Strawberry Ricotta Cheesecake

Joe and I were headed to my mom's new condo yesterday for dinner, and of course we wanted to bring something along to contribute. Mom naturally asked me to bring dessert. Since it's been so hot and humid, the thought of bringing a heavy batch of cookies wasn't really appealing to me, so I thought I'd try something different. I came across this recipe and decided to give cheesecake a shot. How hard could it be? Turns out, it's pretty damn simple, and pretty damn delish.

I accidentally printed out the recipe on company letterhead. woops.

Ingredients:

1 15 ounce container Part Skim Ricotta

4 ounces sour creem

4 ounces cream cheese

3 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp orange zest

4 tsp salt

1/2 cup seedless strawberry jam
1 tablespoon orange liqueur

Sliced fresh strawberries

First off, blend the ricotta cheese in a food processor until it is light and smooth and fluffy. This is a pretty essential step so your cake has the right texture.

Next, blend in the sour cream and the cream cheese. I did these seperately from the ricotta because all I have is a teeny weeny food proccessor. Someday, I'll get a big one. sigh.

Put all your creamy goodness in a large mixing bowl.

Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix all the wet ingredients together until well blended, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Then throw in all your dry ingredients.

Lastly, blend in the orange zest. This added a really nice undertone to the final product.

Pour you batter into a greased 9 inch cake pan. it will be pretty thin and liquidy, that's A-OK.

Bake at 325 for 45 minutes.

Let your cake cool completely before attempting to remove it from the pan. Actually I would consider chilling it for 3 hours or so first, as it will be pretty fragile and easy to break.

While the cake is chilling, bring about 4 ounces of strawberry jam, and 1 tablespoon of orange liqueur to a boil. Mix together well. Let the mixture cool slightly, and then brush it evenly over the top of the cheese cake.

Next, bust out your sliced strawberries.

Arrange your strawberries around the top of the cake, like so....

Keep working toward the center of the cake until you've covered the whole thing. Chill for another hour or so to let everything firm up. Then slice and enjoy! I was pretty satisfied with this cheesecake. It was light and not heavy, and had a really nice flavor to it. Definitely give it a shot!