I love cheesecake. It’s probably my all time favorite dessert, and what I will most often order when eating out, just to see how well the restaurant can make it (or defrost it anyway). However, I don’t make a big cheesecake very often – it’s too much for 2 of us to eat, and too rich for me to eat days on end. Enter a pressure cooker cheesecake – a cute little 6″ cheesecake that 2 of us can devour (often in one night, I might admit if I were being honest).
This is the typical Instant Pot cheese #17 – or not
The basic recipe is a plain little cheesecake with maybe a Creme Fraiche or fruit (pie filling) topping. But I have plans to experiment. Maybe a little more citrus-y with lime, lemon or orange juice. Maybe few spices to make it Snicker-doodle flavored. Some raspberry or blueberry coulie (crushed berries, strained juice, cooked to thicken), or maybe pumpkin, added to part of the cheesecake mix and swirled through out.
Maybe some cocoa powder to make it chocolate, with chocolate shavings on top….
Options are endless. Play with it and have fun! Guaranteed it will always taste good, no matter how it looks.
Some Notes and Ideas about Pressure Cooker Cheesecake
Read the notes in the recipe for other ideas on how to swap out crusts. Pumpkin cheesecake with a ginger snap crust – perfect for Thanksgiving! Cranberry swirl cheesecake with a shortbread crust for Christmas!
Make sure eggs and cream cheese are at room temperature. Soft cream cheese will blend better with the other ingredients and not be lumpy.
The recipe requires a small 6″ springform pan. If you need a larger cheesecake, the amounts can be increased by half or even doubled to make a 7 or 8 inch cheesecake, provided your pressure cooker is large enough to fit the springform pan inside. Speaking of placing inside – there usually isn’t a lot of room for fingers, so it helps to either make or buy a sling for your pan to lower and pull it out with. It can be as simple as some foil strips run underneath to hold the pan, or a rubber sling, or a trivet with handles.
Sometimes it’s easiest to just buy a set of pressure cooker accessories if you need the small springform pan as well.
Don’t forget to use a paper towel on top, as it absorbs excess moisture during cooking and keeps the top of the cake from being soggy. It’s fine to blot off any remaining moisture once the cooking cycle is done and the pan removed from the cooker. But it also must be covered with some foil to keep moisture inside the cake as it “bakes”.
And after making it, wait overnight
This cake also needs to be refrigerated overnight. I know, it’s so tempting to dive in as soon as it’s cool. However the full flavor needs the setting overnight to develop, and it will slice better the next day as well. So just plan a day ahead.
Pressure Cooker Cheesecake
A quick way to make a delicious small cheesecake using your pressure cooker.
Ingredients
Crust
- ¾ cup graham crackers crushed
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp butter melted
Filling
- 16 oz cream cheese 2 bars, room temperature
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tsp flour**
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- ½ tsp orange peel freshly grated
- ½ tsp lemon peel freshly grated
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 egg yolk room temperature
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/8 tsp sea salt
Topping
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 tsp sugar
- OR Use Canned pie filling – strawberry, cherry, blueberry
Instructions
Crust
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Add crackers and sugar to a food processor and pulse a few times to grind into small crumbs.
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Add the melted butter and pulse to combine.
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Turn out into a greased 6” cheesecake (springform) pan. Pat around the bottom and partially up the sides.
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Place pan in the fre3ezer to harden while the filling is made.
Filling
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Blend together the softened cream cheese, sugar, cream, flour grated citrus, salt and vanilla.
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Add the eggs & yolk, one at a time, mixing carefully to just combine. Do not over mix.
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Pour into the cold crust.
Cook
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Add 1.5 cups of water to the pressure cooker, and use a trivet in the bottom.
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Cover the cheesecake with a paper towel (to absorb excess liquid) and then with a piece of foil. Loosely fold foil around the pan.
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Place into the pressure cooker on top of the trivet. Using a sling makes it easier.
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Lock on the lid; cook on high pressure for 35 minutes. Allow 18 minutes natural release (in other words, just let it cool without venting).
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Now that all the pressure has released, open and remove the cheesecake. Take off the foil and the paper towel. Dab off any remaining liquid.
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The center should be jiggling but not liquid-y. The residual heat in the cake will finish cooking it.
Topping
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If you want the topping, mix sour cream and sugar together which makes a sweet Crème Fraiche like topping, and spread over the cheesecake.
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Cool on a rack 1 hour.
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Cover with a paper towel or cotton towel and refrigerate overnight.
If using pie filling, spoon over just before serving.
Recipe Notes
Notes & Alternatives:
** flour – use a little more flour to make a denser heavy cheesecake or half to no flour to make a creamier, lighter cheesecake.
Crust: instead of graham crackers use any of the following for the crust:
Vanilla wafers, shortbread cookies, ginger snaps, Biscoff, Lorna Doon cookies, Oreo cookies.
After setting overnight, use a pie filling (cherry, strawberry or blueberry) on top of the cheesecake instead of the crème fraiche topping.
Individual cheesecakes in wide mouth canning jars can be made. Cook 7 minutes in 8 ounce/ 1 cup jars or 4 minutes in 4 ounce jars. Do not use larger jars.
Recipe can be increased by half or doubled to make larger 7/8” cheesecakes. Increase cooking time by another 5-8 minutes.
