Passover Lemon Cheesecake With Almond Crust

Submitted by blucoat

"This cheesecake has a delicious nutty and crisp crust with a light but creamy citrusy filling. Recipe is from Gourmet (April 2008). Cheesecake can be made 2 days ahead and chilled, loosely covered. You can garnish with berries or julienned lemon zest. The cake needs to cool 2-3 hours before serving. If you don't have matzo cake meal, grind regular matzo meal (or even matzos) to a finer consistency in a food processor or blender."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 30mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 10

ingredients

• Almond Crust

• 177.44 ml sliced blanched almond, toasted and cooled
• 157.80 ml sugar
• 157.80 ml matzo cake meal
• 1.23 ml salt

• Lemon Cheesecake Filling

• 118.32 ml unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 3 (680.38 g) package cream cheese, softened
• 177.44 ml sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 9.85 ml grated lemon zest
• 4.92 ml pure vanilla extract

directions

1. Make crust: Preheat oven to 350F with rack in middle. Pulse almonds, sugar, matzo cake meal, and salt in a food processor until finely ground. Transfer to a bowl and stir in butter until combined well. Press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of springform pan. Bake until crust is firm and a shade darker, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool crust completely in pan on a rack.
2. Make filling and bake cheesecake: Reduce oven temperature to 300°F Beat together cream cheese and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add eggs 1 at a time, mixing until incorporated. Mix in zest and vanilla.
3. Put springform pan in a shallow baking pan and pour filling into cooled crust. Bake until filling is set 1 1/2 inches from edge but center is wobbly, 45 to 50 minutes (filling will continue to set as it cools). Transfer cake in pan to a rack and immediately run a knife around edge, then remove side of pan. Cool completely, 2 to 3 hours.

Reviews

[hayleykahn]

This cheesecake is ridiculously tasty. I had trouble pouring the batter into the crust, and half of the crowd at my seder wanted to eat filling until they exploded while the other half kept stealing bits of crust and trying to eat it like a cookie. Personally, I liked them both together. This was an easy recipe to make (my first cheesecake!) and the results were stunning.