Meyer Lemon Cheesecake with Biscoff Crust
Author Notes: A friend needed a cheesecake, and so I made one. And not just a plain vanilla cheesecake, this one is flavored with the juice and zest of Meyer lemons. Have you found the Meyer lemons in your supermarket produce section? (I'm asking this question of my local friends, not my California friends, who all seem to have Meyer lemon trees, leaden with fruit, and the "problem" of too many Meyer lemons. )
This is the second year that I've found the lemons in my suburban Kroger, $1.99 a bag. What is the magic of a Meyer, you ask? Well, it's like a lemon, but not. It's like an orange, but not. It's somewhere in between - not quite as tart as the lemon, not quite as bold as the orange, but a pleasant in-between.
For my lemon cheesecake, I used Biscoff cookies for the crumb crust, instead of the usual graham crackers. Biscoff have a deeper, more molasses taste that suits the Meyer lemons well. Plus, they are just exotic enough to go with the slightly-left-of-center lift of the Meyers. If you fly Delta, save up your little packs, or just visit Kroger, like the rest of us.
This is the best cheesecake I've ever made. Astute recipe readers will note that it's a riff on the classic Three Cities of Spain cheesecake from Gourmet. That is the best basic cheesecake recipe in the world, and is very adaptable. I added the zest and juice of two Meyer lemons, for just the right amount of zip.
—Lucy Mercer
Food52 Review: WHO: Lucy Mercer is a freelance writer who cooks, writes, and carpools.
WHAT: A creamy, lemony, celebratory cheesecake.
HOW: Blitz Biscoff cookies for the crust, bake it off, and then pour in a lemony, cream cheese-y filling. Bake, top with sour cream, and bake some more. Ogle at your creation.
WHY WE LOVE IT: We love the combination of zest, juice and lemon extract, which packs a very lemony punch without too much acidity. The sour cream topping adds a great balance to the richness of the filling and looks lovely flecked with lemon zest. And Biscoff cookies as a crust? Sign us up. —Food52
Serves: 10
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Biscoff crust
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5
ounces Biscoff cookies, crumbled
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1/3
cup sugar
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1/8
teaspoon salt
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5
tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- Heat oven to 350. Prepare a 9-inch springform pan.
- In a food processor, blitz Biscoff cookies until finely ground. Add sugar and salt and continue to process. Slowly pour in melted butter and process again.
- Press mixture into bottom and up sides of springform pan. Bake in 350 oven for 10 minutes. Remove and let crust cool to room temperature.
Meyer lemon cheesecake filling
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3
8-oz. packages cream cheese (low-fat is ok, no-fat is not)
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4
large eggs
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1
cup sugar
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1
teaspoon vanilla extract
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1/2
teaspoon lemon extract
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2
Meyer lemons, zest removed and juice reserved
-
1
16 oz. carton sour cream (low-fat is ok, no-fat is not)
-
1
tablespoon sugar
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In a mixing bowl, place cream cheese and beat with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the sugar and mix well, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add 1/2 of the zest to the cheesecake batter, reserving the remainder. Add all of the juice and the extracts to the batter, and continue to mix. Pour batter into prepared crumb crust. Place pan on baking sheet and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until cake is just set in center. Remove cake from oven but do not turn off oven.
- Whisk together sour cream, 1 tablespoon sugar and remaining lemon zest. Spoon mixture onto the cheesecake and spread with an offset spatula or knife. Return the cake to the oven and bake for 10 additional minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven and let cool to room temperature. Store cheesecake, well-wrapped in refrigerator.
- This recipe is a Wildcard Contest Winner!
- This recipe is a Community Pick!
- This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Citrus Recipe
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Biscoff! Genius!
Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
FYI: For those in the Midwest, I have found Meyer lemons in the "organic" produce section of the Dierbergs grocery chain. Whole Foods has them as well, but Dierbergs is a bit cheaper. :)
HalfPint is a trusted home cook.
Made this with graham crackers because I didn't have any Biscoff. Added some pumpkin pie spices and more cinnamon to mimic the flavor of Biscoff. Other than adding 2 TB sugar to the sour cream, I followed the recipe as written. The yield on my 2 meyer lemons was ~1/4 cup. Cheesecake baked to a light jiggle in 45 minutes. Strangely, though not unpleasantly, 1 cup of sugar in the batter was not very sweet. It was the most perfect looking cheesecake that I have ever baked. The flavor was tangy and not overly sweet. I didn't have any problems with butter leakage which might have to do with using grahams instead of Biscoff. I learned that I may have been over-cooking cheesecakes in the past. The texture of the baked cheesecake was smooth and almost silky. I think the sour cream topping could probably do with a little more sugar, maybe another tablespoon. This is a really nice cheesecake and easy to make.
Made without lemon extract and very good flavor but, as previous comment, wish there was a measurement for the lemon juice. My 2 meyer lemons gave 100 ml. juice. maybe that was too much? I baked a bit more than 'just set' before applying topping and baking again yet end result was too soft and a bit runny in the center. liked the shiny finish of the topping. Made with graham cracker crust (Three Cities of Spain Recipe) with 4.5 T of butter, covering the bottom only, not sides, and butter did not leak. will make again but will adjust volume of juice next time.
Could I substitute Ricotta Cheese and if so is it equal to the amount of cream cheese?
My 2 Meyer lemons yielded just over 1c of juice. I wish the recipe would indicate just how much juice is required rather than just "juice of 2 lemons". It took nearly an hour to bake, not a problem really, the flavor is wonderful.
If you omit the lemon... is this cake delicious as vanilla cream cheeses cake as well?
Took almost twice as long as the recipe indicated to bake until the cake set. Seems like a lot of lemon juice in the batter slowing down the set time (and working with a new, perfectly calibrated oven.) But a pleasant cake nonetheless.
i made recipe as stated,took longer to bake @15-20 . minutes +sour cream time
i used 8 inch spring form pan. u can use any cookie crumb as base because those listed are pricey. great flavor with those lemons. I needed to make larger cakes and doubled recipe that completely filled 10 in spring form pan
longer cook time, actually dropped oven temp to 300 f good results nice tasting cheesecake
This was so awesome. Made it for my daughter's bat mitzvah party and not a crumb was left. I also had butter leak out, but my springform pan was wrapped in foil.
I hate recipes that don't give you all the directions. I just was not thinking and forgot you have to chill a cheesecake for 12 hours. Made it the day I was taking to a party and realized that it had to chill after the fact.
I had the same butter leakage problem with the crust but after reading the comments I did wrap the pan with foil. Maybe use a little less butter next time. Also, instead of the topping I spread lemon curd on the top after baking and put whipped cream over that. Very nice.
Is there an amount (lemon juice) to use to jazz up the lemon flavor? I don't have Meyers. Or should I use more zest. Thank you.
where do I find the recipe for the biscoff cookies to crumble to make the cheese cake crust????
You buy the cookies...
Yes-check the Biscoff website store finder. They're fairly common. My grocery 5 min away had them;)
The butter dripped down from the bottom of the pan and ruined the oven during the second cooking stage. The whole apartment got covered in smoke and I had to quit and throw away everything. What possibly I could have done wrong?
I made this for a recent party. While I didn't have Myer lemons - I used 1 lemon and 1 lime. I also made strawberry sauce to pour on top. It was insanely good and easy!
First time ever making cheesecake & this came out perfect! No Myer lemons, so I just used normal lemons, but aside from that followed the recipe exactly. As others mentioned, was a little hesitant on adding the sour cream topping, but it was perfect! I didn't even grease my pan(will in the future just to be on the safe side) & it came out just fine. Served with fresh strawberries-perfect combo!!!
Made this for the 3rd time in three months - my husband's birthday in October, Thanksgiving in November and for Christmas. Seriously good. I used Chef Ono's trick of putting the cheesecake pan in a slightly larger one, so there's no danger of seepage from the water bath. The cake came out perfectly creamy with a crispy crust. The sour cream layer adds something special.
Bought a big bag of meyer lemons at Costco. Made this cheesecake for Christmas day and it got rave reviews. I was skeptical at first but it was light and creamy and absolutely delicious. I have already gotten requests for more.
I just bought a mini cheesecake pan (3" diameter wells) and wondered if anyone knows what adjustments I should make for cooking time and temperature. Thanks!
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