Do you think you can win a potluck? If yes, then this pistachio baklava-inspired cheesecake is for you. Baklava is a sweet dessert common in Turkey and Greece. It's made from nuts, honey, and filo, which is a thin pastry. This recipe uses store-bought filo sheets. It looks fancier than it is and takes about 30 minutes to prepare outside of baking time (around an hour and 40 minutes total).
Ingredients:
Baklava crust-
20-25 sheets of filo, thawed if frozen
1 cup of soft or melted clarified butter (ghee)
2 cups of pistachios, finely chopped or ground
¼ cup of whole shelled pistachios
¼ cup of granulated sugar
2 tsps of powdered cinnamon
Cheesecake filling–
3 bricks of room temperature cream cheese
1 ½ cups of sugar
½ tsp of salt
1 tbsp of vanilla extract or paste
¾ cup of room temperature sour cream
1 tbsp of lemon juice
3 room temperature eggs
Syrup–
½ cup of sugar
¼ cup of water
¼ cup of honey
½ tsp of lemon juice
Directions
1. Place a circle of parchment paper in the bottom of a 9 or 10-inch springform pan. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
2. Mix the chopped or ground pistachios with the powdered cinnamon and granulated sugar. Reserve the whole pistachios for topping.
3. Layer 10 sheets of filo around the pan, each one overlapping the next. The filo should be draped over the edge of the pan, as you will fold it up over the top once you have poured in the cheesecake mixture. Brush some ghee between the sheets. This recipe uses ghee because it helps prevent the filo from burning, but butter will do in a pinch. If you use butter, cover the top of the cheesecake with foil half way through baking.
4. Pour half of the pistachio mixture on top of the filo and spread it evenly. Then, layer about five sheets of filo with ghee around the pan, covering the full area. Spread the remaining pistachio mixture, and then add another five filo sheets. If you need additional filo to have good coverage over the pistachios, you can use a couple more sheets.
5. Beat the sugar, cream cheese, salt and vanilla together in either a standing mixer or in a mixing bowl with a hand mixer. If you have neither, you can beat it by hand, it will just take a little longer. Beat in the sour cream and lemon juice. Next, add the eggs and beat until smooth.
6. Pour the cheesecake mixture into the prepared springform pan. Once the filling has been spread evenly, fold the filo hanging over the pan on top of the cheesecake batter, scrunching lightly. It does not need to look neat or uniform. Brush the visible filo with about a teaspoon of ghee.
7. Bake the cheesecake for an hour. If the cheesecake does not seem set and jiggles heavily when the pan moves, cook it for another 5-15 minutes. This recipe typically takes 70 minutes, but oven temperatures may vary.
8. While the cheesecake bakes, make the honey syrup. Mix the sugar, water, honey, and lemon juice together in a small pot over low heat, and stir until dissolved. Turn the heat up to medium and stir occasionally until the syrup has thickened slightly. It should be less thick than honey and more thick than sugar water.
9. Once the cake is out of the oven, allow it to cool slightly. Then pour the honey syrup on the cake, allowing it to pour down the sides. Place the cake, still in the springform pan, in the refrigerator to cool. After cooling fully in the refrigerator, spring it from the pan and serve!