This easy, eggless strawberry cheesecake has the most incredible strawberry flavour and is topped with even more macerated juicy fresh strawberries! Hahaha I have said strawberry way too many times.
Please read these notes before you make the cheesecake for best results:
What is strawberry and raspberry reduction and how to make it?
Strawberry and raspberry reduction is essentially fruit purée cooked for some time to reduce the water content. What you get in the end is a thick concentration of fruit purée.
How to make the reduction: the process is same for every fruit.
-Chop the fruit and put it in a blender, blend until it becomes a smooth purée. Strain it if there are any seeds (for example: raspberries)
-Pour this fruit purée in a saucepan and cook it over low to medium heat for a minimum of 10-15 minutes or until it reduces to half of its original volume. The mixture will be very thick and jam like.
-Pour it into a glass container and let it cool completely.
Why do I have to make a reduction?
Fruits have too much of water content and using the fruit directly will affect the texture of the cheesecake and it will not bake properly. I heavily advice not to do so. There are other options to avoid using the reduction but they are very expensive, for example: freeze dried strawberries or freeze-dried strawberry powder. I have tried to use and implement techniques that are easily doable at home with minimal products.
Why do I need to use raspberries in a strawberry cheesecake?
Strawberries oxidise when they come in contact with dairy products. This makes the mixture look almost grey in colour. To counter this we add a little bit of raspberry reduction because raspberries give a strong pink colour and do not oxidise. If you do not want to use raspberries you can use the same amount of strawberry reduction in place of it. Just keep in mind that the cheesecake will have a very greyish pink colour.
I do not have a whipping cream can I use fresh cream instead?
I have used heavy whipping cream in this recipe. You can also use fresh cream. Please do not use any non-dairy cream or the frozen whipped cream that is available for cake decorating in this recipe.
This crust is too thick for me!
You can adjust the quantity of the digestive biscuits to make a crust of your liking. I like my cheesecake to have enough crust to hold the filling.
Why do I need to use food colour?
If you only use strawberries to make the reduction then the cheesecake will not have a vibrant pink colour. To counter this you can add a few drops of red food colour, I do not recommend adding pink food colour. I always use gel for colour for my cheese cakes.
If you use raspberries too then the cheesecake will have a light pink colour, you can add one or two drops of food colour to enhance it.
How to ensure that my cheesecake does not crack?
Cheesecakes can sometimes crack because of oven temperatures, over mixing the batter, sudden temperature changes etc. Do not worry, cracking is not the sign of a bad cheesecake, my cheese cakes crack sometimes too. You can always cover your cracks with the topping and no one will know.
However, by ensuring that your oven is calibrated to the right temperature and making sure that you do not whip the batter too much can help you reduce the chances of a cracked cheese cake.
Also, making sure that you do not open the oven door multiple times is crucial.
I never use a water bath to make any of my cheese cakes.
Topping for the cheesecake:
I like to use macerated strawberries to top my cheesecake. The strawberries become soft and sweet and the juice that is released can work as a sauce.
You can also strain the strawberries and cook down the juices by adding a little bit of corn starch to make it even thicker. This is an optional step.
With regards to sweetness: In India where I live the strawberries available, are very sour. This recipe is developed to adjust to the sweetness of the locally available strawberries. If you live in an area where there are sweet strawberries the sweetness might need some adjustment.
Baking time:
If you use any pan of a different size other than the one mentioned in the recipe, please ensure you adjust the baking time. Larger pan means comparatively less baking time.
Eggless baked Strawberry Cheesecake
Ingredients
Crust:
- 200 gram digestive biscuits powdered
- 30 milliliter butter melted – I used salted
Cheesecake filling:
- 400 gram cream cheese room temperature
- 100 gram strawberry reduction
- 70 gram raspberry reduction – READ NOTES ABOVE
- 100 gram granulated sugar
- 20 milliliter cream Amul whipping cream or READ NOTES ABOVE for substitutes
- 40 milliliter condensed milk
- 15 gram all purpose flour
Strawberry topping:
- 200 gram strawberries fresh & chopped
- 50 gram sugar
Red food colour (OPTIONAL): READ NOTES ABOVE
Instructions
Crust:
- In a grinder or food processor add the digestive biscuit and blitz until finely powdered. Dump it into a bowl.
- Now add the melted butter into the crushed digestive biscuits and mix till it looks like wet sand.
- Press this mixture into a 7-inch round spring form pan. If you want you can keep a single even layer at the bottom or you can also press it up along the sides to make a wall to hold the cheesecake filling. It is a matter of preference.
- Keep this pan in the freezer while you prepare your filling.
Topping: (Can also be done previous night)
- Slice the strawberries as big or small as you like, put them in a plastic or glass bowl and add the sugar.
- Cover and set it aside for 2 hours or upto overnight in the fridge
Filling:
- Preheat your oven to 160C.
- Add the room temperature cream cheese and both fruit reductions (check notes above for reduction recipe). Using a whisk, mix really well.
- Now add the sugar, cream and condensed milk and mix again.
- Lastly sift in the flour into the cream cheese mixture along with the food colour if using. Mix well until combined.
- Pour this filling into the prepared crust.
- Bake the cheesecake for roughly 45-60 minutes depending on your oven. When the cheesecake has a slight jiggle in the center, turn the oven off and let the cheesecake stay inside the oven for around 40 minutes to 1 hour with the oven door closed.
- Now take the cheesecake out of the oven and let it cool down on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes and then refrigerate it so that it cools completely.
- Minimum refrigeration time 3-4 hours, ideally overnight.
- To serve, top with the prepared topping, strain the strawberries and add it on top of the cheesecake. You can use the juices as a sauce for individual cheesecake slices. – Read notes above
Notes
Nutrition
Looks lovely!
Thank you so much! <3