Amaretto & Mascarpone Cheesecake
A delectably lush and creamy and very easy-to-make amaretto mascarpone cheesecake that’s topped with the very best of the season’s fresh fruit bounty!
Servings: 12
Ingredients
Crust
- 10 graham crackers
- 1/2 cup sliced roasted almonds set aside 1 tablespoon
- 6 tablespoons butter melted
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Cheesecake
- 16 oz mascarpone
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 5 eggs lightly beaten
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup amaretto
- 1 orange zest & juice
- 1/2 pod vanilla bean, scraped can sub with 1 1/2 teaspoons of extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- pinch kosher salt
Fruit Topping
- fruit of choice around 12 small stone fruits or 1-2 pints of berries/figs
- 1 tablespoon amaretto
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon sliced & roasted almonds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F degrees.
- Place the graham crackers in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until small crumbs are beginning to form. Add the almonds, salt and sugar and melted butter; pulse until all is incorporated.
- Press the graham cracker almond mixture into the bottom and sides of the springform pan. Chill the crust in the fridge for 15 minutes, then bake for 10. Allow the crust to cool completely. Lower the oven to 350 F degrees.
- In the bowl of a food processor, combine the mascarpone, cream cheese, Amaretto, vanilla bean (or extract), almond extract, sugar, zest and juice of 1 orange, and a pinch of salt. Run the processor, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and run again, slowly adding the eggs and running until all ingredients are mixed together.
- Pour the mascarpone cheesecake mixture over the cooled crust. Bake at 350 for 1 hr and 5-15min. Chill for at least 3 hours or overnight to set. (Cheesecake can be stored, chilled, for up to 3 days).
- When ready to serve, pre-heat oven to 400 degreese. Spread fruit of choice (so far I’ve used plums, figs, and strawberries and plan to keep on experimenting) cut side up, on tray. Please note I did not cut the strawberries but did with the figs and plums. If using berries no need to cut. Roast for about 25 minutes, or unit fruit is soft.
- Take out of oven, springle with sugar and drizzle with amaretto and 1 tbsp of water. Bake for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set fruit aside until cool enough to handle.
- When fruit is cool enough to handle, spoon mixture over the center of the cheesecake. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp of sliced, roasted almonds (that you set aside from the crust) and enjoy.
Notes
- It’s crucial that the cream cheese and mascarpone be completely softened, firm cream cheese will not produce a smooth batter.
- For the clean slicing, let the cheesecake cool completely (at least 3 hours an up to overnight) and slice using a long, thin knife that’s been running under hot water. Wipe knife between cuts.