Ultimate Shavuos Cheesecake Collection

By Sruly Meyer – COLlive Magazine

Rosh Hashana has honey cake, Pesach has meat and potatoes, Simchas Torah has stuffed cabbage, but Shavuos? Oh, there is nothing like the taste of cheesecake on Shavuos. Sure, cheesecake is always delicious, rich and creamy, but on a Yom Tov when we make sure to have milchigs, this is the time for the cheesecake to shine. We’ve collected four amazing cheesecake recipes that will make your cheesecake the star of your Shavuos menu.

Strawberry – Amaretto Cheesecake
By Rivka Katzen

Graham Cracker Crust
9 double graham crackers
3 Tbsps. sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
Filling
2 pounds cream cheese (room temperature)
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 large eggs (room temperature)
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 Tbsps. lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 Tbsps. vanilla extract
2 Tbsps flour
1 cup sour cream
1 cup fresh strawberries, coarsely chopped
Topping
2 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
1 cup Amaretto liqueur
1/2 cup sugar

Crust
Lightly grease bottom and sides of 9” springform pan. Crush graham crackers in a plastic bag with a rolling pin. Pour into medium bowl and add sugar and melted butter. Combine and press into bottom of a springform pan. Chill in refrigerator for about 1/2 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Filling
In a large bowl beat the cream cheese until soft and fluffy, add the sugar and beat well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the cream, lemon juice, vanilla and flour. Stir in the sour cream and fold the strawberries in by hand.
Pour mixture into chilled springform pan and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes then reduce temperature to 275 and continue to bake for 1 hour. After 1 hour turn off oven and leave cake in oven for another hour.
Remove from oven and cool on rack for 3 hours.

Topping
In a medium bowl marinate the strawberries in the Amaretto and sugar for 3 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Drain the strawberries well, and spread evenly over the cooled cake. Bake for 7 minutes.
Cool cake completely. Remove sides of spring-form pan and refrigerate overnight.

Mrs. Rivka Katzen, a resident of Crown Heights, is an accomplished baker and chef. She is part of the team behind the legendary Spice and Spirit Kosher Cookbook, a staple in kosher kitchens around the world, and served as a recipe tester for its first publication in 1990. This is a variation of a cheesecake recipe that appears in The Spice and Spirit of Kosher Jewish Cooking.

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Creamy Cheesecake with Pomegranate Sauce
By Nina Safar

My son is crazy about cheesecake and even though it’s not really that difficult to make, I like prepping two of these bad boys at a time so I can throw one in the freezer and have it ready when needed. This recipe makes two creamy cheesecakes. The sauce is an easy pomegranate syrup that is the perfect combo of sweet and tart to dress up the rich and creamy cheesecake.

Ingredients
16 oz. whipped cream cheese (room temperature)
16 oz. sour cream
2 eggs
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 ready-made crusts (6oz. each), can be graham cracker or chocolate
Directions
Combine cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla extract until smooth. Slowly add in eggs and beat until combined. Divide batter between the two graham cracker crusts. Bake at 350′ for an hour.
Pomegranate Sauce
4 cups pomegranate juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Bring ingredients to a boil (allowing sugar to dissolve) then lower flame and stir until thickens. Allow sauce to cool off then combine with 1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds. Serve over cheesecake.

Nina Safar is a kosher food blogger living in Los Angeles, California. Her food blog, Kosher in the Kitch showcases simple recipes that are easy and tasty. She enjoys mixing up classic recipes by giving traditional dishes a modern makeover. @kosherinthekitch

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Decadent NY Style Cheesecake
By Sruly Meyer

Cheese filling
2 containers of 8 oz whipped cream cheese ⁣
1 container of sour cream ⁣
1 cup of sugar⁣
2 tablespoons of flour⁣
1 teaspoon of lemon juice⁣
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract⁣
4 eggs ⁣
⁣Crust
1 stick of butter, melted
2-3 cups worth of your choice of graham
crackers or Bloomies sandwich cookies.
Crust instructions
In a food processor, mix together the butter and cookie or graham cracker base. Take the mixture and put it in a springform pan, pressing down to form the crust. Place it in the freezer to chill for 20 minutes while you make the cheesecake mix. ⁣
Mix together the cheesecake filling ingredients and pour the batter into the crust after you take it out of the freezer.
⁣Bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for one hour, and then turn off the oven and leave it in the oven for an additional hour. (This is to prevent cracking or sinking.) ⁣

Sruly Meyer, the writer behind our food and music sections, operates his own marketing agency in Hollywood, FL. He is also a home cook who runs a food and travel blog discussing fitness, local food scenes, and daily life being a Jewish father and business owner. @Srulycooks

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No Fail Perfect Cheesecake
By Naomi Elberg

Crust Options
1 1/2 cups Graham cracker crumbs or almond flour
1/3 C melted unsalted butter
1/3 C sugar
Or store bought graham cracker crust
Filling
2 8 oz bricks cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Topping
8 oz sour cream
3 tbsp vanilla sugar
2 tbsp sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix the ingredients for the crust with your fingers to form a wet sand-like consistency. Press into the bottom and up the sides of a deep dish pie plate or small individual pie pans.
3. In a blender or in a stand mixer combine cream cheese, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.
Pour filling into pie pan. Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Once baked turn off the oven and leave inside for 15 minutes.
4. Remove cheesecake from the oven and preheat once again to 350 degrees. Spoon topping over cakes. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before transferring to the fridge to finish cooling off and to set.

Naomi Elberg is one of Instagram’s top baker bloggers. Naomi is known as the queen of babka, but she sure knows how to make amazing Challah, and of course, cheesecake! @naomi_tgis

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Shavuos Wine Pairings

By Gabriel Geller, WSET III

Shavuos is the celebration of the bikurim, the first fruits of the harvest. Typically, the first wines to be released to the market during springtime are rosé wines. Most of these wines are made to be refreshing, bursting with fruit, and meant to enjoy as close to release as possible, as they otherwise lose their initial freshness.

Nowadays, there are many kosher rosé wines available, Baruch Hashem. I try every year to taste through most if not all of them. One that usually stands out, and this year even more so, is the Château Roubine. Château Roubine 2019 is a very classy-looking bottle, the content of which is even classier. A very pale, delicate pink color that features aromas and flavors of citrus blossom, red berries, and stone fruits with mouth-watering acidity. I also very much recommend the other two wines produced by the owners of Château Roubine: Roubine La Vie en Rose, as well as Sainte-Béatrice Cuvée B, both also from the 2023 vintage, of course. While not as complex as the Château Roubine, they deliver the same refreshing notes of summer fruits with balancing acidity.

Baron Edmond de Rothschild, from the famous Rothschild family, was the owner of the world-famous Château Lafite-Rothschild in Bordeaux, France in the 19th century. He wished to revive the wine culture in Eretz Yisrael and donated millions of francs as well as knowledge, equipment, rootstock, and technology to build the Carmel Winery.

In 1986, more than 100 years after the establishment of Carmel, Baron de Rothschild’s grandson and great-grandson, Edmond and Benjamin, continued their ancestor’s legacy when they produced the first quality dry red kosher wine from Bordeaux at their famous Château Clarke. This is a wine that combines depth, complexity, and power and is certainly worthy of your Yom Tov table.
The Pacifica Riesling 2022 is also a delightful off-dry white wine to accompany a platter of fine cheeses on Shavuos. It is lively and delicious with notes of Meyer lemon, Anjou pear, and peach, with great balancing acidity; truly excellent value.

For many of us, Shavuos is not complete without some cheesecake. The Herzog Late Harvest Chenin Blanc 2021 is one of the best wines to pair with that succulent dessert. It is sweet but not cloying, with a great balance of acidity to match its ripe and dried fruit flavors.