Limoncello Raspberry Ricotta Cheesecake

Last Friday evening was spent baking. There's a possibility that I'll be making desserts for a local restaurant, and I wanted to take some of my recipes for a test drive to make sure all the kinks were out before taking them to the restaurant. One of the things I baked was a Limoncello Raspberry Ricotta Cheesecake. Limoncello is an Italian liqueur that's made from fermented lemon peels, and the best Limoncello is made on the Island of Capri.

For the crust, and in trying to keep with the Italian theme of the restaurant, I thought using biscotti would be a nice touch and give the cake a subtle almond flavor. I crumbled the biscotti in the food processor and then added a stick of melted butter to form the crust. Once the mixture was the right consistency (wet, but still a bit crumbly), I pressed it into the bottom of a springform pan. I like my cheesecake with the crust on the bottom only, so I was careful not to go up the sides of the pan. Once the crust had been pressed firmly into the pan, I baked it for about 15 minutes until it was a nice golden color.

Meanwhile, I'd been draining whole milk ricotta in a piece of cheesecloth. Ricotta is a very watery cheese, and in order for my cake to have a nice, smooth, velvety consistency, I needed to get as much water out of the ricotta as possible.

Once the ricotta was drained, I combined it with cream cheese, sugar, eggs, limoncello, lemon zest and vanilla extract in the food processor and blended the mixture until there were no lumps and it had a consistent texture. Before pouring it into the pan, I added the raspberries to the bottom of the crust.

Since this was an experimental cheesecake, I wanted to see if the berries would have a different consistency if I coated them in flour. Because adding any sort of fruit to a cake ultimately means adding more liquid to a cake, I was hoping that the flour would aid in soaking up any of the berries' liquid as it cooked. So I decided to do half the cake with flour-coated raspberries, and half with uncoated raspberries.

Once I poured the batter over the berries, it was time to go into the oven. Cheesecakes are best when they're cooked slowly, at low temparature in a water bath. The water bath aids in providing the cake with an even temperature and prevents any "direct" heat from the oven. Because I was using a springform pan (a pan with a removable bottom), I wanted to prevent any water from seeping into my cheesecake, so I wrapped the pan in a double layer of heavy duty foil.

I cooked the cheesecake at a slightly higher temperature initially, then lowered the temperature by 25 degrees and cooked the cake for just under two hours. Another important step takes place after the cake is done baking. Turn the oven off and leave the door propped open just slightly, with the cheesecake still in the oven, to let the hot air escape and the cheesecake slowly cool. This slow cooling process prevents the cake from falling or cracking.

After chilling the cake in the fridge overnight (always uncovered, so no condensation forms and wets the top of the cake), I was pleasantly surprised with the results. The texture was creamy, yet not too dense, and the limoncello and raspberries added a really refreshing, summery taste.