Lemon Meringue Cheesecake

My oh my, the lemon addiction rolls on! This recipe was inspired by a Lemon Meringue Cheesecake I had back in Paris. When I booked my flights to France, I never thought I’d find the most amazing slice of cheesecake. Macarons and croissants, yes. Cheesecake? Not so much. But when we came across the cutest little shop, Berko, and then went inside and saw cases filled with cheesecake, we obviously had to try them. I ordered the Lemon Meringue Cheesecake because LEMON and I just about died because of how good it was. Actually, all of the cheesecakes were amazing, but the consensus was the Lemon Cheesecake was the favorite.

So, I’m no Berko, but I can make a mean cheesecake that tastes ultra lemony, extra creamy and super decadent. It’s a gift, what can I say? Whether you’re a passive cheesecake lover or at the addictive level, this is the kind of dessert that always gets finished, that always has people raving and that doesn’t get easily forgotten.

In a nutshell, this cheesecake has three parts: the crust, the filling and the topping.

The crust is a simple graham cracker crust, made with crushed graham crackers, melted butter and sugar. Press that into a springform pan and bake before throwing in your filling.

The filling is cream cheese, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, lemon extract, vanilla extract and lemon curd. The lemon curd gets dolloped into the bottom of the pan before the cheesecake filling gets poured over the top! Bake and leave to cool in the oven.

The topping is simply just a swiss meringue (made in a double boiler) that has been toasted.

It is a bit of a long recipe, but the directions couldn’t be simpler. I promise it’s easier done than said! My biggest tips would include using cream cheese that is absolutely at room temperature and leaving the cooked cheesecake in the oven for a good 6 hours (or overnight!) after baking to cool and avoid cracking, though a crack in a cheesecake never stopped me from eating it. That’s basically it!

Here are a few photos of the process to use as a guideline, but generally speaking if you have a moderate amount of kitchen experience, this recipe should be relatively stress free! Just plan ahead because its not a one and done.

Have a great day, friends!