Nothing is better than a slice of creamy cheesecake, unless it’s topped with delicious cherry pie filling. For the best flavor, make the cherry pie filling from scratch. It’s incredibly easy!!
My husband recently came home with not one, but TWO bags of fresh sweet cherries!!! Man knows his pregnant wife’s cravings! It was such a pleasant surprise too, because I had no idea that cherries were out on the shelves. Hooray for cherry season!!!
The fresh cherries got me craving cherry pie, then it morphed into cherry cheesecake craving. What can I say, cravings lead to delicious desserts. It was so good, I couldn’t not to share it with you.
Confession: under the name of “recipe testing” I made this cherry cheesecake pie multiple times. Yeah, it may seem like I just combined the two desserts into one (no brainer!), but I did play around with the recipe a little bit.
I used frozen cherries for the pie filling, but I thought it’d be a great idea to incorporate fresh cherries into the cheesecake batter. Though it tasted pretty delicious, the appearance of the cheesecake was less than pleasant. Who knew, beautiful white cheesecake batter mixed with pureed cherry turns into a murky unpleasant cheesecake.
But anyway, homemade cherry pie filling is everything in this recipe. It’s easy enough to make it from scratch, and you’ll definitely enjoy the fruit of your labor. 🙂
Cherry Cheesecake Pie
Ingredients
For crust:
- 9 full sheets of graham crackers about 150gr cookies
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 5 tablespoons 70gr unsalted butter, melted
For cheesecake filling:
- 16 oz 450gr cream cheese, softened (Brick-style, full fat version)
- 1 cup 300gr sweetened condensed milk
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For cherry pie filling:
- 4 cups pitted sweet cherries fresh or frozen
- ½ cup 100gr sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- To make the crust, in a food processor process graham crackers  until fine crumbs form.
- Add sugar and melted butter and pulse until the crumbs are evenly moistened.
- Transfer the crumbs into a 9-inch pie pan. Press the mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Refrigerate while working on filling.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- To make the cheesecake filling, in a mixing bowl with paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese until nice and fluffy on medium speed, about 2 minutes.
- Add sweetened condensed milk, eggs, flour, lemon juice, vanilla extract and salt. Continue to mix until well combined.
- Pour the cheesecake mixture into the prepared pie crust.
- Bake it for 45-50 minutes, or until the edges are set and slightly wobbly in the center. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Then refrigerate to set completely for at least another 2 hours.
- To make the cherry pie filling, place the cherries (if frozen, no need to thaw in advance) in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring it to a boil.
- In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, cornstarch and salt.
- Add sugar mixture, vanilla extract, almond extract and lemon juice into the boiling cherries. Mix well.
- Reduce the heat to low and simmer the cherry mixture stirring frequently until thickened, for 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for a few minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to assemble.
- To assemble the pie, spread the cherry pie filling over the chilled cheesecake and serve. (I find the cheesecake pie is best when served slightly at room temperature. It tastes creamier.)
Nutrition Facts:
Alice Gilbreath says
GREAT recipe. I followed it word for word, and baked in a 8×8″ glass pan in a water bath. Highly recommend.
Perfect texture and flavors! Not too sweet, not too tangy.
I’ve never made a cheesecake before because I was so intimidated, but this came out perfectly my first try.
Shinee says
SO happy you tried and loved my recipe. Thank you so much for your feedback, Alice!