Chai Cheesecake Recipe

Infuse Chai in your Cheesecake

We love a good cheesecake here at SESA PURE. I mean, what's not to love about silky cream cheese blended with sugar and eggs to create a moist and decadent dessert? Seeing as it is THE season for all things chai, we thought there'd be no better way to celebrate both warming Masala Chai and our favorite dessert than to combine them! After a couple of test runs, we landed on this recipe to yield a perfectly spicy, creamy delight sure to warm the spirit and enliven the soul. 

We start by simmering the heavy cream in our loose Masala Chai blend, then straining it and adding it to our batter to achieve a perfect chai color and to truly infuse the cheesecake with all the decadence of a traditional Masala Chai.

We chose to use a Masala Chai blend which includes black tea leaves, thus imparting the cheesecake with a trace amount of caffeine. If you want a totally caffeine-free version, try out our Chai Spice blend to infuse all the flavor without the tea leaves! 

For our Chai Spice cheesecake, we went with a traditional graham cracker crust, but it would be simply divine to try out a gingersnap crust, replacing crumbled graham crackers with crumbled gingersnaps! Let us know in the comments what crust you try!

Also, we chose to go with a pie pan instead of the traditional spring-form pan to help prevent the water from the roasting pan from getting into our beloved cheesecake. This recipe works just as well with a spring-form pan, just make sure you wrap the bottom tightly with aluminum foil to prevent any water from leaking in during baking. Alternately, you can skip baking in the water bath, just know that your cheesecake might not cook as evenly, and will be more likely to crack.

Chai Cheesecake Recipe

Servings: 8 -10

Ingredients:

• 1 graham cracker pie crust
• 1 pound softened cream cheese
• 1/2 heaping cup granulated sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream, steeped and reduced to 1/3 cup
• 2 tbsp Masala Chai or Chai Spice
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• boiling water

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Cut the cream cheese into chunks and place in a large bowl. Mix with an electric mixer for 4 minutes until smooth
• Add sugar, beat for 4 more minutes
• While mixer blends the cream cheese and sugar, in a small saucepan, bring heavy cream and loose chai to a simmer
• Simmer cream and chai mix on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the blend achieves a rich caramel brown color.
• Mix together cinnamon, ginger, clove, nutmeg, and cardamom
• Add three teaspoons of spice mixture to the filling (Save the rest for garnish) + beat to combine
• Add salt, vanilla, and eggs one at a time, beating after each addition
• Add the sour cream and beat until incorporated
• Strain heavy cream through a fine mesh sieve to remove tea leaves 
  
• Add infused heavy cream to the cream cheese mixture. Beat until incorporated.
• Pour filling into the pie crust
• Place pie pan in a roasting pan on the lower rack of the oven.
• Heat water to a boil and pour into roasting pan around pie (this helps prevent the cheesecake from drying out or cooking unevenly)
• Bake at 325 degrees for 1.5 hours
• Turn off the heat of the oven and crack the oven door for 1 hour to allow the cheesecake to cool slowly.
• Place cheesecake in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours to cool completely. 
• Dust with leftover chai spice blend + garnish with star anise + cinnamon sticks. (And maybe some whipped cream!)
• Enjoy!