Delicious Summertime Cheesecake with Red Currant

The berry season is continuing and doesn’t matter how hard we try to eat all the berries from our backyard, we are still behind :) So, I bake and cook with our beautiful berries because it would be a shame to waste it and because everything tastes and looks so much better with them. After my recent Streusel Cheesecake with Red Currant was such a success and disappeared within less than a day, I made another Cheesecake with Red Currants. You would think it should be very similar – Cheese…Red Currant…, but it tastes completely different with Graham Cracker crust and Cherry Jello with beautiful berries. This Red Currant Cheesecake is refreshing, light, and fruity – a real summertime treat! 

Ingredients

Crust:
300 g Graham Cracker crumbs
150 g unsalted butter
Cheese Layer:
½ tbsp. Vanilla 
1 tbsp. Lemon juice  
2 eggs 
500 g Liberté Cream Cheese Product (Quark or No grain dry Cottage cheese) 
2 ½ tbsp. Vanilla Instant Pudding
Fruit Layer:
300 g Red currant
1 pkg. Cheery gello
Powdered sugar for decoration (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 F.  
Remove red currant from the stems. You can do it by hand or pass each stem through the fork and let the berries fell into the bowl.
Gently wash berries under the running cold water and drain. Spread on a paper or kitchen towel to dry. 
Grease 10-inch spring baking form and line it with parchment paper. Set aside. To cut the parchment paper – place the base of the spring form on the paper and circle it. 
Make a crust:

Melt butter and mix it with Graham Cracker crumbs. Distribute evenly the Cracker mixture on the parchment paper and slightly press. Set aside.
Make a Cheese layer: 
With electric mixer, beat 125g soft butter for a minute until fluffy. Add 125 g sugar and continue beating for a couple of minutes, until integrated well.  Add lemon juice, and then eggs one at a time, beating each for about half a minute. Add Instant pudding, mix well, and then add the cream cheese. 
You don’t want to use Philadelphia cream cheese for this recipe, but white creamy cheese like Liberté Cream Cheese Product.  This cheese has a consistency similar to a sour cream, and not the low fat one :) If you can’t find this cheese, you can use a dry cottage cheese. Pass it through a food processor for smoother texture and add a bit of sour cream for a creamy consistency if needed. 
Transfer the cheese mixture on top of the crust and spread evenly.

Bake the cake in the oven for about 50-60 minutes or until the center of the cake is set.
Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Make a Fruit Layer:
Distribute Red currant berries evenly on top of the cake.
Prepare a jello following the package instructions. Let it cool and make sure it started to set (become jello-y). Carefully distribute the jello over the berries to create a nice even layer.
Place the cake in the refrigerator to cool and for jello to set completely, at least for 4 hours or even better - overnight.
Before serving, run a knife around edges to release the cake and remove the sides of the form.  Decorate with powdered sugar and sprigs of currants. Enjoy this beautiful and delicious summertime cake! 

Bon Appetit!