Manischewitz Cheesecake with Boozy Blackberries

Published by Amy Becker on May 12, 2015

With my love of the purple drank, Jew knew this was coming, right?? Manischewitz Cheesecake!!

Manischewitz Cheesecake
I’ll let the excitement of this dessert sink in for a moment. Manischewitz spiked cheesecake with a chocolate cookie crust and Manischewitz spiked blackberries and chocolate!!11 So excited I can’t type.

Y’all know I love cooking with the sweet stuff. Manischewitz Ice Cream, Manischewitz Jell-O Shots, even Manischewitz Poached Eggs! (Don’t knock it till you try it.) So it’s time for cheesecake.

Shavuot is the perfect time of year for this recipe. This holiday celebrates Moses receiving the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai. Kind of a big deal.

With the commandments came keeping kosher. AKA not mixing milk and meat. Well it’s a heck of a lot easier building a cheese plate than figuring out how to slaughter an animal the right way, so we eat dairy to celebrate! I’m talking kugel, blintzes and cheesecake. Especially the cheesecake.
Manischewitz Cheesecake

I periodically work at a Jewish supermarket in town (affectionately known as Jewpermarket) and I brought in the rest of this cheesecake (that I didn’t use in this photo shoot/eat for breakfast) and the whole thing was gone before I could tell them there was booze in it and maybe they shouldn’t be drinking on the clock? (Don’t worry, there isn’t even enough alcohol in this cake to get a 13 year old bar mitzvah scribe tipsy.)

Manischewitz Cheesecake

So if that doesn’t convince you to make this cheesecake, I don’t know what will! Manischewitz Cheesecake

Oh yeah, the crust is made out of chocolate cookies (I used Teddy Graham. Shout out to my fellow 90’s kids! Or should I say “Holla!” instead? I shouldn’t? Okay, cool.) Manischewitz Cheesecake

But cheesecake can be intimidating.

Manischewitz Cheesecake

Things can go wrong. Overmixing your cheesecake leads to air pockets, cold ingredients will yielda lumpy cake, and a leaky water bath just makes one big soggy mess. (Wrap that suck in lots of foil to seal it up. Because Ain’t nobody got time for that!)

Manischewitz Cheesecake

(If you need a springform pan, you can get one on Amazon here!)

But the result, is totally worth it. I mean look at this cake! Manischewitz Cheesecake

For the first time ever, I didn’t even have one little crack in my cheesecake. Look, Bubbe, I’m all grown up! Manischewitz Cheesecake

But if you do have cracks, just cover this sucker in powdered sugar, chocolate shavings and Manischewitz soaked berries! Or just eat all the boozy berries until you can’t even see the cracks. That works too.
Manischewitz Cheesecake

Manischewitz Cheesecake with Boozy Blackberries

Amy Kritzer

Boozy Manischewitz Cheesecake for Shavuot or a random Tuesday!

5 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 1 30

Total Time 2 15

Course Dessert

Cuisine Jewish

Servings pieces

Ingredients

For crust:
2 cups chocolate cookies I used chocolate Teddie Grahams!
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
For the filling:
2 cups Manischewitz
4 8 oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature, cut into chunks
1 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
½ cup sour cream at room temperature
4 eggs at room temperature
½ cup fresh blackberries
4 oz semi sweet chocolate
Powdered sugar for garnish

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and place a rack in the lower third of the oven.
First, start by preparing the springform pan. You need one. Go buy one! Wrap the outside of the pan in a large piece of heavy duty foil and fold over the sides, making sure to secure. Repeat with another piece of foil and a third if you are crazy like me. This will protect your crust from the water bath, which helps cook the cheesecake gently and evenly.
Make the crust by pulsing the cookies in a food processor until fine (I apparently didn't do the best job at this as someone found a Teddy foot in their piece of cake. Oops.) Then mix in sugar and salt, and incorporate the butter evenly with a spoon or your hands.
Press the crust into the bottom of the pan, making sure to there are not any holes. Bake for 10 minutes, let cool, and lower oven temp to 325.
Time to make the filling! Put the Manischewitz in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer until it reduces down to a little more than 1/2 cup. Let cool.
Meanwhile, cream the cream cheese in an electric stand mixer with a paddle attachment on medium high for 3 minutes, or until very creamy. Then add the sugar and salt and beat another 3 minutes. Add in the sour cream and beat that in. Then add eggs in one at a time (not all at once!), and beat in each one after adding. Make sure that none of the batter is sticking to the sides, scrape that in. You want everything incorporated and whipped to perfection! Lastly, beat in Manischewitz, reserving a few tablespoons for the boozy berries.
Put the springform pan with the crust in a roasting pan with high sides, and pour the batter into the pan. Boil water and fill the pan halfway up on the sides with the water. Place the pan on the lower rack of the oven (you can also pour the water in the pan after placing it in the oven. Careful either way!) Bake for 1 - 1.5 hours until cheesecake is firm but still a little jiggly. Crack open the oven door slightly and turn off the oven. Let the cheesecake cool this way for an hour. This will help cool the cake evenly and prevent cracks. Cover the cooled cheesecake with foil and refrigerate overnight.
When ready to serve, carefully run a knife around the pan edge and remove the springform edge from the cake. Toss blackberries in remaining reduced Manischewitz. Garnish cake with chocolate shavings, powdered sugar and boozy berries!