If you’re a cheesecake lover like me, here’s the perfect dessert for your next special occasion. Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts because it’s creamy, tasty and it lends itself to many flavours. This Passionfruit Cheesecake with a Swirl filling has a lovely balance of creamy, sweet and acidic. A creamy baked cheesecake can be easier than you think if you have all the right tips and steps to follow.
What makes this Passionfruit Cheesecake so great
This Passionfruit Cheesecake is great for many reasons. One of the ones I like the most is the fact that you get passionfruit both in the filling and on top. Oftentimes you only get that passionfruit zing on top which is never enough. We also swirl it in the filling to get that extra layer of flavour and colour. It’s a luscious and creamy baked cheesecake that will have everyone with a smile on their faces. If you follow the steps and measure everything out correctly, you will realize it’s not as difficult to achieve a perfect result as you might think.
About the crust
The crust for this Passionfruit Cheesecake is simple and similar to other cheesecake flavours. To make it, use a food processor to crush the cookies or crackers into fine crumbs. Then, in a medium bowl, mix those with melted butter (unsalted butter) and salt. When you’re done, it should look like wet sand. This mix then goes into a prepared springform pan. You prepare it by placing baking paper at the base of the pan and also along the sides, stinking the pieces in place with a bit of vegetable oil. Use your fingers to press the biscuit base into place, both at the bottom and along the sides of the pan and bottom edges. While you’re making the filling, you will freeze the crust to keep it in place as you then pour the filling in.
The passionfruit sauce
To make both the passionfruit sauce for the top of the cheesecake as well as the swirl for the filling, we’re going to cook passionfruit pulp and sugar over medium heat in a small saucepan. Cook it until it has halved in volume and it seems thicker. Remove it from the heat and then strain half the sauce, the other half will keep the passionfruit seeds. The smooth sauce will be for the filling and the one with the seeds will be for the top. To make this sauce you can use fresh passionfruit or go for frozen pulp like I did. Either way, the result is a lovely sweet and tangy sauce that goes incredibly well on this Passionfruit Cheesecake.
The creamy filling for this Passionfruit Cheesecake
To get the creamiest and silkiest filling for your Passionfruit Cheesecake, there are certain steps we need to follow. First, make sure that the cream cheese is at room temperature. Softened cream cheese is easier to whip than cold cream cheese. You will definitely need to use an electric mixer to get the best result. If using a hand-held mixer, use a large mixing bowl and the whisk attachments. If you have a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment as well and as you make the filling, make sure to stop every couple of minutes to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure that everything is getting mixed homogeneously. Once you have an extremely smooth cream cheese you can begin to add the other ingredients for the cheesecake filling. You will add the eggs last on low speed to prevent adding any air to the cheesecake mixture. Here are the steps to make the filling:
- Beat the cream cheese with the granulated sugar until it’s really soft and homogeneous. Every once in a while stop and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure that everything gets beaten in.
- Add the sour cream, vanilla extract, salt and beat again.
- Reduce the speed to a minimum and add one egg at a time. You know that you can add the next one when the previous one is incorporated. Finish to incorporate with a spatula if needed.
Baking the Passionfruit Cheesecake
Baked cheesecakes like this Passionfruit Cheesecake are often baked in a water bath. Water baths guarantee that we have a softer cooking process and make for a creamier result. It will also prevent any large air bubbles from forming and ruining the velvety texture. In my case, I learned many years ago to use a sort of “indirect” water bath. A traditional water bath would require you to submerge your cheesecake into the boiling water in another pan. However, this may result in a cheesecake with a soggy bottom as the water can leak into the pan no matter what you do to prevent it. Instead, what I like to do is have a pan of hot water one level underneath the cheesecake in the oven. The vapour will still lower the cooking speed and result in a creamy texture without any of the risk. Another crucial thing is the oven temperature.
Tips for getting the best results
If you’ve never made a baked cheesecake before, you might feel a little scared to begin. That’s ok, I get it! I’m sure you’ll get the best results anyway, but here are a few tips that I wish I had known the first time I made a cheesecake by myself:
- For the best results, whip the cream cheese with the sugar well before adding the rest of the ingredients. If you add the rest of the ingredients and there are still lumps in the cream cheese, you won’t be able to remove them. Make sure the cream cheese with the sugar looks extremely creamy before adding the sour cream, vanilla and eggs.
- Avoid over-baking the Passionfruit Cheesecake. Every oven is different, so look out for clues to signal if it’s ready. You should remove it from the oven the moment that it jiggles like gelatin if you shake it gently. If it looks more liquid than that, it probably needs more time. If it looks too solid, then you probably baked it for too long and it will be on the drier side. If your cheesecake doesn’t look ready yet but it’s beginning to become golden at the top, cover it with aluminum foil.
- Cheesecakes like even baking temperatures. What I like to do is preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F and then decrease it to 150°C /300°F as soon as it goes in. That’s because when you open the door to place the cheesecake in, the oven will inevitably reduce its temperature. Thus, we make a more stable environment from the beginning to prevent cracks.
- Use full-fat cream cheese and sour cream. Light or low-fat cream cheese doesn’t cook as well and isn’t as stable as full-fat cream cheese. I know it’s tempting but it’s just not the recipe to use it in.
More cheesecake recipes
As we’ve established, I love cheesecakes. If you’re like me and you’re looking for more delicious cheesecake recipes, please check out the ones listed below. Other than this Passionfruit Cheesecake, another favourite of mine would be the Lemon and Blueberry Cheesecake. It has a lovely blueberry sauce that makes me salivate just thinking of it.
Passionfruit Cheesecake with Swirl Filling
Ingredients
For the passionfruit sauce
- 400 g passionfruit pulp with seeds
- 100 g granulated sugar
For the base
- 220 g Graham Crackers / Digestive Biscuits or similar
- 5 tbsp unsalted butter melted
- ½ tsp salt
For the filling
- 900 g cream cheese approximately 4 packages at room temperature
- 250 g granulated sugar
- 220 g sour cream at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla essence
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 eggs at room temperature
Instructions
For the passionfruit sauce
- Place the pulp and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat it over medium heat, stirring occasionally until it has halved in volume.
- Divide the sauce un two and strain one half of it. The half that doesn’t have seeds will be for the filling and the other half for the top. Reserve both separately until they have completely cooled down to room temperature.
For the base
- Process the crackers/biscuits until fine.
- Add the salt and butter and mix.
- Cut baking paper to the size of the base of the pan and also the sides. Stick them in place with vegetable oil that you can spread with a piece of kitchen paper.
- Press the base mix onto the base of the pan using the base of a glass and then with your fingers around the edges. Take the pan to the freezer for at least 15 minutes.
For the filling
- Beat the cream cheese with the granulated sugar until it’s really soft and homogeneous. Every once in a while stop and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure that everything gets beaten in.
- Add the sour cream, vanilla extract, salt and beat again.
- Reduce the speed to a minimum and add one egg at a time. You know that you can add the next one when the previous one is incorporated. Finish to incorporate with a spatula if needed.
- Pour a third of the mix onto the base and add dollops of the seedless passionfruit sauce. Use a knife or skewer to marble it. Be careful not to disturb the base below. Repeat with the rest of the filling.
- Bake the cheesecake in a preheated oven at 180°C / 350°F. When you preheat the oven you want to have a baking pan with water at the bottom layer of your oven so the water preheats, too. If you forget to do it, you can add boiling water. The cheesecake goes on the level above it (not in the water). In this way, the cheesecake still cooks gently but you remove the risk of the water going into the cake.
- As soon as it goes into the oven, reduce the heat to 150°C /300°F.
- Bake the cheesecake for 1h15min-1h30min or until you see it starting to get golden on top and it jiggles like gelatin if you shake it slightly. Halfway through the cooking process, check that the water level hasn't dropped too much. If it has, fill it up with boiling water.
- Wait for it to cool down completely and place it in the fridge overnight or for at least 8 hours.
- Finish it by spreading the passionfruit sauce with the seeds on top.
