Raspberry Basil Cheesecake

First of all, before I get to today’s luscious dessert, yesterday was my 100th post! Hooray! And I’m tantalizingly close to 10,000 views. You guys, this is amazing! I appreciate all my readers so much; you provide such good motivation to keep up the work on this blog. It helps that this endeavor is incredibly close to my heart! To celebrate these milestones, on Thursday I’ll be having yet another one: my first giveaway! I don’t want to give too much away yet, but it’s going to be a seriously good one, so make sure to come back on Thursday to check it out!

Back to our regularly scheduled programming: This year, in addition to the vegetable CSA we got last year from Farmer Dave’s, we also got the fruit share. Friday was our first fruit pickup and it was so exciting! We got three of the most delicious peaches I’ve ever eaten (they didn’t make it past Sunday), two pints of blueberries, and a half pint of raspberries. For dessert last night, I revisited one of my favorite flavor combinations: raspberry and basil. As is my preference, this is not a very sweet dessert. Feel free to add a tablespoon or two of extra granulated sugar if you like your desserts on the sweeter side.

Raspberry Basil Cheesecake

Adapted from this mouthwatering recipe from A Beautiful Mess

Crust adapted from Green Market Baking Book

Pie Crust

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 7 tablespoons butter (frozen and shredded)

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon warm water

• 1/4 teaspoon Ener-G Egg Replacer

• 3/4 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

• 3/4 teaspoon honey

To make the crust, first freeze and shred your butter using a box grater. This makes it SO much easier to make the dough without spending forever cutting in the butter. This is also a great trick to use with biscuits.

Mix the shredded butter with the flour and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients. I used the Ener-G Egg Replacer in this dough because it would need 1/4 of an egg otherwise. If you want to make more than one pie crust, feel free to use regular egg instead; it works just as well. Mix the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients until just combined. Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap, form a patty, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll the dough out until it is approximately 1/8″ thick and lay it into a pie plate.

While the dough is refrigerating, prepare the filling.

Filling

• 10 oz whole-milk ricotta

• 1/2 pint fresh raspberries
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 eggs

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and both kinds of sugar. Add the ricotta and whisk until smooth. Add the chopped basil and pour into the prepared pie crust. Top with the raspberries. Place the cheesecake into the oven and bake for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, reduce the 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until it begins to get syrupy. When the cake has baked for 25 minutes, spoon the balsamic reduction over the top of the cake and continue to bake for 15 more minutes.

Edited to add: Here’s the finished product…yum!

Cool and enjoy!

~C