Murder by Cheesecake’s St. Olaf’s Cheesecake Recipe Review

Earlier this year, a new murder mystery novel was released. There are many murder mystery novels that get published every year, but this one was different. This one is called Murder by Cheesecake and is inspired by the TV series The Golden Girls.

I bought the novel after a suggestion from a friend of mine who just so happens to be a huge fan of The Golden Girls. Months after it was released, I’m still working my way through it (I started it a few weeks ago and I’ve been quite busy since then.) so I can’t write a review about it. So far I like it and it is written the same way the TV show would be.

Even though I’m still reading the book, there was something about the book I can review now: The St. Olaf’s Cheesecake Recipe.

To make a long story short, I love cheesecake. I loved it so much as a teenager I wanted a cheesecake for my birthday cake. Over the years, my love for cheesecake has faded, yet I still enjoy it. There is only one problem: I can’t eat cheesecake anymore. Sadly, my food allergies prevent me from eating nearly all kinds of cheesecake.

Over the years I’ve been trying to adapt cheesecake recipes to omit food allergies, but they don’t really taste right. When I saw there is a recipe for cheesecake at the back of Murder by Cheesecake, I laughed and brushed it off. All the cheesecakes recipes I’ve found contain my allergens. So, I ignored it until a few weeks ago when I reread the recipe and discovered it didn’t have any of my food allergies!

I was so excited to try the recipe I went shopping for all the ingredients I need to make it. After getting distracted by everyday life and some impromptu improvements in my house, I finally made the cheesecake part of the St. Olaf’s Cheesecake recipe!

I know cheesecake doesn’t taste right without a crust and it won’t taste the way it is intended to without the drizzle, but I wanted to just try the cheesecake first before I move onto making the whole recipe. (I also found out I’m allergic to an ingredient that is now found in graham crackers. I’m currently trying to figure out how to work around using graham crackers.)

The novel looks like this…

The recipe is found at the back of the book. Like I already mentioned, the recipe does not contain my food allergens. The ingredient I’m allergic to but is commonly found in cheesecake recipes is sour cream. I can drink milk, eat cheese, and eat cream cheese, but not sour cream. It such a common ingredient in cheesecake recipes because it adds a tangy flavor to the cake and, sometimes, thickens it.

As for this recipe, sour cream is not used. Instead, it calls for flour and cream. At the time I made the recipe, I didn’t have cream available to use (I forgot to buy some while shopping for the ingredients) so I used 1/4 cup whole milk instead.

After baking the recipe, the cheesecakes looked like this…

 

After they cooled off, I tried them. To be honest, I like them a lot! I think they would be better if I also made the crust and drizzle, but they were still really good. The texture is the same as the cheesecakes with sour cream, but they are mild tasting without the tang from the sour cream.

I plan on using this cheesecake recipe from this point onward. I think it will be really good with strawberry or cherry syrup as well. I can also see using this recipe as a base for a potential chocolate cheesecake… but that is far off in the future!

 

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!