How to make Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake with Lemon Shortbread Crust. It’s better than Cheesecake Factory!
If you are a fan of The Cheesecake Factory but want to try making your own copycat cheesecake recipe, you’ll want to try this Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake recipe. It’s even better than the famous restaurant’s cheesecake. This post will give you the step by step instructions for making the cheesecake, the delicious filling, and the amazing raspberry sauce to go on top! You will love this cheesecake recipe! It’s one of our top recipes at Making Life Blissful.
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The Cheesecake Factory has amazing desserts! The trouble is, their food is fantastic too…so once you’ve eaten dinner, you have no room for their famous confections. Whenever we go, we take dessert to go and eat it later….best midnight treat, ever! I have tried several of their famous cheesecakes, but their Raspberry Lemon Cheesecake is my FAVE! They bake a swirl of raspberry into the lemon cheesecake. DELISH! However, I love a PUNCH of raspberry flavor. The swirl of raspberry baked into the cheesecake, dilutes the raspberry flavor. I love to copy restaurant recipes….or add to them.
My friend Leticia L. shared her famous lemon cheesecake recipe with me. It turns out PERFECT, AMAZING, TALL, RICH…RESTAURANT QUALITY. I top her cheesecake with rich red raspberry
sauce. I think it is the PERFECT combination of velvety lemon cheesecake and raspberry sauce that packs the perfect raspberry punch. You’ll LOVE,
LOVE, LOVE this recipe….it’s even better than….! Shhh…don’t tell The Cheesecake Factory….keep this secret among friends!
Love and lemon zest,
sauce. I think it is the PERFECT combination of velvety lemon cheesecake and raspberry sauce that packs the perfect raspberry punch. You’ll LOVE,
LOVE, LOVE this recipe….it’s even better than….! Shhh…don’t tell The Cheesecake Factory….keep this secret among friends!
Love and lemon zest,
Amy J
Here’s a few other lemon and raspberry recipes that you may like:
How to make Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake:
Lemon Shortbread Crust:
I know, I know….you’re thinking, “Where is the graham cracker crust?”
Listen….graham cracker crust has its place…and it is delicious. But TRUST ME! This Lemon Shortbread Crust pairs perfectly with the Raspberry-Lemon Cheesecake. Its fresh-lemon-buttery sweetness adds the perfect lemon-cookie base for the best cheesecake you’ve tasted!! You’ll want to snatch up every last crumb. Crazy good!
Now put your box of graham crackers away…and let’s roll!
Zest those lemons! Fresh lemon zest makes ALL the difference! We use the BEST CHEESE GRATER & ZESTER from Zulay Kitchen. This zester is stainless steel with a nice long, no-slip handle. You can use it for citrus, cheese, ginger, chocolate, and even coconut. It includes a plastic cover too!
Mix: flour, sugar, fresh lemon zest, softened butter, egg yolk, and vanilla until combined. Pat in the bottom and half-way up the sides of a GREASED 9-inch spring form pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool. Mmmm….smell all that lemony goodness! Set crust aside.
Making the Lemon Cheesecake Filling:
Gather your ingredients!
WOW! That’s a lot of cream cheese!
Yep! This cheesecake is tall and amazing….and yes…it takes a lot of cream cheese to accomplish this masterpiece!
I use fresh lemon zest AND lemon emulsion I bought online (OliveNation.com). Lemon emulsion is not expensive, but it is not found in grocery stores. Restaurants and fine bakeries use it t to accomplish an amazing lemon flavor. Lemon emulsion is similar to pure lemon extract except it is not preserved in alcohol. If used in baking, lemon emulsion does not lose it’s pure, fresh lemon taste (which can happen with lemon extract when it is cooked at high temperatures).
I also love using lemon emulsion in no bake recipes because it doesn’t have the alcohol aftertaste. It adds an amazing lemon kick to my lemon cream for crepes. It’s TO DIE FOR!
It does make a difference in the amazing lemon flavor, but if you don’t feel like tracking it down…just use lemon zest. The lemon flavor will be there, it just won’t be as strong.
In a large bowl beat cream cheese until creamy. I use a hand mixer (instead of my Kitchen Aid) for this. It’s just personal preference. This way I get everything mixed nice and smooth without missing any bits of cream cheese. Next, add lemon zest, lemon emulsion and vanilla and mix well.
Combine sugar flour and salt. Gradually blend into cream cheese mixture.
Next, add eggs and yolks one at a time, beating after each addition just to blend. This is amazingly smooth and velvety!
Finally, gently stir in whipping cream….AND….your cheesecake filling is done!
Now the secret to baking amazing cheesecake:
Here’s the secret to avoid soggy crust when baking in a water bath: Grab a plastic crock pot liner and a couple paper towels or napkins….like 3 or 4.
Place napkins/paper towels in bottom of plastic liner….place prepared crust pan on top of the napkins/paper towels. You can’t see the napkins in this picture….trust me…they are under the
spring form pan!
spring form pan!
(NOTE: the plastic liner will keep water from seeping in around your spring form pan. This works much better than foil! The napkins/paper towels under your pan will collect any condensation that will collect around your pan while baking. RESULT: beautiful lemon shortbread crust! No soggy yuck here!!!!)
Pour cheese cake mixture into to crust pan.
Now that your cheesecake is in the spring form pan. Let’s prepare your water bath:
Fill the roasting pan with hot water halfway up the sides of the spring form pan, taking care to make sure the plastic bag edges stay high above both pans….once again, keeping water out to prevent a soggy crust.
Bake at 450 degrees for 12 minutes, reduce the temperature to 300 degrees and continue baking until the center of the cheesecake jiggles slightly like firm jell-o. (The original recipe called for 50 minutes of baking at 300 degrees…. this was for an electric oven. My gas oven bakes at 300 degrees for 90 minutes. You know your oven…time the cheese cake accordingly).
Bake time is IMPORTANT! You don’t need to pierce your beautiful creation with a knife to see if it is done! No, No! Just open the oven and move the pan back and forth slightly to see if the middle jiggles slightly like firm jell-o. You want a slight jiggle because if the cheesecake is completely firm at this point, it has over-baked and WILL crack.
Once you have a slight jiggle in the center of your cheese cake, turn off the oven, crack the oven door open to allow heat to escape and cool for a half hour.
Next, remove cheese cake from oven and cool to room temperature on a wire rack.
Finally, chill cheesecake for about 4-6 hours. Once chilled, remove sides of spring form pan ….and VOILA!!!
You have a BEAUTIFUL cheesecake creation! Look! No cracking…no soggy crust! AWESOME!
Now for the amazing Raspberry Sauce!
Stir together: raspberries, sugar, corn starch, and salt. Here I used frozen raspberries but you can use fresh as well.
Stir while sauce begins to simmer over med heat. See how the color is light and milky looking? This will change as the corn starch cooks and thickens the sauce.
Simmer until sauce is slightly thickened and has turned this amazing dark, rich, red color. See how glossy and shiny it looks? This happens after about 3-5 minutes.
Pour raspberry sauce into a serving bowl and cool. YIIIIIKES this sauce is AMAZING!!!!
NOTE: We love to make berry sauce like this to serve over waffles and ice-cream, and a variety of desserts. This works with any berry you like! Experiment! Try strawberry, huckleberry, mix berry etc….DELISH!
Drizzle raspberry sauce over lemon cheesecake to make the ULTIMATE Raspberry-Lemon Cheesecake!! ENJOY!
Raspberry-Lemon Cheesecake with Lemon Shortbread Crust…better than Cheesecake Factory!
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Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake
How to make the perfect raspberry lemon cheescake that’s better than Cheesecake Factory. One of our most popular recipes at Making Life Blissful!
- Cook Time: 60
- Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients
Scale
crust
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 egg yolk lightly beaten
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- Mix crust ingredients. Pat in
- the bottom and half-way up the sides of a greased 9-inch spring form pan. Bake
- at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool.
Filling
- 5– 8 ounce packages cream
- cheese, softened
- 3/4 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
- 1 ½ teaspoons lemon emulsion (optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 large eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup whipping cream
- Raspberry Sauce (see recipe below)
Instructions
- n a large bowl beat cream cheese until creamy… add lemon zest, lemon emulsion and vanilla. Combine sugar flour and salt. Gradually blend into cream cheese mixture. Add eggs and yolks one at a time, beating after each addition just to blend. Gently stir in whipping cream.
- Here’s the secret to avoid soggy crust when baking in a water bath: Grab a plastic crock pot liner and a couple paper towels or napkins….like 3 or 4.
- Place napkins/paper towels in bottom of plastic liner….place prepared crust pan on top of the napkins/paper towels. Pour cheese cake mixture into to crust pan.
- (NOTE: the plastic liner will keep water from seeping in around your spring form pan. This works much better than foil! The napkins/paper towels under your pan will collect any condensation that will collect around your pan while baking. RESULT: beautiful lemon shortbread crust! No soggy yuck here!!!!)
Now that your cheesecake is in the spring form pan. Let’s prepare your water bath
- Fill the roasting pan with hot water halfway up the sides of the pan, taking care to make sure the plastic bag edges stay high above pan sides….once again, keeping water out to prevent soggy
- crust.
- Bake at 450 degrees for 12 minutes reduce the temperature to 300 degrees and bake until the center of the cheesecake jiggles slightly like firm jell-o. (If you have an electric oven
- bake for 50 minutes at 300 degrees. If you have a gas oven, it will be much longer. My gas oven takes 90 minutes to cook the cheese cake at 300 degrees).
- Turn off the oven, crack oven door and allow cooling for a half hour. Remove cheese cake from oven and cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Chill for about 4-6 hours. Once chilled, remove spring form pan sides….and VOILA!!! You have a BEAUTIFUL cheese cake creation!
- AWESOME!
Raspberry Sauce
- 2 cups raspberries
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tsp corn starch
- 1/8 tsp salt
- Stir together. Simmer over med heat until slightly thickened about 3-5 minutes. Cool.Enjoy! Let me know if you like it!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 8
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