This Dessert Brought to You By Another Hurricane

 Well, it appears my baking schedule has aligned with yet another hurricane, so I'm either slowly gaining control of the climate or 2020 is still just ripe with unlimited possibilities when it comes to disasters. Baking allows me to go to my happy place, where Pandora's Box, 2020 Edition, is not allowed to be opened. I decided it was time for another cheesecake because baking in my happy place also allows me to partake in my favorite time of the day: when dessert is served. Since we're still very much in the middle of summer temps here in Florida, I wanted a light, fruity cheesecake, and so I mashed up two fruits that hardly ever get to shine center stage together: lemon and blackberry. I find blackberries to be a highly underrated fruit (and cell phone...RIP easiest texting capabilities ever), and I am constantly finding new ways to add them to cupcakes, cakes, and now cheesecakes:

Swirl patterns similar to that of a hurricane. I do see the irony, yes.

This is THE cheesecake of my dreams. It's tart, it's creamy, and unlike most things in 2020, it isn't actively trying to kill me. It starts with a buttery gluten free graham cracker crust and ends with a melding of citrus and berries. It isn't too sweet; it leans more toward the sharp side thanks to the lemon, and in a testament to my will to eat dessert nightly, it's only 244 calories a slice (10 servings total). A piece of cheesecake for fewer calories than a granola bar, people! It's also a straightforward bake minus some citrus zesting (my poor knuckles). 

I still think Kinnikinnick is the most ridiculous brand name I've ever seen.

Before we do anything else, we better start with the crust. You could bake it without one, but that would just be sad and weird, and I'm pretty sure we've had enough of sad and weird at this point. So, for the crust, you need:

• 3 TBS low fat butter, cut into chunks (cold)
• 2 TBS Lakanto monkfruit sweetener or Swerve granular
• 1 cup of Kinnikinnick or other gluten free graham cracker crumbs (if not gluten free, use 1 cup of regular graham cracker crumbs and add 1 TBS of water to your crust ingredients)

Preheat your oven to 375, blend all ingredients together in a food processor, then line an 8" springform pan with Parchment paper and spray with cooking spray. Press the crust evenly into the pan...this isn't a huge amount of crust, so if you like a cheesecake that has crust all the way up the sides, double the recipe. Bake for 10-12 minutes until nice and golden. Set this in the fridge to cool and turn your oven down to 350 degrees.

And now, to make puree!

Admittedly, you could probably thin out some blackberry jam with a few teaspoons of water, but making puree from scratch isn't super tricky. Start by dumping 6 ounces of blackberries, 1/4 cup of water, and 1/4 cup of Swerve granular or Lakanto monkfruit sweetener into a small saucepan. Bring to a low boil over medium heat, stirring often for 10 minutes, until the berries are pretty much falling apart.

Steamy!

Then, place a strainer over a bowl, and pour your berry mix on top. Use a spoon or spatula to press the berries down and drain the juices. Things will probably be pretty watery, but if you want a thicker consistency for your swirl, pour back into the saucepan and bring to a boil again for a few minutes. You can also make a slurry with 1/2 TBS cornstarch and 1/2 TBS of water mixed together, then added into the berry mix while boiling to thicken. You don't want to make it too thick, or your swirl will sink into the cheesecake. Think honey/syrup consistency at most, and egg white consistency at least to find that happy medium between the two. Set this in the fridge to cool.

And now for the magic.

For the cheesecake itself, you need:

• 16 ounces of reduced fat cream cheese at room temp
• 1/2 cup Swerve granular or Lakanto monkfruit sweetener
• 1 TBS lemon zest
• 1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream at room temp
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 eggs at room temp
• 2-4 TBS fresh lemon juice to taste (if you want a sweeter cheesecake, go with less lemon juice)
• For topping: Cool Whip Free and 4 ounces of blackberries

With the paddle attachment on your stand mixer, blend the cream cheese and sugar replacement on medium-high until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in the zest, extract, and sour cream, and blend well. Then, on low speed, add each egg, one a at time, totally blending in one egg to the batter before adding the next. Do not mix at a high speed; this adds air with the egg whites and could cause cracking and deflated cheesecake sadness later. Finally, add the lemon juice to taste. I happen to still love eating things like Warheads, fresh limes, and Sour Patch kids, so I went with the full 4 tablespoons--this was the perfect amount of lemon juice for me and my also sour-obsessed husband. If your idea of a sour food is a bag of Skittles, don't use this much lemon juice. Go with 1 tablespoon at a time, tasting after you mix in each to get things to your liking.

Ah yes, the classic tinfoil hat.

Once your batter is made, grab your crust out of the fridge and tie a crockpot liner around it. Then wrap the pan in several layers of foil...this will all prevent any water from the water bath getting into the pan and sogging the crust.

And then pour in the cheesecake batter!

Now comes the absolutely fun part where you get to pretend you're an abstract painter. Take the cooled blackberry puree and dollop spoonfuls over the top of the cheesecake batter:

Not blood. Just wait...October is around the corner...

Now, use a knife to gently trace through the blackberry puree in an S pattern:

Things still look spooky at this point, and I'm more than okay with it.

Don't swirl too much, or you risk spreading the puree too thin. Now, grab a roasting pan and put your cheesecake inside it. Fill the pan with VERY HOT, STEAMING water. I use 6 cups of water.

The water should come about halfway up your springform pan.

Bake the cheesecake in the middle of the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 5 minutes. The center will still be wobbly, but the sides should very clearly be set. If you poke at the roasting pan with a pot holder and nothing shakes but the middle of the cheesecake, it's done. Now, turn off the oven and crack the door. Let the cheesecake finish baking with the oven door cracked for 1 hour.

Okay, now it's less spooky and more ohhhhh-y.

After that hour, remove from the roasting pan and place on a cooling rack. Run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan to loosen any bits of the side that might be stuck to the sides. Let this cool to room temp before placing plastic wrap on top and refrigerating for at least 4 hours in the pan if not overnight. I always let my cheesecakes set overnight, so good rule of thumb is to make this a day or two ahead of when you need/want it. Which is kind of a Catch-22 because when don't you need/want cheesecake, really?

If I could only eat one dessert for the rest of my life, cheesecake just might be that dessert.

The next day, remove the springform pan and place on your preferred serving plate. You could call it a day here because really, it's a very pretty and delicate-looking cheesecake, but when have you ever known me not to add sprinkles or swirls to the top of a dessert?!

It's like lip gloss and eyeliner, but for dessert.

I used 40 grams of Cool Whip Free, placed into a piping bag fitted with a 2D tip, simply piping stars around the border of the cheesecake:

It does hide a little of the swirl, but I needed a platform in which to add MORE BLACKBERRIES.

And I did just that.

Because even on their own, blackberries are also really quite cute. Like a little connect the dots of deliciousness.

Pretty? Pretty fruity? Pretty yummy? All of the above. This strikes the right balance of how creamy and smooth a cheesecake should be while the blackberry swirl gives a hint of tart and sweet that blends with it perfectly. I will say the creaminess of this cheesecake is really the thing that stands out the most, even over the lemon. It is still a nice tart zip at the end of each bite, but if you need MORE lemon, you could definitely serve this with a spoonful of lemon curd on each slice as well. I think that might just be the most perfect thing ever...which we all truly deserve due to *gestures wildly* all this. Don't forget to treat yourself. You've made it 9 months into a year that is going to make any company that publishes history books absolute trillions. If that hasn't earned you a slice of cheesecake, I don't know what does. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters! 

I long for the days when I could eat dessert without using it as a coping mechanism...