When you think of the ultimate crowd pleasing dessert, Cheesecake often comes to mind. But If you want to please AND wow your family and party guests, this easy Raspberry Passion Fruit Cheesecake with Speculoos Crust recipe is for you!
Why we love this recipe
Cheesecakes were never one of my go-to dessert growing up. You don't typically find cheesecakes in traditional French bakeries, and the only recipe I was accustomed to was my grandma's Eastern-European style baked cheesecake.
But this was until I spent a year in the US in 2008 and was brought to "The Cheesecake Factory". I'll stop you right there - their cheesecakes were way too heavy and sweet for my taste and this recipe will be nothing like theirs. But that year abroad introduced me to the light, creamy, flavourful cheesecakes!
And yes - baked cheesecake can be just as light, creamy and fluffy as no-bake cheesecakes! Just like my Passion Fruit Cheesecake, Baked Ricotta Cheesecake and my Biscoff Cheesecake, this Baked Raspberry Cheesecake with Passion Fruit is light, packed with flavour and super decadent!
Even though Cheesecakes aren't something I often make, I decided to work on a recipe after finding Speculoos biscuits in Melbourne. If you are wondering what the hell is a Speculoos, it is also known as "Biscoff" in many parts of the world.
It is a traditional Belgian / Dutch spiced cookie that I grew up with. When you order a coffee at a cafe in Brussels, it will most likely be served with a Speculoos cookie.
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It is also commonly used to make cheesecake crusts, quite similarly to a Graham Cracker. But the spices used in Speculoos - mainly cinnamon - really bring an intense and interesting flavour that you cannot find anywhere else! And it just works AMAZINGLY in cheesecakes!
I highly recommend trying to find the Speculoos Cookies for this recipe (and also because they are simply delicious) or you can get them here. Instead, you can also use Gingerbread Cookies or Graham Crackers. Not the same, though!
I had to experiment a bit with it to find the perfect Speculoos Crust recipe. This involved a few "not good enough for the blog but good enough for my belly" trials. Hard life, right!?
After working out the crust recipe, I decided to flavour the classic Cheesecake batter with Passionfruit. I absolutely love Passionfruit; it's sweet and sour at the same time, and the seeds brings such a nice crunch!
I thought it would be a really fun way to naturally bring texture to the Cheesecake batter. And because it seems that I cannot focus on one, simple recipe, I chose to make a Raspberry Swirl to decorate the cake. I find that Passion Fruit and Raspberry work really well together as they are both relatively tangy and crunchy!
To finish this Cheesecake, you can also make my 3 Ingredients Raspberry Sauce or Raspberry Compote, Passion Fruit Coulis, Passion Fruit Curd or even Passion Fruit Ice Cream to pour over each slice!
For this Passionfruit and Raspberry Cheesecake recipe, you will need a classic Cheesecake Tin. I always recommend using a Springform Pan instead of a traditional cake tin.
The tin I used was quite large so the Cheesecake turned out relatively thin, but you can simply use a smaller Cheesecake Tin to create a higher cake. Only keep in mind that the cake will probably need to bake for longer if higher!
Recipe
Passionfruit and Raspberry Cheesecake
Ingredients
Speculoos Crust
- 25 Speculoos Cookies, or 150 grams
- 1/3 cup melted Unsalted Butter, or 70 grams
Cheesecake Batter
- 2 1/4 cups Cream Cheese, or 500 grams
- 1/4 cup Full Fat Milk
- 2 Eggs, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup Brown Sugar, or 70 grams
- 5 Fresh Passionfruits
- 5 tbsp. Plain Flour, or 40 grams
- 1/2 cup Raspberries
Instructions
Speculoos Crust
- Preheat your oven on 170°C (325°F)In a Food Processor, pulse the Speculoos Cookies until they turn into a flour. If you do not have a Food Processor, just crush them in a large bowl by hand.Melt the butter, then combine it with the Speculoos Flour.
- Line your Cheesecake Tin with Baking Paper, then transfer the Speculoos batter to the bottom of the tin.Use the bottom of a glass to squeeze the dough into a firm crust. Bake it for about 5 minutes, then let it cool down.
Cheesecake Batter
- While the crust is baking, start preparing the Cheesecake Batter.Mix the Cream Cheese and the Milk until creamy. If the Cream Cheese is too cold, it will be hard to break it.Add the Eggs, Brown Sugar, Passionfruit pulp and seeds and mix well, then fold in the Plain Flour.Pour the Cheesecake Batter on the pre-baked Speculoos Crust.
- Blend the Raspberries until liquid. If you do not like the raspberry seeds, pass it through a sieve.Pour small batches of Raspberry Juice all over the Passionfruit Batter then create a swirl pattern using a skewer.
- Place back into the oven for 45 to 50 minutes.Let the Passionfruit and Raspberry Cheesecake cool down before removing from the tin and serve cold.
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ashok says
Guys, Thanks For sharing this Great Recipe. My Family Loved it. I am definitely sharing this recipe and this website with my friend. Hope they also love it. Thank you again for sharing such a great recipe.
A Baking Journey says
Thank you!
Beth Costello says
Hi. Just wondering what size tin you use here? I have several but would like to know where to start so I know what I am adapting to! Thanks Beth
A Baking Journey says
Hi Beth, I believe I had used a 25cm/10inch springform pan to make this recipe ? Cheers!
Tracy Koslicki says
This looks divine! Sooo pretty. And yes, cheesecake is totally a crowd pleasure and The Cheesecake Factory does not do all cheesecakes justice! I think they're way too heavy too! This one looks just up my alley!
thefoodiejourney says
Thank you Tracy! Glad to see I'm not the only one who doesn't like heavy/sweet cakes haha!
Amanda says
What a pretty cheesecake! I love passionfruit and can imagine that it's incredible with that creamy filling. Great idea to make a crust from Speculoos cookies, too. The spices in the cookie must give the crust a fantastic pop of flavor!
thefoodiejourney says
The passionfruit and raspberries work great as a cheesecake, but the speculoos definitely takes the cake to the next level!
Marisa Franca @ All Our Way says
I love cheesecake -- it's one of my very favorites but this one is exceptional. I think the swirls of passionfruit and raspberries add such a beautiful touch. Very fancy.
thefoodiejourney says
Thank you Marisa, I'm glad you liked the recipe!
michele says
This sure came at the right time. My farmers market was taste testing passion fruit this am so as I sit here and type this I waiting for the cheesecake to finish baking. My kitchen smells so good... What a great way to begin the week 🙂
thefoodiejourney says
Cant wait to hear what you thought of it! Hope yours turns out just as yummy as mine 🙂 Send me pictures!
Tina says
This is great! I love to try new things. First, I have never heard of speculoos and second, I have eaten passion fruit but it's been ages and I didn't know you could even eat the seeds. Saving this, it looks like so much fun to make, thanks for sharing your recipe!
thefoodiejourney says
Im so glad it inspired you to try new things! Speculoos are really delicious, I highly recommend try them. And passionfruit is amazing, a perfect fruit for summer!
Annemarie says
I'm glad you discovered cheesecake because the passion fruit and raspberry combination you have going on here is inspired! (And, yes, Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes can be rather intense even for us Americans. 😉 ) And the Speculoos crust sounds great. We can find them sometimes in the stores around here so I'm going search them out.
thefoodiejourney says
Happy you liked the combo! Keep an eye out for Speculoos, they are amazingly resourceful in the kitchen 🙂
megiswell says
I love biscoff cookies so much and I can see how they would bring a lot more something something to a cheesecake then just graham crackers. And I can't take Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes either, they're way too rich. The passionfruit on top looks amazing and the tart element is perfect!
thefoodiejourney says
Glad you enjoyed it Megan 🙂 I love using Biscoff in cakes so much!
Julia says
What a wonderful and unique idea to use Speculoos in the crust. I would have never thought of that but it's genius. I love those flavours of cinnamon and ginger and nutmeg in the cookies. I've actually never baked with passion fruit but it's so delicious that I can almost imagine how tasty this cheesecake must have been
thefoodiejourney says
Thank you so much Julia! Passionfruit were seriously matching perfectly with the sour cream cheese and the speculoos brought the perfect note of sweetness and spiciness 🙂