White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

The Mission:
Make a cheesecake for my friend for her birthday. And I didn't want to just make a 'normal' plain cheesecake, I wanted something much more fantastic. So I double checked with her, and raspberries were okay, so I found a recipe that looked yummy, bought all the ingredients, and proceeded to stay up extra late to make a cheesecake.


The Ingredients:

• 1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs (I used smashed oreos)
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 cup butter - melted
• 1 (10 oz) package frozen raspberries
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 3 (8 oz each) packages cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla

The Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 325*F. In a medium mixing bowl mix the cookie crumbs, 3 Tbsp sugar, and 1/4 cup melted butter until well blended. Press onto the bottom of a 9" spring form pan. In a medium sauce pan, combine raspberries, 2 Tbsp sugar, cornstarch, and water. Bring to a boil. Continue boiling and stirring until the sauce is thick and no hunks of raspberries remain. Strain sauce through a mesh strainer to remove all the seeds. Set aside. In the top of a double boiler, heat the white chocolate chips and the half and half until chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool to luke warm. In a large bowl (I used my Kitchen Aid mixer) beat the cream cheese and 1/2 cup of sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Blend in the vanilla and the melted chocolate. Blend until smooth. Pour half of the batter on top of the crust in the spring form pan. Spoon 3 Tbsp of the raspberry sauce over the batter. Pour the remaining batter into pan. Spoon another 3 Tbsp of raspberry sauce over the batter. Swirl the batter with the tip of a knife to create a marble pattern, being careful to NOT disturb the bottom crust. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until filling is set. Allow to cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 8 hours before removing from pan. Serve with remaining raspberry sauce.



The Result:
Well, the middle of the cake was still VERY jiggle when I tested it at the 55 minute mark. So I put it in for a total of 20 minutes more, checking at each 5 minute interval. This is the first time I have ever made cheesecake, so maybe a jiggle center was okay. Who knows. Obviously the cake turned out to be fairly well down and browned on the top. But it tasted fantastic. I also could not get it out of the pan to save my life. The sides of the spring form ejected just fine, but the crust might as well have been super-glued to the bottom. I'm not sure how to solve that particular problem, but I'll give a few different things a whirl next time I try this.


The Reviews:
Well - I thought the cake tasted absolutely divine. Of course, when I took the cake to the party I forgot to bring the extra raspberry sauce for serving :( Sad. I'm sure it would have tasted just amazing with the extra sauce. Oh well. All of the party-goers thought that the cake tasted wonderful. My husband - who at first wasn't going to even try it - even liked it. He's not a big cream cheese fan. Silly man. The birthday girl seemed pleased, and in the end, that's all that really mattered.

Happy Birthday, Meranda!!!!!