Blackberry Cheesecake
Blackberry cheesecake is creamy vanilla cheesecake with a hint of lemon in it. It has swirls of fresh blackberry sauce and is baked on a golden oreo cookie crust. This baked cheesecake recipe makes the perfect summer dessert when blackberries are at their peak. Check out the rest of my cheesecake recipes too!
Blackberry Dessert Ideas
I'm still on a blackberry desserts kick. Here are the blackberry dessert recipes I have made:
What can I say? It's one of my favorite berries. I wait all summer long to go pick fresh blackberries. I used them to make a swirled blackberry cheesecake with a golden Oreo cookie crust.
So, after creating the blackberry cheesecake recipe, this is what I've decided. Cheesecake + Blackberries = Miranda's slice of heaven. I think the golden Oreos put the icing on the cake.. or the crust on the cheesecake. hahaha. See what I did there?
When Are Blackberries in Season?
Depending on where you live, blackberries ripen in June through August. They ripen earlier in Southern states, and later in the season in the Midwest and North.
The only thing that I can't stand about blackberries are the seeds. Does anyone else have a deep love for fresh blackberries or raspberries, but can't deal with crunchy seeds? I know I can't be the only one. If you're one of those people, I've got you covered. Since I, too, cannot stand the seeds, I cooked the blackberries and strained them out, leaving a silky smooth blackberry sauce.
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I'm digging the swirly look of the blackberry cheesecake. I got a little heavy-handed on one side of the cheesecake with the blackberry sauce. It happens, I suppose. Just go with it as I did, and eat the fully loaded side of the blackberry cheesecake first. It is almost too good to handle.
How to Make Blackberry Sauce for Cheesecake
To make the blackberry sauce, add the blackberries, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a medium saucepan. Cook it on medium heat and mash the blackberries with a wooden spoon until the blackberries are broken down.
Strain the blackberries to separate the seeds from the juice with a fine-mesh strainer. Use a spatula and press the pulp through the strainer. Discard the seeds.
Rinse the saucepan out to make sure all of the seeds are gone and add all except ¼ cup of the blackberry sauce back into the saucepan.
In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and blackberry sauce. Now add the ¼ cup of the blackberry sauce back into the saucepan with the rest of the sauce. Heat back up on medium heat and let boil for 1 minute to thicken the sauce. Set the blackberry sauce aside and make the cheesecake part for the baked blackberry cheesecake.
This blackberry sauce recipe would also be perfect on a no bake lemon cheesecake recipe.
PRO TIP: I made two batches of the blackberry sauce. One that goes into the blackberry cheesecake, and one that goes on top of the cheesecake when serving.
How to Make Swirled Blackberry Cheesecake
Add the cream cheese into a large mixing bowl. Beat until there are no lumps. This is especially a good idea if your cream cheese is not fully up to room temperature.
Next, add in the sugar and beat until creamy.
Add in the eggs one at a time and beat until each egg is worked in. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl after each egg to make sure that any bits of cream cheese and egg are worked in to avoid lumpy cheesecake.
Add in the sour cream, heavy cream, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Beat just until everything is combined.
Pour the batter on top of the golden oreo cookie crust. Drizzle the blackberry sauce on top. I like to put my sauce in a sandwich bag and cut a small hole in the corner and drizzle it on that way. Using a skewer or butter knife, swirl the blackberry sauce into the cheesecake batter.
Place the cheesecake in a water bath and bake.
My cheesecake has cracks in it. What happened? This is happening because we're swirling a blackberry sauce into the cheesecake recipe with a skewer or butter knife. The two textures are different and naturally cause some cracks. The more you spread the sauce out, the smaller the cracks will be. It's perfectly fine to have these cracks, but if you're that upset by it, make a second batch of blackberry sauce and fill in the cracks with the sauce.
Can I leave out the lemon in the homemade black cheesecake? YES! Make it purely a vanilla cheesecake by excluding the lemon juice and lemon extract. I would add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract instead.
Should I use fresh blackberries or frozen blackberries? They will both work great!
Blackberry Cheesecake
Ingredients
Crust
- 18 Golden Oreos crushed
- 4 tablespoons butter melted
- 1 ½ tablespoons granulated sugar
Blackberry Sauce
- 2 cups blackberries
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon cornstarch
Cheesecake
- 24 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup full-fat sour cream
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
Instructions
Blackberry Sauce
- In a medium saucepan, add in the blackberries, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes or until the blackberries are completely broken down.
- Strain out the seeds in the blackberry sauce with a fine mesh strainer.
- Place back in the saucepan over medium heat.
- In a small bowl, add in the cornstarch and about ¼ cup of the strained blackberry sauce. Whisk until combined and there are no lumps.
- Add the cornstarch mixture into the saucepan with the rest of the blackberry sauce and whisk until combined.
- Let the sauce come up to a boil while stirring constantly. Once the sauce comes up to a boil, let it boil for 1 minute to thicken the sauce. Remove from heat and let cool.
Crust
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray the sides of a 9-inch springform pan with nonstick baking spray. Wrap the sides of the pan with a strip of parchment paper.
- Mix the crushed Oreos, melted butter, and sugar until it resembles wet sand and can be packed down.
- Press the crust evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan.
- Place in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool while you work on the cheesecake filling.
Cheesecake
- Add the cream cheese to a large mixing bowl. Beat with a hand mixer on medium until the cream cheese is smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add in the sugar and beat on medium again until combined.
- Add in the eggs one at a time and beat in each egg completely before adding the next. Scrape down the bowl after adding each egg.
- Add in the sour cream, heavy cream, lemon, and lemon zest. Beat on medium until the mixture comes together. It will be runny.
- Pour the batter on top of the crust in the prepared pan.
- Pour the blackberry sauce evenly on the cheesecake. Using a skewer or knife, swirl the sauce into the cheesecake.
- Wrap the springform pan with 2 layers of heavy-duty tin foil. Place the cheesecake into a slightly bigger pan and fill with one inch of water.
- Place in the oven with a tented piece of tin foil over the top of the cheesecake to prevent browning on the top. Let the cheesecake bake for 1 hour 25 minutes or until done. To make sure the cheesecake is done, gently give it a wiggle. If it slightly jiggles in JUST the middle like jello, then it's done. If it jiggles all over, it needs to bake longer. Turn off the heat and crack the oven door slightly. Let it cool in the oven for 1 to 2 hours until it reaches room temperature and then place in the fridge to chill overnight.
- Remove the cheesecake from the springform pan. Slice and serve.
Nutrition
(Nutrition facts are an estimate and not guaranteed to be accurate. Please see a registered dietitian for special diet advice.)
This Blackberry Cheesecake recipe post was originally posted on September 16, 2014.
OMG! To be honest, after making this cheesecake, I threw recipe in recycle while it was still in the oven. I'd accidentally turned oven off while cooking, which messed up the timing, and it took a long time to cook and at that point I was just annoyed with whole thing. BUT--after tasting it the next day, I dug recipe out of recycle bin!!!! This cheesecake is ridiculously amazing!!!! I used vanilla instead of lemon juice. I made double the blackberry puree as you suggested--did it the day before. I've made and eaten LOTS of cheesecakes---this is by far the BEST!!!!! It will be my base recipe now and will try with different purees and add ins. Thank you
really disappointed in this recipe. the blackberry sauce process yielded barely any sauce.. i made two batches, following the instructions exactly and still hardly any sauce once i finished boiling and straining.
then, the cook time is approximately one hour and 25 minutes. mine took THREE AND A HALF hours in an oven that had already been on for an hour.
this was a needlessly excessive and overly involved recipe for mediocre results. there are many recipes out there just like this one that are far less convoluted and actually are able to be followed.
very unhappy with this.
Hi Sophie! I am sorry the cheesecake didn't turn out the way you expected. When I make the sauce I usually end up with about a cup of thickened, strained blackberry sauce. Maybe try cooking it a little less next time so the juice doesn't evaporate as much. You can also use store bought blackberry jam (or any kind of store bought jam!) to make the recipe faster. I hope this helps and you give the recipe a try again- it really is delicious!
Mine also did not cook in an 1 h 25 mins at 325. I even used boiling water for the water bath.
I will definitely have to look into this issue. Make sure the blackberry compote isn't completely mixed in, just swirled. Otherwise, the cheesecake may become too liquid and not bake. You can also bake at 350 with the water bath to help reduce the cooking time. I will have to make this one again and test it out once more!
Not sure why my blackberries didn’t cook down. Took me a lot longer than the 20 min and I had to add a little water. ??♀️ I’ve not even got to the baking part.
Hi Carmen! That is strange! Blackberries usually soften fairly quickly. Were they very hard to begin with? Maybe they were very under-ripe. I hope you get to try the rest of the cheesecake recipe soon!
What was the parachament paper for? Was it suppose to go under the cookie crust?
I use a strip of parchment paper on the inside of the cake pan, around the edge. This helps make popping the cheesecake out of the pan easier after it bakes.
I am going to try this with blueberries too.
Great idea!
We absolutely loved this recipe. I was disappointed in the cook time though. We cooked the cheesecake at the same temperature as the crust (325) because it didn’t say anywhere else to change it. After 1 hour and 25 min our cheesecake was nowhere close to being done. We ended up having to cook it for another 40 minutes. It turned out absolutely fantastic though after fully cooking.
Oh wow! I'll make a note of that in the recipe. Thanks for letting me know.
I had the same issue with the timing I think it was because I continued cooking on 325 like the crust says. What is the temp supposed to be?
It's supposed to be baked at 325. Continue to bake the cheesecake until the edges are set and the center only slightly moves. You're more than welcome to bake it at 350, but the top will likely brown up.
i made many cakes but when i try the lemon blackberry cheese cake, everyone asking for the recipe because it was to yummy. thanks friend to share this beautiful and wonderful recipe with us.
I .made the cheesecake and it was wonderful but I feel that the description is incorrect. It isn't a creamy VANILLA cheesecake at all but a lemon BlackBerry cheesecake. I was really hoping for a vanilla flavor.
Thanks for letting me know! Next time, leave out the lemon juice and zest and you'll have your vanilla cheesecake.
This is beautiful! I love the marbling, it came out so well, I wouldn't want to eat it (obviously, I'd more than likely have about half the cheesecake on my own!)
Thank you! I devoured my fair share. Cheesecake is a weakness for me. lol
Beautiful swirling on the top.
Thank you! 😀