Name: Roasted Corn Cheesecake with Cranberry Blueberry Compote
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 10
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 40 vanilla wafers; 2 oz unsalted butter, (1/2 stick); 3 ears sweet corn, shucked and cleaned of silk; 1 Tablespoon neutral oil; 1 3/4 cups heavy cream, (14 oz); 1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature; 5-7 oz granulated sugar, depending on how sweet you like your cheesecake; 1 teaspoon kosher salt, maybe a bit more, to taste; 3 large eggs, at room temperature; 1 1/2 cups corn-infused cream; 1 teaspoon vanilla, Mexican vanilla is preferable but not mandatory; 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries; 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries; heavy pinch salt; 3 1/2 oz granulated sugar, (1/2 cup); 3 oz apple cider, (roughly 1/3 cup); zest of one lime; 2 teaspoons corn starch

Jump to Recipe

And now for something completely different and unexpected for Thanksgiving: roasted corn cheesecake with cranberry blueberry compote.
Or take advantage of the sweet corn of summer and make this cheesecake for a summer party or cookout.

If you love the flavor of corn in desserts, you may also love my lemon corn buttermilk pound cake or my lemon corn panna cotta, which is light and summery.

If you like unusual cheesecake recipes, try my Pumpkin Butter Japanese Cheesecake recipe which is less sweet than American cheesecakes.
For more cheesecake resources and recipes, please check out my Cheesecake Recipes page.

A slice of roasted corn cheesecake on a blue patterned plate with a white bowl of cranberry blueberry compote.

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Corn is just one of the best things on earth, I’m always looking for new ways to incorporate it. This recipe did not disappoint, in fact, it is one of the best desserts I’ve ever made. Thank you!!
Reader Mellow Baker

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Why This Cheesecake Is So Great

Close up view of the side of a cheesecake with fruit topping, sitting on an orange fluted cake stand.

I’m so ridiculously excited about this roasted corn cheesecake, you guys.

It is completely tasty
it’s also perfect as an unexpected Thanksgiving dessert
when sweet corn is abundant in the summer, leave out the cranberries and just make blueberry compote.
It’s a dessert for all seasons!

Corn cheesecake slice on a blue and white plate with a fork and fruit compote.

Corn Cheesecake Topping

I originally made this corn cheesecake as a Thanksgiving dessert, so the cranberry makes it very seasonal.

I also added blueberries to mellow out the tartness and round out the flavor.

There is no wrong way, though, so if you want to serve corn cheesecake in the summer, make the compote with all blueberries.

Serving for Thanksgiving or Christmas? Go with all cranberry.

I do think of all the “standard berries” widely available in US grocery stores, your best bets are going to be blueberries or blackberries, especially if you’re not a fan of assertively tart cranberries.

Collage of two photos of roasted corn cheesecake. one with fruit compote spooned over the top and one with the compote next to the cheesecake.

Whether you like a metric ton of topping or just a bit on the side, this cranberry blueberry compote is ready to serve.

See?!

Okay, before we get started, let me see if I can anticipate some of your questions and answer them.

I will vouch for this!!! Soooo delicious- good for summer and will be served at Thanksgiving this year at my house
Reader Molly

How to Make It

Ingredients

vanilla wafers: You could also use Graham crackers or shortbread cookies
butter: I use unsalted butter
sweet corn: 3 ears. You could also use frozen corn or even canned corn, well-drained. If not using corn on the cob, you’ll need roughly 2 cups of corn kernels
neutral oil: For roasting the corn. Use a neutral vegetable oil
heavy cream: You could make it slightly less rich by using half and half (single cream), or a mixture of milk and heavy cream
cream cheese: room temperature so it blends in easily
granulated sugar:
kosher salt: You definitely want salt here in a fairly good amount. It will bring out the flavor of the roasted corn
eggs: large eggs at room temperature
vanilla: My preference is Mexican vanilla, but use what you have

For the Compote:

cranberries: fresh or frozen
blueberries: fresh or frozen
salt: tempers the bitterness of the cranberry a bit while bringing out all the flavors
granulated sugar:
apple cider: Sub apple juice, cranberry juice, Cran-blueberry, etc. You could also use water
lime zest: or lemon zest
cornstarch: Just a little, to thicken the juices

Procedure

First, you’ll roast the corn and then infuse it into the cream:

After roasting the corn, cut off all the kernels and then cut the cobs into pieces.
Toss kernels and cob pieces into the cream, bring to a simmer, and then let steep for an hour.
Remove all the pieces of cob, then blend the corn and cream mixture until smooth.
Strain through a fine-mesh strainer, pressing down on the solids.

You should be left with 1 1/2 cups corn-flavored cream. If you’re a little short, add cream until you have 1 1/2 cups total.

Then you’ll mix up your cheesecake batter:

Mix cream cheese alone until smooth.
Add sugar and salt and mix until combined.
Add eggs, 1 at a time.
Finish by incorporating the “corn cream.”
Bake and cool, then chill.

Make the compote by cooking all ingredients together.

Leave it “chunky,” or blend it for a smoother sauce. Your call.

How Long Will It Take To Make Roasted Corn Cheesecake?

Roasting the corn takes about 45 minutes and can be done a day or two before.

Then you:

heat up the cream
slice all the kernels off the corn
cut up the cobs into 3-4 pieces each
and put it all in the hot cream to infuse off the heat for a good hour or so

While the cream is infusing, you can make the crust. I just bash up the cookies in a zip top bag using my big old rolling pin, but you can also use a food processor or your blender.

Fish out the cobs and then plop everything in the blender. Then use a fine-mesh strainer to get rid of all the corn bits. What you end up with is smooth, thick cream that smells and tastes like sweet corn. Magic!

Okay, so all of that takes maybe an hour and 10 minutes or so. Mixing up the cheesecake–whether you use a stand mixer or a hand mixer–only takes about 10 minutes.

How Do I Know I Have Roasted My Corn Enough?

Three ears of oven roasted corn on a baking tray. — Adorable gap-toothed corn

The corn will only be lightly golden brown, mostly on the spots where it was touching the baking tray while roasting.

I turned mine about 5-6 times to try to get even color. But a better indication is that a lot of the moisture will evaporate out of the corn, so the kernels will shrink.

Fresh corn kernels are really, really close together and are nice and plump. When you’re done roasting your corn, there will be tiny spaces between all the kernels and they’ll be noticeably “deflated.”

I think I roasted my corn for maybe an hour or 1 1/4 hours at 375F. There’s no real wrong way to do it unless you crank your oven up to 500F, so just take it slow and keep an eye on your corn. Once the corn is endearingly gap-toothed, you’ll know it’s done.

Tips for Success with Cheesecakes

A whole roasted corn cheesecake on an orange footed cake stand with a bowl of cranberry blueberry compote next to it.

Cheesecake is not hard to make, but it can be finicky. There are some rules to follow that will help ensure your success.

Bake in a water bath. I used a 9 x 13″ pan to hold my 8 x 3″ pan, and it worked out great.
It is often easier to unmold a cheesecake baked in a springform pan or a push pan. If you don’t want to mess around with flipping a cheesecake upside down, get one of these models. Just wrap them in doubled aluminum foil to keep water from leaking into them in the water bath.
Regular cakes are baked when their internal temperature reaches about 195-200F. Cheesecakes are done at a much lower temperature. Even I don’t trust the whole “slight jiggle in the middle” test and just take its internal temperature right in the center. I shoot for 160-165F in the center. Use an accurate instant-read thermometer to check.
Once the cake is done, I usually leave it in the water bath with the oven off and the oven door cracked open for 30 minutes or so. That’s so it doesn’t cool so quickly that it cracks. Once I remove it from the oven, I run a thin spatula around the inside of the cheesecake to loosen it–again to help guard against cracking. Once it has cooled to mostly room temperature, it goes in the fridge overnight. These are the long, sad hours in which I am hungry.
NOTE: Another reason cheesecakes crack is that they get mixed at too high a speed. This beats air into the batter which will souffle (puff up) in the oven and then settle back as it cools. This encourages breathtaking canyons to form or the unfortunate “my edges are taller than my center” large moon crater action. Neither is what we want, as both are a sign of mixing too quickly or baking at too high a temperature. Low and slow for pulled pork and cheesecakes, y’all. Low and slow.

Variation for Roasting the Corn

Roast the corn on the grill over indirect heat. That will bring a bit of a smoky flavor to the cheesecake.

Questions?

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Roasted Corn Cheesecake with Cranberry Blueberry Compote

Yield: 10 servings

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

This roasted corn cheesecake with cranberry blueberry compote is an unexpected yet perfectly appropriate Thanksgiving dessert. Lighter-textured than traditional cheesecake, it almost melts in your mouth, and the cranberries and blueberries marry beautifully to complement the dessert.