So, this cheesecake post – such a comedy of errors. Not the cheesecake. The cheesecake is awesome. And, the whole goal was to come up with a method by which it wouldn’t crack or fall like usual, which worked perfectly – more on that later. But, I just kept on messing it up in ways not related to how it turned out. It is a white chocolate recipe. It is the same one that is up here in candy cane and salted caramel, but the original version that my mother-in-law used to make was raspberry. Only, I went to the store for white chocolate and came home with semi-sweet – a lot of it, since I need to test, etc. So, something else chocolate is definitely coming here. I don’t know what yet, but I have extra chocolate. Anyway, I am really not sure how it happened except that when I went back I realized they were out of the brand I normally buy and the semi-sweet was on sale, and I guess the word SALE got my attention. So, I made a semi-sweet for the photos, but was making another one for a gathering that I really wanted white, so some of the the photos are white and some are semi-sweet because I had all of these great step-by-step photos of the semi-sweet one I made and my memory card lost its formatting, so they are GONE! I took a couple of photos of the white chocolate one, but not as many because I was out of time. So, what did I learn – semi-sweet turns out just the same as white with the obvious flavor difference, but that I really do like the white chocolate one the best, AND I should really pay more attention at the grocery store.
This recipe always cracks and then falls a bit. Steve’s mom said it was supposed to, but have been thinking that really it shouldn’t. And, I keep seeing recipes that involve cooking your cheesecake in a water bath, so I decided to try it. And, it worked perfectly! No cracks, no falling, just a nice flat topped cheesecake! It does still brown on top, so next I am going to try to fix that because it would just be prettier if it didn’t. Of course, you can’t tell with the semi-sweet chocolate one.
I did wrap my spring form pan in heavy duty aluminum foil before putting it in the water bath. I know sometimes a little butter from the crust seeps out the seam, and I definitely didn’t want water seeping in.
Raspberry White or Semi-Sweet Chocolate Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 3 Tbsp. sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 5 8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 12 oz white chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 cup high quality raspberry jam
Instructions
- Heat raspberry jam for 1 minute in the microwave. Stir. Use a strainer to strain out seeds. Alternately, you could use 3/4 cup seedless and not strain it, but the higher quality types usually have seeds.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put a large baking pan (large enough to put the spring form pan in) and add about 1/2 inch water. You want to do this as it preheats, so that the water is hot when you put the cake in.
- Stir together the graham cracker crumbs, 3 tablespoons sugar, and melted butter. Press them into a lightly greased 10 inch spring form pan. I lined mine with parchment and greased that too. Bake for 8 minutes and allow to cool while you mix the cream cheese mixture.
- Beat the cream cheese at medium speed with electric mixer until creamy. Gradually, add 1 cup sugar and continue mixing until well combined. Add eggs one at a time mixing after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
- Add melted chocolate and mix until combined.
- Spread about half of the cream cheese batter into prepared crust. Spread about half of the jam over the batter leaving a 3/4 inch border of cream cheese around the edges. Top with the remaining batter and save the remaining jam to put on top, refrigerating until you need it.
- Wrap your spring form pan with heavy duty aluminum foil. Carefully, place inside the pan of water.
- Bake for 55-60 minutes or until cheese cake is almost set and slightly browned. Carefully, (I mean really be careful with all that hot water!!!) remove from the oven. Remove spring form pan from water and place on a wire rack to cool. Run a knife around the edge of the pan and cool completely on a wire rack. Cover and chill at least 8 hours. Remove from pan.
- Just before serving, spread remaining jam over the top of the cheesecake.
- Serve with additional whipped cream and shaved white chocolate if desired.
YUM is all I can say! Xx