My First Pressure Cooker CheeseCake with ButterScotch Shortbread Crust and Raspberry Chambord Coulis

If you live in Toronto, you have probably had shortbread from Mary Macleod's at some point. Unlike most other self named companies, there really is a Mary Macleod and she started baking her famous chocolate crunch shortbread in 1981. Even after 30 years in the business, Mary, herself, still spends time in the kitchen coming up with new treats like the Butterscotch Shortbread Crumbs I used to make the crust for this cheesecake.

I was more than happy to accept a free bag of cookie crumbs to experiment with because I would happily buy them anyway. I used to live right across the street from Mary's shop on Queen St East for a few years and so I was very familiar with the product. It's not like I had ever run over there in my pjs and grabbed a few cookies to go with my morning coffee or anything.....

Along with my bag of crumbs, I go these mini shortbread ($17.95) to try too. They are a bit expensive for me to buy for myself but I wouldn't hesitate to get them as a gift for someone else. They are seductive little butter bombs and after I finished half of the little box in a morning, I had The Kid hide them from me and, of course, because he has much more self control than I do, he made them last for another few days. I hate him.

I have a few more ideas of things I will use the cookie crumbs for, so keep an eye out but, for now, I wanted to make something simple and classic so that they could really shine, out in front.




The number one trend in electric pressure cooking has to be cheesecake and some of the people who are avid Instant Pot users seem to make them daily but we are not really cheesecake people. I make single serving creme brulee in it all the time and my Key Lime Pie will absolutely happen again but I feel like I am the only PotHead (that is what the Instant Pot groupies call themselves) who has yet to try the cake of cheese.

My mother in law was coming for dinner and she happens to love cheesecake. She also loves shortbread and raspberries so this cheesecake was for her and she was very happy with it. The butterscotch shortbread crumb crust is almost too easy to throw together and it was the perfect foil to the rich, dense cheesecake and because they are extra delicious, I had to throw some more on the top. Cheesecake, in the pressure cooker, is also ridiculously easy and less than half the time of baking one in a water bath in the oven. I am going to try a Japanese style cheesecake next as I, personally, prefer a lighter, fluffier texture, but, for New York style cheesecake lovers, this is a hit.

*As stated, I received a free bag of shortbread cookie crumbs and a box of mini cookies to try, but beyond that there was no compensation and my opinions, as always, are my own.

Pressure Cooker Cheesecake with Shortbread and Raspberry Chambord Coulis

Pressure Cooker Today Samoa Cheesecake ( no need to reinvent the wheel here because her basic cheesecake recipe is great so go over there and use hers - I only used the cheesecake, not the topping or the crust)

Raspberry Chambord Coulis

1/2 cup Butterscotch shortbread cookie crumbs (I used Mary Macleod's)

fresh raspberries

for the crust I used about 1 heaping cup of Mary Macleod's Butterscotch Shortbread Crumbs and mixed it with 2 1/2 tbls melted butter. Otherwise, I followed the basic Samoa recipe for the cheesecake

Raspberry Chambord Coulis

1 pint raspberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbls orange zest
2 tbls Chambord

In, a small pot, bring raspberries and sugar to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes, until it's thick and syrupy. Let it cool enough to handle and then puree it in the blender and pass it through a fine mesh strainer. Stir in the Chambord and put in the fridge to chill until time to use. You can keep in the fridge for a few days, if it even lasts that long.



To serve:

Cut a piece of cheesecake, drizzle a generous amount of raspberry coulis over the top and sprinkle with a couple tablespoons of cookie crumbs and a couple of fresh berries.