Goat Cheesecake

My partner is wild about goat cheese. So for his birthday, I knew I needed to make a mash of that and his other true love: cheesecake.

To me, speculoos cookies have become the obvious choice for a crumble pie crust. They have so much more flavor than graham crackers, and I'm a sucker for cookie butter. I made the crust by smashing up some cookies, mixing the crumbs with melted butter, and pressing them into a cake dish.

Then came the cheesecake, put together using your standard cheesecake build method. I let the goat and cream cheeses sit out to warm up and honestly, I didn't let them get totally to room temp because the idea of it skeeves me out, but they were a good chunk of the way there. I needed them to blend, not stay chunky. So I blended the cheese until they were smooth, then added the sugar and beat it until it was fluffy. Next, I lowered the mixer speed and gradually added the sour cream, followed by the vanilla and eggs. Once it was all combined, my batter was ready.

The cheesecake was baked in a water bath, which prevents the sides from overcooking while the center bakes. I wrapped two springform pans in 2 layers of foil to prevent water from seeping in. Flan is cooked in a similar way and the result is a perfect, soft texture.

The cake baked for an hour and 20 minutes total.

As you can see, the result was a creamy, beautiful little cheesecake.

The thing I really liked about this was the sweetness level. It was midly sweet, with a slight lean towards savory. I loved it.

Topped with a little bit of of fresh strawberry and the ideal mesh of flavors was had. But what's really important here is the recipient of my cheesecake. He described it as "one of the best cheesecakes he's ever eaten". Is there bias there? Likely. But I'll take it.

Goat Cheesecake Recipe

Ingredients:

For the crust:

1 cup crushed speculoos cookies or graham crackers

6 tablespoons melted butter

For the cheesecake:

16 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature (2 packages)

12 ounces goat cheese, softened to room temperature (2-3 packages)

1 cup white sugar

8 ounces sour cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs at room temperature

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Make a crust by adding crushed cookies and melted butter in a springform pan. Mix well, then press into the bottom. In a large mixing bowl, beat goat and cream cheeses together until smooth. Add sugar, then beat for about 2 minutes. Lower speed and stir in sour cream. Add vanilla and eggs, mixing well. Wrap springform pans in foil, then place in a larger pan filled with 1-2 inches of water. Pour batter into pans. Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour and 20-30 minutes, until the center is set. Let cool completely, then refrigerate for 1-2 hours minimum before serving.

adapted from goat cheese cheesecake