Raspberry & Pistachio Crumble Cheesecake

First up, I need to make a little disclaimer…..  This is not a full-blown, ridgy didge cheesecake, rather, there is actually some cakey stuff going on as well.  You see, I had a bit of a dilemma over what to call it so that you all would know what it actually is, but a Raspberry Sour Cream Cake with a Cheesecake layer and Pistachio Crumble is a bit of a mouthful - so Raspberry & Pistachio Crumble Cheesecake is what it became!  I actually based this recipe on my Apple Sour Cream Cake with Hazelnut Crumble which you can find here. 

So now that we have that out of the way, all that’s left really is for you to make it.  I don’t need to tell you more, other than it is so delicious and would absolutely make a fabulous Christmas dessert (especially if you’re one of those people like me who really detests a traditional Christmas pud).  If you want to ‘Christmas’ it up a bit, you could substitute the raspberries for cherries……that’s likely what I’ll be doing.  Happy baking!!

Mel xoxo

PS. The gorgeous linens pictured in the photos are made by the talented Sarah at Piccolo Studio. Find out more about Sarah’s work and products here

Raspberry & Pistachio Crumble Cheesecake

serves 10-12

Ingredients

Raspberry Sour Cream Cake

150g unsalted butter, softened

150g golden caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla paste

3 eggs, room temperature

100g sour cream

100g self raising flour

160g ground almonds (almond meal)

150g raspberries, fresh or frozen

Cheesecake Layer

250g cream cheese, very soft

45g caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla paste

1 egg, room temperature and beaten

Pistachio Crumble

150g unsalted butter, cold and cubed

130g plain four

90g soft brown sugar

1tsp ground cinnamon

80g shelled pistachios, roughly chopped

Garnish

pure icing sugar

freeze dried raspberries (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 165C.  Grease and line a 23cm springform cake tin.

To make the cake, place the butter, golden caster sugar and vanilla paste in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater.  Beat until pale, light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition, then beat in the sour cream.  Fold in the flour and ground almonds until just combined and then fold through the raspberries.  Pour the mixture into the cake tin and level out the top.

To make the cheesecake layer, place all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and use a spatula to mix until smooth.  Pour this layer on top of the cake batter.

Finally, to make the crumble, put all ingredients except for the pistachios, into the mixer bowl (just use the same one you made the cake batter in, no need to clean it).  Using the flat beater, mix on slow until the mixture becomes crumbly - don’t overmix.  Stir through the pistachios.  Crumble the mixture evenly over the top of the cake and bake for around 75-80 minutes (because of the cheesecake layer, the cake will still have a little bit of a wobble when you take it out the oven - this will set as the cake cools).  Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for at least 30 minutes before removing the sides of the tin and allowing it to cool on a rack.  Once cool, dust with sifted icing sugar and crushed freeze dried raspberries (optional).  Serve at room temperature with some thick double cream, or my favourite, some vanilla ice cream.