#valentinecheesecake #raspberry #whitechocolatecheesecake
#yum
Monday and Tuesday, February 9 - 10, 2015
No soap - cheesecake! It tastes so much better!
Since Alison has the crud, she is staying away, for which I thank her as I don't want it! I have cleaned, gotten a haircut, done some yard work, and baked cheesecakes. A friend of mine is having a birthday this week and I have been asked to bring her favorite....cheesecake. Actually I made two different cheesecakes. The first one tasted ok but fell apart; the second one was a success.
The birthday gathering will be small - only six of us, so I figured we didn't need a full sized cheesecake. After scouring Pinterest and Google for small or individual cheesecakes, I found a recipe for 12 cupcake sized cheesecakes. I decided to use my large (6) cupcake pan and simply make them a little bigger - just what I needed. I got busy and before long I had 6 mini cheesecakes, replete with raspberry preserves on the top.
They were the right size, but I still wasn't sure, so I sacrificed one to make sure it was ok.
I was glad I tried it. The graham cracker crust totally fell apart, plus there wasn't much flavor in the "cake" part. I had used Dickinsons Seedless Raspberry Preserves on the top which was the best part!
Time to look for another recipe.
(Editorial note from Alison here: Don't let Kathy fool you! She never thinks anything is good enough. I can tell you that if it were my birthday, I would have been as tickled as anything with those little cheesecakes. In fact, I was finally back in the Soap Lily kitchen today (Thursday) and tried one of these while Kathy was birthday partying with the final cake. I figured between a sick child who decided to share the nasty germ with me and my resultng illness, my past week has not been all unicorns, rainbows, and sunshine. So heck! I'm gonna try one of the little rejected cheesecakes. So what if the cookie crust was a little crumbly?! This was DANG good cheesecake!!)
I think the reason I chose this one was the hearts swirled on top. I love swirling color into soap batter so logically cheesecake swirling is the next step. In fact the "hearts" on top of the cheesecake are a technique that both Alison and I have wanted to try in soap but never have, so now I can be the experienced "heart" maker and show her how to do it.
Here is my cheesecake adventure. Hope you enjoy.
The ingredients for the crust:
1 cup Nabisco Chocolate Wafers; 3 TBSP granulated sugar; 1/4 C melted butter
The ingredients for the filling:
3 - 8 pkgs cream cheese; 1/2 C half & half cream; 2 C white chocolate chips
1/2 C granulated sugar; 3 lg eggs; 1 TSP vanilla
The ingredients for the raspberry sauce:
1 (10 oz) pkg. frozen raspberries; 2 TBSP granulated sugar; 2 TSP cornstarch; 1/2 C water
1 9" springform pan
First the crust
1/4 C butter melted
3 TBSP granulated sugar
1 C crushed cookie crumbs
Mix butter, sugar and crushed cookies together in Cuisinart till crumbs hold together.
Put into springform pan.
Tamp down, I used a glass to flatten.
Now on to the raspberry sauce, I made it now so it will be cooling off.
Thaw berries before you start.
Put into pan over med - med hi heat.
Add in the 2 TBSP of granulated sugar.
Then the 2 TSP of cornstarch.
Then add the 1/2 C water
Use a potato masher to smash the berries into mush.
Bring to a boil, and continue boiling 5 - 7 minutes, or until sauce is thick.
Strain through mesh strainer to remove seeds.
Set sauce aside until later.
Now for the "cake."
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
Put chips in glass bowl over a pan of simmering water, add the half & half, and stir occasionally.
When chips are melted and mixture is smooth, remove from heat.
Set aside while you mix up the cream cheese etc.
In large bowl, on med low speed, mix cream cheese and 1/2 C granulated sugar until smooth.
Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing between each addition.
Blend in 1 TSP vanilla, and
the melted white chocolate.
Mix on low till completely blended.
Pour half the batter over the crust, completely covering it.
Spoon 3 heaping TBSP of raspberry sauce into batter (you don't have to be neat)
Swirl it, being careful not to push the skewer into the crust.
Looks a lot like soap, doesn't it?
Pour remaining batter over swirled layer, being careful to completely cover swirled layer..
(practice heart making)
Put drops of raspberry sauce in concentric circles on batter,
cross your fingers!
Draw skewer tip through center of sauce dot into the next one until you have completed the circle. Do it again on each row...presto, you have a heart filled cheesecake!
Time to bake it.
I watched an +Alton Brown show about cheesecakes once and have baked cheesecakes this way ever since.
Used 2 layers of heavy duty aluminum foil as protection.
(I don't trust my springform pan to be waterproof)
Placed cheesecake on a folded tea towel in the bottom of a 16" cake pan with enough water to cover the bottom of the pan.
(tea towel keeps the cheesecake from slipping around)
Added enough boiling water to come 1/3 of the way on the side of the cheesecake pan.
Baked about 55 minutes, removing from oven while still a bit giggly in center.
The finished birthday cheesecake.
I will try to get pictures once it's plated with the raspberry sauce.
I am thrilled that it turned out so well; hope it tastes as good as it looks!
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Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015
The party was today, and the cheesecake has been sliced and consumed. Following are the final pictures.
But first the whipped cream. You didn't think we would have cheesecake without it, did you?
I poured half of a carton of heavy whipping cream into the (pre chilled) bowl that goes with my mixer.
I started mixing slowly, then increased the speed as the cream began to thicken.
I added 2 - 3 TBSP of granulated sugar as it was mixing, then also added an overflowing TSP of vanilla.
Once the sugar and vanilla were emulsified, I ramped up the speed to high and
stopped mixing when I had stiff peaks.
Final presentation.
I piped whipped cream on the end, then using a squirt bottle, I drizzled the raspberry sauce back and forth.
Yes, it was good!!!
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