I love the smell of lemons. When I zest or squeeze fresh lemon juice I swear I could get high off how my hands smell. It makes me think of when I was a kid/teenager and we lived in Arizona and had a lemon tree in the backyard. My mom would make lemonade and squeeze lemon juice into ice cube trays so you could have cold fresh lemonade on demand in the summer. I didn’t actually know what lemon curd was until a few years ago. Then about 3 years ago, my family came to visit and we went over to the Olympic peninsula. One of the mornings we went to this family owned diner and I had blueberry french toast with lemon curd on it and it seriously was probably the best breakfast I’ve ever had in my life. My brother in law had an equally good breakfast and we feel bad because everyone else at the table had just normally adequate food and we can’t shut up about a meal we had years ago at this point haha.
So, since that moment I’m always looking for ways to incorporate lemon curd into bakes. So if you know me, you know I don’t like cake. So when I got married, Zack is kind of indifferent on cake so we got a cheesecake for our cake. It was a lemon raspberry cheesecake and it was SO good. So while this cheesecake is nothing really similar to that cake, it’s got some of the same flavors and let me tell you it’s heavenly.
Instead of just a regular graham cracker or shortbread crust, I decided to go with a vanilla Oreo crust. But then at the store I saw they had lemon vanilla oreos and that just seemed like the perfect fit!
The cheesecake itself is just a good vanilla cheesecake, so if you don’t care for lemon or are searching for a good cheesecake recipe, the crust could be made with any kind you desire and the curd can be left off. But.. you really should try it with the curd topping because it just takes this to another level. (Cue lil Jon saying that, and the air horn) Here is the recipe for my Lemon Curd. For raspberry curd, I simply substituted mashed raspberries in lieu of lemons and zest, and strained out the seeds.
Please, indulge.. and enjoy!
Ingredients
- 24 oz Cream cheese room temperature
- 3 Large eggs room temperature
- 200 g Sugar 1 cup
- 1 tbsp Cornstarch
- ½ tsp Vanilla
- ½ cup Heavy Cream
- ½ package Lemon Oreo thins
- 3 tbsp Unsalted butter melted
Topping
- 1 cup Lemon Curd
- ½ cup Raspberry Curd
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Take about 25 cookies or half of standard size package of cookies and pulse in food processor until fine crumb. Add 3 tbsp of melted butter and press into a 9 inch springform pan.
- Bake at 325°F for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- Combine cornstarch with sugar in bowl of mixing bowl with paddle attached.
- Add cream cheese and mix until smooth, about 2-4 minutes. Stopping once halfway through to scrap the bottom of bowl and paddle to ensure cream cheese is fully incorporated.
- Mix in the eggs, one at a time. Adding the next once the first has been fully mixed in.
- Add in heavy cream and vanilla and mix for about 20-30 seconds.
- Pour batter into cooled crust, then bang on countertop to remove any bubbles.
- Bake for about 1 hour. The center should still jiggle but edge should be set. Check around 50 minutes. Turn oven off, leaving door ajar and let cool in oven for at least 1 hour.
- Cheesecake should be refrigerated overnight or at least 8 hours to completely set.
- Once cheesecake is set, pour lemon curd over top of cheesecake and use an offset knife to smooth to edges. Add dollops of raspberry curd in the lemon and use a toothpick or butter knife to gently marble and swirl the two.
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