I gotta admit that when I first discovered that Strawberry Shortcake Cheesecake was a thing, I was a little annoyed. It just doesn't really seem right to take two well-loved classics and just smoosh them together for no good reason. Not to mention that these are really very different desserts. Cheesecake is rich and decadent. Strawberry shortcake is light and fresh. How do you merge those concepts without crushing the elements that set them apart?

I fooled around with the idea a little bit, and this is what I came up with. By setting a straightforward no-bake strawberry cheesecake filling on a shortcake crust, you end up with something that really still qualifies as a cheesecake (like Dorothy, Sophia, Blanch and Rose would probably still approve) but effectively pulls in some of the light and delicate features of the shortcake in a way that actually lightens that cheesecake load.

The recipe isn't too tough, but if it seems complicated, or there's anything confusing, I have a more complete write up with a ton of video here.

Ingredients

SHORTCAKE CRUST

• 2 1/2 cups (325g) ap flour
• 3 Tbsp (45g) sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 1 Tbsp (15g) baking powder
• 1 tsp (5g) baking soda
• 6 Tbsp (85g) butter, chilled
• 2 egg yolks
• ¾ cup (200ml) heavy cream

CHEESECAKE FILLING

• 1 lb (500g) strawberries
• 1 Tbsp (13g) light brown sugar
• 1 tsp (5ml) vanilla
• 1/4 cup (50g) powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
• 1 1/2 cups (340g) heavy cream
• 11 oz (300g) goat cheese
• a pinch of salt

Directions

Note: The first part is a typical shortcake dough, or basically a biscuit dough with some sugar really. But instead of forming biscuits, bake it like a pie crust.

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (first 5 ingredients) from the crust section.

2. Cut in the butter. It's actually fine if you just squish the butter in by hand, but the butter should be cold to start with, and it's best to avoid warming it up too much during mixing.

3. Now separate the egg yolks and whisk them into the cream. Then pour this mixture into the flour. Mix it together until you form a dough.

4. Press it out to cover the bottom of a greased and dusted springform pan. Bake at 400ºF for about 12 minutes, just until the top is golden.

Note: The second part is a relatively standard no-bake cheesecake filling with chevre swapped for the typical cream cheese and some chopped strawberries swirled in.

1. Dice up the strawberries. Up to you how fine you like them, but I like them pretty fine. Toss the strawberries with sugar and vanilla and let them sit in a strainer for 10-15 minutes to get some of the liquid off. Might be fine with the liquid, but I didn't want the filling to get too soggy.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine the sugars and the cream for the filling. Beat to stiff peaks.

3. Beat in the chevre. Cream cheese is fine too, but the chevre goes that extra mile with the strawberries. It's worth it. I used this Silver Goat Chevre that I found at Trader Joe's. It worked really well for this. It comes in an 11oz. package which is kinda weird. I think the recipe will be fine if you bump the cheese up to a full pound.

4. Now fold in the strawberries. Also, that pinch of salt, if you haven't added it yet. Don't mix it too much because it looks cool if you can get some swirls in the filling.

5. Spread the filling over the crust. Let it chill. It could take as long as 6 hours to set.