A Cheesecake Competition And A Recipe

I love cheesecake.

Have I mentioned that before? Well I should have.

I don’t like regular cake except maybe the occasional Black Forest Cake but even then…..most birthdays I might not even have any cake and if I do it’s just the tiniest little bit and I scrape the icing off.

But cheesecake!

That is in a league of its own.

I used to have a recipe book that was just cheesecake recipes and believe me when I tell you that I tried most of the recipes in the book except for the ones that just didn’t appeal. There is the odd one but it’s rare. Unfortunately in one of the 5,381 times I have moved, the cheesecake recipe book seems to have vanished. I still hope to be reunited with it one day.

In the mean time – have you ever heard of Pinterest? lol

Photo Credit

So sometime in the recent past it happened to be my birthday and I decided to make myself a cheesecake….I searched and finally settled on a recipe claiming to be the BEST White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake ever….I had to see if I agreed.

Now I’m about the share it with y’all BUT after making it a thought struck me – what if I started trying cheesecake recipes and sharing them with y’all when I do and my thoughts on them. I mean I am pretty fussy about my cheesecake and I truly believe anyone can make the perfect cheesecake. It just takes the right recipe and a couple tips. It’s not rocket science.

So…..shall we begin?

I’m going to share the process and then I will put the actual recipe at the bottom and a link to where I got it from.

This is NOT an ad for Great Value products….it just happens that most of the items I bought to make the cheesecake were from Walmart! lol

The crust for this particular recipe is made from Oreo cookies and a little melted butter. I ended up using 2 rows of Oreos out of the package as per the recipe but honestly I found it made too much so either don’t use it all or just make less. I would use maybe 1.5 rows next time.

Just grind them up in your food processor and then mix with the melted butter in a bowl, press it into the bottom of your springform pan and bake.

It will end up looking something like this.

At that point you want to start making your raspberry sauce for your swirl…..

Combine your raspberries, sugar, cornstarch and water in a small saucepan and let them stew down a little, come to a boil and thicken.

Then you put the mixture through a mesh strainer so that you end up with a seed-free sauce. It’s quite tart but I happen to like that. If you don’t, you would want to add a bit more sugar.

Then while doing all those other things you are going to combine your cream cheese, sugar, flour and sour cream and beat it really well with electric beaters. Of course you want your cream cheese room temperature in order to get this nice and smooth. When its mixed really, really well….

You will add the melted white chocolate chips and cream mixture that you had on the stove (or in the microwave as in the original recipe instructions. I’m more of a “stove melter” so that’s how I made mine) and just combine this until its all mixed together, don’t beat it a long time.

Next the eggs and vanilla go in and just barely combine this. You don’t want to get a bunch of air in your eggs or the texture of your cheesecake will be too fluffy. The more eggs in a cheesecake recipe, the more fluffy it’s likely to be anyways….if you like fluffy cheesecake. I like mine more dense.

Now comes the fun part…..pour half your cheesecake mixture into your crust and then drop spoonfuls of your raspberry sauce (only use half) here and there randomly. Now I like to put larger amounts of the sauce in less places – it makes for a nicer swirl BUT I had help from my daughter and this is how she did it…….I have to put my tendency aside to want everything a certain way and let my kids learn too.

Then you take a butter knife or a toothpick or a cake tester (you get the idea) and you swirl it through the surface until its all marbled looking.

Next pour the remaining cheesecake mixture on top of this marbled beauty and use the remaining raspberry sauce to repeat the process.

Now it’s time to bake your cheesecake……

Place a pan of water on the rack below your cheesecake. I know this sounds crazy but really it isn’t difficult to do and a humid oven helps cheesecake bake better and crack less. Don’t open the oven door while baking a cheesecake….and when the timer goes off leave it in the oven to cool slowly. Just turn the oven off and open the door a little.

The recipe calls for white chocolate curls to decorate the top but my daughter was struggling with that process so I let her just grate the white chocolate with a cheese grater. Then she “piped” (I use that term loosely) some whipped cream (that’s included in the recipe) around the edge, we sprinkled some white chocolate chips on it and drizzled a little leftover raspberry sauce on the top too.

It’s not the most professional looking cheesecake I’ve ever seen in my life but the important part is that my daughter and I had fun making it together and she learned some new skills. Besides, how well decorated a cheesecake is does NOT affect the flavor, I promise you.

Okay now my honest review of this recipe? Its very yummy but not my absolute favorite. I found it a bit fluffy for my liking which I wondered about when I saw the recipe called for 4 eggs in one cheesecake. I’m not saying its bad, just not my favorite of all time. I also found the texture reminded me a little of a cheesecake I made once that was made with ricotta instead of cream cheese. Not quite the perfectly smooth texture I like best of all. Keep in mind, since there are SO MANY amazing cheesecake recipes out there I have to be really critical of each and every detail in order to decide which are the very best.

HOWEVER – would I make this recipe again? Absolutely. Now it’s time for you to make it and decide for yourself.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

26-30 Oreo cookies, finely crushed

1/4 c salted butter, melted

1 1/2 c white chocolate chips

1/2 c cream

32 oz cream cheese, softened

1 c sugar

1/3 c sour cream

2 Tbsp all purpose flour

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs, room temperature

12 oz fresh or frozen raspberries

1/3 c water

2 Tbsp sugar

3 tsp cornstarch

2 oz white chocolate grated or shaved

1 1/4 c heavy cream

1/4 c powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

• Preheat oven to 325°F. 

• Combine crushed Oreos and melted butter in a bowl and mix until evenly moistened. Press the crumbs into a tall 9-inch springform pan. Bake crust 8-10 minutes.

• Combine raspberries, water, sugar, and cornstarch in medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir until thickened and boiling, about 5 minutes. Strain through wire mesh strainer.

• Melt white chocolate chips and cream in the microwave in short 20-second bursts, stirring between each burst until melted and smooth. Or you can melt it in a small saucepan over a low heat on your stove.

• Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until creamy and smooth. Add sugar, sour cream, and flour, mixing well.

• Add eggs, beating on low speed just until combined.

• Mix in melted white chocolate and vanilla extract just until combined.

• Pour half of the cheesecake filling into the crust crust. Dollop half of the raspberry sauce (about 3 tablespoons) over the batter and swirl.

• Add remaining batter and then dollop the remaining sauce. Swirl.

• Bake 60 to 70 minutes with a pan of water on the rack below the cheesecake until set. Turn off oven and crack the oven door open. Let the cheesecake cool for 1 hour in the oven before removing. Let cool another hour at room temperature. Transfer to the fridge and chill for 3-4 hours until completely set.

• Beat heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until they reach stiff peaks. Sprinkle the cheesecake with the white chocolate shavings, then pipe the whipped cream in decorative swirls around the edges to finish.

I want to give full credit for this recipe to House Of Nash Eats.

Until next time,

Update

After having the leftovers in the fridge for over 24 hours, and having another piece of it, I was much more impressed with the texture than I had been initially. It seemed much more dense and smooth than after a few hours in the fridge. I highly recommend making this enough in advance of when you want to serve it that you can refrigerate it for at least 24 hours.