Eat Well, Live Happy: Mascarpone Cannoli Cheesecake

Tomorrow is Easter, which means I spent some time today making a cheesecake for dessert tomorrow, which has become my tradition. I have a bad habit of making the same two or three cheesecake recipes every time I need to make a cheesecake, so I decided to try a new one this year. It looks and smells delicious, so hopefully it tastes just as great!

This year I wanted to make a cannoli cheesecake. I found a few recipes online - some used cannoli shells for the crust and ricotta for the filling. Then I came across Giada's recipe which has mascarpone in it (which I love in desserts), so I decided that would be the one I'd try. Giada has another mascarpone cheesecake recipe that I made several years ago and it was delicious, so I knew I couldn't go wrong with this recipe. I decided to use the almond graham cracker crust from that recipe because I did not have biscotti and couldn't find any that I wanted to use.

This recipe was very simple to make. Just make sure you let the cheeses come to room temperature before you mix the batter so it isn't full of lumps - a must whenever you are baking with cream cheese!

Also, my baked cheesecake looks pretty dark on top because I baked it in my Breville smart oven instead of my regular oven. Next time I won't use the Breville oven - with cheesecakes the batter puffs up and gets too close to the heating elements and I always forget about that until I see how dark the top of the cheesecake gets! The good news is it will taste the same on the inside so how it looks really doesn't matter!

Mascarpone Cannoli Cheesecake

Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

Crust:

8 large dry almond-anise biscotti, or your favorite biscotti

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Pinch of salt

Filling:

Two 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature

One 8-ounce container mascarpone cheese, at room temperature

¾ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (from 1 lemon)

3 eggs, at room temperature

¾ cup semisweet mini chocolate chips

Italian cherries in syrup, such as Amarena, for serving, optional

Preheat oven to 350˚.

Pulse the biscotti to fine crumbs in a food processor. Drizzle in the butter, add a pinch of salt and pulse until the mixture has the texture of wet sand. Press into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.

Bake for 8 minutes, until the crust smells toasted and is beginning to brown. Set aside to cool while you make the filling. Reduce the oven temperature to 325˚.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, mascarpone and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula. Add the salt, vanilla and lemon zest; beat on medium speed until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the chocolate chips (Note: to avoid the chocolate chips sinking, reserve ¼ cup of chocolate chips; add ½ teaspoon of flour to remaining ½ cup of chocolate chips and fold that ½ cup into cheesecake mixture - the thin coating of flour will help keep the chips suspended in mixture. After pouring mixture into springform pan, sprinkle reserved ¼ cup of chocolate chips on top. They will stay put and look perfect.)

Pour the cream cheese mixture over the crust and spread evenly. Bake for 45-60 minutes, or until the center of the cake still moves just slightly.

Allow the cheesecake to cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Run a knife around the edge of the pan before releasing the collar.

Top each slice of cheesecake with a spoonful of cherries, if using.