Norwegian Brown Cheese Cheesecake (Brunost Ostekake)

If you’ve ever been to Norway I’m sure someone has excitedly offered you brunost, or brown cheese, to try. And while you probably loved this sweet, fudgy cheese, there’s also a chance you thought it was too strange too eat.

While not technically a cheese brunost is made from leftover whey from the cheesemaking process. The whey is boiled down until it caramelizes. In Norway you can buy brown cheese made both from cow’s milk and from goat’s milk, with slightly varying flavors. And while some supermarkets abroad do carry it, can also order brown cheese online here.

While brown cheese might not be for everyone, I have learned that even those who aren’t fans will enjoy it when it’s added to desserts. Brown cheese adds a distinctly Norwegian flavor to baked goods, and because it’s already a very sweet cheese it makes perfect sense in sweet treats!

I’ve already shared my recipes for brown cheese and white chocolate chip cookies and spiced apple cake with brown cheese frosting, and today I’m sharing one of the best uses of brown cheese I know: brunost cheesecake.

If you love cheesecake I can almost guarantee you will adore this cake. You know how some perfumes smell so luxurious that you just know they’re incredibly expensive? Well I would say that brown cheese cheesecake tastes like an expensive cheesecake.

Or in other words, it’s a Norwegian cheesecake.

I’ve also made a video showing exactly how to make this brown cheesecake:

Tips

If you’ve made cheesecake before you pretty much already know how to make this. The only extra step here is adding melted brown cheese and cream to the cream cheese filling. Easy!

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You’ll start by adding digestive cookies to a food processor to make crumbs. I used Norwegian Kornmo cookies here, which are like wholegrain digestives. But you can pretty much use whatever sort of digestive or graham cracker type cookie you like.

I also like to add a bit of ground cardamom to the cookie base, as Norwegians always try to add cardamom to their baked goods. But if you don’t like cardamom or don’t have any on hand you can skip it.

And then you’ll add the sugar and melted butter to the crumbs and pulse it a few more times in the food processor. The mixture will end up like greasy crumbs.

Then you’ll press the crumbs into the bottom of your cake form. Really press them down so you have an even, tightly packed base.

I use quite a large cake form (26 cm or 10 in) so I get a thinner cheesecake. But if you want a taller cheesecake you can absolutely use a smaller cake form (like 22 cm or 8.5 in) and the baking time should be the same.

Bake the crust for ten minutes at 345°F (175°C). When it’s finished reduce your oven heat to 300°F (150°C) for baking the cheesecake.

Once the crust goes in the oven you can get started on the filling.

Add the cream and vanilla pod seeds to a saucepan and bring to a simmer. After scraping out the vanilla seeds I toss the empty pod in the cream as well for extra flavor. The you can simply remove the two pod halves before adding the brown cheese to the cream.

Either slice or grate your brown cheese so that it can melt easily in the cream. Once the cream starts to boil remove it from the heat and stir in the brown cheese.

I use a whisk to make sure there are no lumps. The brown cheese should be able to fully melt in the heated cream.

In a separate mixing bowl, stir the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Then add in the brown cheese mixture and stir again until smooth.

Then add the eggs, stirring after each egg. Finally add lemon juice to taste (I use the juice from about a quarter of a large lemon). Pour the mixture into your cake form and bake for about 45 to 50 minutes. When it’s finished the sides will be firm but the center will still jiggle a bit.

Let the cheesecake cool completely and then put it in the fridge to chill overnight, or for at least a few hours (I would say at least three hours).

If you like, you can add berries on top of the cake before serving.

You can switch the recipe from US measurements to metric by clicking from “US Customary” to “Metric” under Ingredients.