Typically when I think about ricotta cheese, it's normally associated with manicotti or stuffed shells, but something inspired me to figure out a different way that I can use ricotta. So cheesecake came to mind. I did a quick google search just to skim some methods used for this recipe and to make sure I have everything I needed. I'm not a baker, at all. I've never been good at that. I like to try to make things from scratch instead of just add eggs and water, and I always seem to fail. Baking is such a science. Substitutions are very strategic and the process must be precise for something to come out correct. Except cheesecake. I feel like with cheesecake you have a lot more room to substitute ingredients and At least, that's from my experience.
I figured cheesecake could be one of those dishes that's hard to mess up. So I took my chances.
Ingredients:
9" baking tin
Baking Sheet
6 graham crackers, crushed
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup cream cheese
1 cup ricotta
1/2 cup greek yogurt (Optional, helps loosen the filling)
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp cinnamon (add more to your liking)
1/3 cup pure cane sugar
2 tbsp flour
Step 1:
Pull out all of your ingredients and set aside. We're going to start by prepping the crust. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly oil or butter the clean tin to keep your crust from sticking after baking.
For the crust, crumble your graham crackers. It's okay to have a few big chunks to ensure that the crust will stick together and hold up during the rest of the cooking process.
Next, mix the butter into the graham crackers, then pour into the baking tin. Begin to mold graham cracker mixture into a pie crust. Put the cake dish on top of a baking sheet when cooking. Bake for 6-8 minutes at 350 F. Set aside to cool.
Step 2:
Begin to mix the cake filling. Start with the cheeses (cream cheese, ricotta), add greek yogurt; adding small amounts at a time to loosen the mixture.
Lightly beat 3 eggs into the mixture, slowly. Since I did not use a cake mixer, I used my blender and stopped it each time to add an egg, turned it on low for 3-4 seconds, stop, add another.
Add flour, sugar, vanilla, and a dash of cinnamon, for taste.
Then pour mixture on to crust and bake for 50-60 minutes. I checked mine at 40 minutes and it was finished. My oven cooks very fast. You know the cake is finished when you stick a fork in the middle and it is not wet, or the edges have browned.
Step 3:
Remove cake from oven, and cool for 10 minutes. I added mine to the freezer or fridge so it would get a little firm and cool faster.
Serve cool.
Watch the full process in my Instagram Highlights: www.instagram.com/brunchwithsam
