instructions. Only thing I added was after the cook time was over I let the cheesecake stay in the water bath in the oven with the oven turned off for an additional 60 minutes. No cracking and perfect as could be!
That’s wonderful to know, as I’ve often considered making it with strawberries. Thank you so much for letting me know!
Just made the cheesecake and its perfect! I have to charge the camera batteries, so I don’t have a picture. but sure enough I’ll Facebook the cake. No good raspberries in Puerto Rico so I didn’t make the swirl but I’m thinking about mangoes and guavas for the swirl next time. Thank you.
It’s a lovely recipe…so happy you liked it, too!
Just made this cheesecake for my son’s birthday. He and all of his guests loved it! The flavor is fantastic, but I wasn’t happy with how soupy it turned out. I cooked it for an extra ten minutes, but the center was still too soft. Is that just the nature of this recipe, or should I have cooked it longer?
Oh, I can’t wait for summer! I followed a trail from this sweet collection to your blog, and I’m glad I did! Raspberries and cheesecake…can’t go wrong! Thanks for sharing! Oh…and congratulations on being included in the Sweet Sixteen Collection this week!
So nice to hear from you, Louise – thanks for letting me know about the feature!