.caramel streusel peach cheesecake.

One of the best things of summer is peaches. They're so refreshing, and even though they're messy, you can just jump in the pool to clean up all that stickiness.

Growing up, I was so used to fresh peaches that my Opa grew in his backyard. Seriously, this man has a garden filled with any fresh produce you could need, and fruit trees for every season. It's amazing. Right now, he and my Oma are in Austria for three weeks to visit friends and family, so we get to pick all the beautiful peaches off his peach tree. And there are A LOT! Yesterday my mom made a nice peach coulis to go with our Sunday morning waffles, and we STILL had a whole bag left. So lucky.

I really wanted to use as many as I could in a dessert, so I decided to make a nice cheesecake. And because I never know when to stop adding things, I put streusel on top... and caramel. These actually work out perfectly if your cheesecake cracks, but a water bath should prevent that. If you're scared of water seeping into your springform pan, wrap the springform in foil to prevent any leaks.

So the crust is just a basic graham cracker crust because it's summer and you probably have plenty of s'mores ingredients around. The cheesecake is also such a basic recipe. If you have a cheesecake recipe you prefer, you could totally sub that in. I'm not a big fan of the tang (and extra fat) from sour cream in some cheesecakes, so I always go for a recipe that doesn't include it.

You definitely want to be bring out the natural juices of the peaches by letting them sit with some sugar first because that will just make sure that the fruit flavor isn't overpowered by the cheesecake itself. You can chop the peaches as finely or coarsely as you want. I opted to leave mine is medium chunks because I wanted to get a good bite of fruit in each bite. If 6 peaches looks too much, don't add it all! Or wait to dollop the leftovers on top after baking!

Usually when you think of cheesecake, you think of a laborious effort in the kitchen, but it's so easy. The bake times of a basic cheesecake are a little different because this recipe accounts for the streusel on top, but it's still just as simple.

I would definitely try out this recipe as soon as possible. I can't believe it's already August! All my friends will be going back to school soon, which is no fun, but I am excited to visit all of them! Gap year life is kinda boring right now, but now at least I have all this time to bake.

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caramel streusel peach cheesecake

ingredients

graham cracker crust

1 1/2 cups (about 10 full sheets) of finely crushed graham crackers
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
2 tablespoons of milk
1/4 cup of brown sugar

peach cheesecake filling

6 medium peaches, coarsely chopped.
1/8 cup of sugar
3 8 ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
3/4 cup of white sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

streusel topping

1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of rolled oats
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
store-bought caramel sauce

instructions

preheat oven to 350° and butter a standard springform pan.
in a medium-sized bowl, combine crushed graham crackers, butter, milk, and sugar and combine until a sandy consistency.
press the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.
in a bowl, stir together chopped peaches and 1/8 cup of sugar.
with a stand or hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until completely softened. add in sugar.
add the eggs one at a time along with the vanilla extract.
gently fold in the peaches to the cheesecake mixture until uniformly combined.
pour the cheesecake mixture over the cooled crust.
place the springform pan in a 9 x 13 baking dish, and pour in enough hot water to come up about half the springform.
bake for 10 minutes at 450°.
in a medium bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, and butter, and crumble together with hands until the butter is thoroughly combined with the dry ingredients.
lower the temperature of the oven to 300° and bake the cheesecake for 10 minutes.
add the streusel on top of the cheesecake and bake for another 20 minutes at 300°.
remove from the oven and run a knife around the edges of the cheesecake and let cool to room temperature.
cool cheesecake in the fridge for at least six hours or overnight.
before serving, let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes to a half hour. drizzle optional caramel sauce on top. serve and enjoy.