These Deep-Fried Cheesecake Bites are an indulgent treat that is crispy on the outside and amazingly soft and creamy on the inside. They are delicious served with raspberry sauce, chocolate or caramel sauce!
It’s Fry-Day again, so you know what that means! Time to give our arteries their weekly workout, play with scorching oil, and fry desserts that don’t really require frying. What a magical day.
Today’s frying victim: Cheesecake.
Cheesecake was sort of a bold choice, because we’re not big cheesecake fans at my house. Jason doesn’t like it at all, and I’m just lukewarm about it—I’m not mad at it, but I would never order it at a restaurant or make it for myself. I wanted to see if deep frying could transform the dessert from something that we merely tolerated into something that we loved.
Ding-ding-ding-ding! We have another winner! I’m beginning to think that deep-frying is the key to solving all of the world’s problems. President Obama should call me the next time he’s hosting a summit on Middle Eastern peace. He’ll supply the diplomats, I’ll bring the oil, and we’ll bang out some solutions over fried dessert.
Deep-Fried Cheesecake is a totally different experience from regular cheesecake. The best comparison I can make is to say that they taste like warm cream puffs on steroids. Crunchy on the outside, with a soft and creamy center. The sweet batter helps mellow out the cream cheese flavor, so they’re tangy but not hit-you-in-the-nose cream cheesy. My resident cheesecake hater snarfed down an embarrassing number of them in a short time, which is how I knew I had a success on my hands.
For the purposes of convenience I used a pre-made frozen cheesecake in this recipe, which made it one of the faster dessert projects I’ve made lately! Because each bite has so little cheesecake, and because the texture changes so much during frying, I don’t think it’s worth it to go to the trouble of making your own just to fry it. But if you happen to have homemade cheesecake left over from something else, by all means! This would be the perfect way to use up leftover cheesecake, and I imagine that different cheesecake flavors would work really, really well. Fried chocolate chip cheesecake, or dulce de leche cheesecake? Yes please.
Let’s talk sauces. Obviously you’re the boss of you, but I really can’t recommend serving these plain—I think they need a little drizzle or dip of something to make them pop. I made a quick raspberry coulis to serve with my cheesecake balls, using frozen raspberries, and it was the perfect accompaniment to brighten their flavor. You could also do a chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, dulce de leche sauce, peanut butter sauce, mango sauce…you get the idea. Just don’t let them leave the house naked! That’s indecent and not very tasty.
Now go forth and fry!
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Deep Fried Cheesecake
Ingredients
For the Cheesecake:
- 1 6-inch frozen cheesecake, about 1 ½” tall, I used Sara Lee Original Cream Cheesecake
For the Batter:
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 9 fl oz milk, (1 cup +2 tbsp)
- 2 tsp vegetable oil
- 1 quart vegetable oil, for frying
For the Raspberry Sauce:
- 8 oz frozen raspberries
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
Instructions
Prepare the Cheesecake:
- Cut the frozen cheesecake into small 1-inch squares. The cheesecake I used had a graham cracker crust about 1/4″-inch thick. I trimmed the crust down to about 1/8-inch so the center would be mostly cheesecake, but this is an optional step. Keep the cheesecake cubes in the freezer until you’re ready to fry them.
Make the Batter:
- To make the batter, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the milk and 2 tsp of vegetable oil, and whisk until the batter is smooth and free of lumps.
Fry the Cheesecake:
- Pour the frying oil into a medium saucepan so that it’s 2 inches deep. Insert a candy/deep fry thermometer and heat the oil over medium heat until it reaches 360 F (182 C). Once at 360 F, take a frozen cheesecake square and dip it in the batter, turning it over with your hands until it’s completely covered. Let excess batter drip back into the bowl, then gently drop it into the oil. Repeat with 2-3 more pieces of cheesecake, so you’re frying 3-4 at a time. Fry the balls for about 2-3 minutes total, flipping as necessary so that they cook evenly. Mine had a tendency to sink to the bottom when I dropped them in oil, so watch them carefully and loosen them gently from the bottom with a spatula if needed.
- Fry the cheesecake pieces until they’re puffed and a dark golden brown on all sides. Remove them from the oil using a frying skimmer or slotted spoon and place them on a paper towel-lined baking sheet to drain. Repeat with the rest of the cheesecake and batter. Watch the temperature of the oil and keep it between 360 F-370 F (182 – 188 C)—remove it from the heat if it gets too hot, or let it warm up in between batches if the temperature drops too much.
- These balls are best served when still warm, but not hot, with a side of raspberry sauce.
To Make the Raspberry Sauce:
- Warm the frozen raspberries in a saucepan over the stove until they give off juice and start to break down. Pour them into a blender or food processor and blend, then strain the puree through a fire wire-mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Return the seedless raspberry puree to the saucepan, add the granulated sugar, and cook over medium heat until it just starts to simmer and you have a smooth, velvety sauce.
Measuring Tips
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?
6 cheesecakes or a 6 inch cheesecake? I’m sorry I’m just confused
Hi Elena! I just double checked the recipe card, and no wonder you were confused! I’m guessing something happened the last time the recipe updated. Sorry about that. You’ll need one 6-inch cheesecake. I also fixed the recipe card, so it should look correct now. So glad you reached out with your question. Enjoy the recipe!
2 questions
1)Is this batter recipe a standard basic batter that I could use with another item, like say for exampke Oreo’s?
2) Can I achieve similar results for frying using a store bought pancake batter?
I will be using a restaurant quality deep fryer for this preparation.
Hi Michael. Great questions. We have 3 other recipes that are similar to this one (Deep Fried Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Deep Fried S’mores and Deep Fried Chocolate Covered Strawberries). I did a quick check and the batter for the cookie dough is exactly the same as the cheesecake bites. The other two have some small differences in the batter recipe. The biggest difference in the other two is an egg. So, all that is to say that I’m not sure there is one standard recipe for fry batter. But, all three of the batter recipes have been used successfully and should hold up well for other items like Oreos. We haven’t tried using a pancake batter, so I can’t really advise you there. You could certainly give it a try with a small batch and see what you think. I hope that helps. Can’t wait to hear how your project turns out.