White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

I went to a Christmas Potluck with a few friends and obviously I volunteered to bring dessert :)

After going through a few recipes, I decided to go with a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake off of Allrecipes.com.  Reading through a lot of the comments, I did as many reviewers suggested, baked it in a water bath and doubled the amount of crust.  When I make this again, I think I will just do 1.5 times the recommended amount on the site as the crust to cheesecake ratio was slightly high but double was still yummy.

This cheesecake came together quite quickly, the part that took the most time was making the raspberry sauce and straining out the seeds and even that didn't take that long.

The crust was straightforward, just melted butter, sugar and cookie crumbs.  I opted to crush up chocolate wafers myself over buying the already ground up cookies.  I find that it has a fresher taste, but this may all be in my head :p  After mixing together the crust ingredients, I pressed them into the bottom of a springform pan by hand, trying to make it as packed in as possible.  The crust was made fairly level, but I made it a little higher around the perimeter to make sure that none of the cheesecake filling leaked out of the pan.

I melted the white chocolate chips in the microwave with cream.  I find that its easier to melt the chocolate in the microwave instead of using a double boiler, but it can be done either way

To make sure the raspberry sauce was evenly distributed through the cake, half of the batter was added to the springform pan and a couple of tablespoons of the raspberry sauce were swirled through it.  After adding the rest of the batter, I made a dot in the center and then concentric circles about that on the top of the cake with the sauce.  This was made easier as I put the sauce in a squirt bottle, but it could've also been done with a ziploc bag with a corner cut off.  I took a long skewer and pulled lines out of the center at regular intervals, and then between those, pulled the skewer from the outside toward the center.  (That's how I got the pattern to the right)

I baked the cake in a water bath for a little under an hour, then turned the oven off and let it sit in there until the over was cool.  This helps to cook the cake evenly and prevent cracking.

We ate this the next day after it had chilled for about 24 hours and it released easily from the pan, but I did run a knife around the edge before removing it just in case.

I definitely recommend trying this recipe!

Recipe adapted from allrecipes

Yield: 1 - 10 inch cheesecake 

Crust
2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
6 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted

Sauce
10 oz frozen raspberries
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water 

Filling
2 cups white chocolate chips
1/2 cup half-and-half cream
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a medium bowl, mix together cookie crumbs, 6 tablespoons sugar, and melted butter. Press mixture into the bottom of a 10 inch springform pan.   
2. In a saucepan, combine raspberries, 2 tablespoons sugar, cornstarch, and water. Bring to boil, and continue boiling 5 minutes, or until sauce is thick. Strain sauce through a mesh strainer to remove seeds.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Microwave white chocolate chips with half-and-half, stirring occasionally until smooth.
4. In a large bowl, mix together cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in vanilla and melted white chocolate. Pour half of batter over crust. Spoon 3 tablespoons raspberry sauce over batter. Pour remaining cheesecake batter into pan.  Create concentric circles with the sauce on the top.  Using a long skewer, pull in and out of the center to create a pattern.
5. Place springform pan in large roasting pan and fill roasting pan with boiling water to go about an inch up the side.  Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until filling is set.  Turn off oven and let cake sit inside until oven is cool.  Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 8 hours before removing from pan. Serve with remaining raspberry sauce