A couple of weeks ago I found out that I was one of the 2 lucky winners of The White on Rice Couple’s Citrus Giveaway. I was thrilled to win 3 pounds of fresh blood oranges from their very own garden! (By the way, I am über impressed – I can hardly keep a basil plant alive much less fruit bearing trees!) I met up with Diane Cu & Todd Porter of the White on Rice Couple last week to claim my prize. We had a great time sharing stories of our fun & crazy families, travel adventures and our love for food (& eating)! They are two of the most down to earth and friendly people you’ll ever meet…they are the type of people that you sit down with for an hour and feel like you’ve known them for years. I look forward to catching up with them again soon!
So…what do you do with 3 lbs of beautiful blood oranges? Honestly, the blood oranges were so good just eaten as is that I almost didn’t want to use it for baking or cooking. I was willing to spare 1 blood orange to make a cheesecake. My little brother’s favorite dessert is cheesecake and I had promised that I would make it soon….so I figure now is as good of a time as ever. I use light cream cheese and light sour cream in this recipe which makes for a lighter and airy texture. It’s creamy with just enough richness and citrus undertones. It’s definitely not a New York style cheesecake and the blood orange flavor is not over powering. You can definitely add more zest to the cheesecake mixture or replace the vanilla in the sour cream mixture with blood orange juice and add zest for a more pronounced blood orange flavor.
Blood Orange Cheesecake
Ingredients:
1 C crushed graham crackers
3 tbs. unsalted butter, melted
3 8oz blocks of light cream cheese (Neufchatel), at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
1 C sugar
4 eggs, beaten
Zest and juice of 1 blood orange (about ¼ C of juice)
16 oz of light sour cream
½ C sugar
½ tsp vanilla
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 300°
- Line the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan with parchment paper. (Grease the round bottom of the spring form pan with butter, place the parchment paper on top of the bottom and then grease the top of the parchment paper) To line – place the bottom of the pan on top of a piece of parchment, trace and cut out the circle to fit inside the pan.
- Mix the crushed graham crackers with melted butter and then place into prepared pan, use the bottom of a drinking glass to press the graham crackers down for the crust
- Bake crust for 10 mins.
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium until smooth and creamy. Add 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 C sugar, zest and juice mix until smooth. Add beaten eggs and mix on low until well combined. Pour mixture into the pan, bake for 50 mins. The center will still be soft.
- Mix sour cream, ½ C sugar and ½ tsp. vanilla and pour onto of the cream cheese mixture, bake for another 10 mins.
- Let cool for 30 mins and then chill until ready to serve (at least 3 hours or overnight). Unmold from spring form and enjoy! (To unmold you can carefully run a knife along the edge of the pan to help release the sides)
A couple of blood orange recipes and facts:
White on Rice Couple’s Blood Orange Margaritas
Simply Recipes’ Blood Orange Fun Facts & List of Recipe Links
Enjoy!
That looks great. The cheesecake looks so soft and delicious.
i was craving this!
OMG! This looks soo decadent and lucious…I wanna make this…you make it look so easy! You have a good hand!
TripleScoop: Thank you – it was soft and pretty good I must say =)
Levi: You’re too funny! I think it’s definitely the fix that you need – not too rich but just enough to hit the spot!
Yvette: Thank you!! You’ll have to make this and tell me all about it.
That looks amazing!!!! So happy that you won cause meeting you for lunch was our prize!
The cheesecake is next on our list, thank you so much for your beautiful blog!
you did those oranges and WoRC proud!
Diane & Todd: Thank you!! Awww – you two are too sweet. Looking forward to meeting up again soon!
Ravenouscouple: Thank you!!!
Three pounds of blood oranges!!?!! Now that will you get you all the natural Vitamin C you need for a few months. Great idea to make a cheesecake out of it.
hi! i would like to try this recipe. but blood oranges are not readily available at where i am. do you know ordinary oranges would work too?
Hi Joyce: Yes – regular oranges would work too! I can’t wait to hear about your cheesecake! Take care!