At the beginning of this summer Stan and I went to Las Vegas with some of our friends; and us girls (well mainly me) insisted we all go to the Cheesecake Factory. I can't go to a town that has a Cheesecake Factory and not eat at it, I have to eat there! It's just so good! This was Stan's first time at a Cheesecake Factory... he wasn't as impressed as I was. I think he didn't like it just because I love it so much... Boys are difficult like that aren't they. He did however love the cheesecake we had. I was a lemon and raspberry slice of heaven. Man was it good!
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Being the great fiancée I am, I ask Stan on a regular basis what sort of sweets he wants. He thinks about it and then I bust out something delicious! This time he wanted raspberry cheesecake. What immediately came to my head was another Cheesecake Factory creation, raspberry white chocolate! I'm pretty sure I ran to my car to go to the grocery store to chef up this delicious cheesecake!
Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake
(Recipe adapted from Woman's Day)
Raspberry Sauce*
1 bag (12 oz) frozen raspberries, thawed
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbsp. water
*In my excitement at the store I forgot to get raspberries... So I substituted a jar of raspberry preserves that I already had at my house instead of making this raspberry sauce. It worked out great! So do either and your cheesecake will turn our wonderfully.
Crust
12 to 15 whole chocolate graham crackers*
1/2 stick cold butter, cut up
*Surprise Surprise... I forgot to get these at the store also. So I substituted Nilla Wafer cookies.
Filling
3 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
3 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
8 oz. white baking chocolate, melted according to directions
Raspberry Sauce:
Press raspberries through a fine strainer over a small saucepan (throw away seeds and pulp). Stir in sugar. Heat over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Stir cornstarch and water mixture into raspberry mixture and bring to a boil, stirring until just thickened. Cool. Keep close for upcoming step.
Heat oven to 350 degress F. Coat an 8x3 inch springfoam pan with nonstick spray. And cover the outside with a double layer of aluminum foil (this ensures water will not get into pan while baking).
Crust:
Break graham crackers (or Nilla Wafers) into food processor.* Process until fine crumbs. Measure crumbs to 1 1/2 cups. Add butter and process until crumbs are evenly moistened. Transfer to prepared pan. Firmly pat over bottom of pan and about 2 inches up sides.
*I don't have a food processor... crazy I know... so I put the wafers in a gallon sized ziplock bag and rolled the crap out of them with a rolling pin. This was definitely the most exciting part of the recipe. Not.
Filling:
Beat cream cheese, sugar, and cornstarch in a large bowl with mixer on medium speed until smooth, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Beat in eggs, one at a time, just until blended. Beat in sour cream and vanilla. Finally add white chocolate until well blended. Pour into crust.
Decoration:
Drop rounded Tablespoons of raspberry sauce (or raspberry preserves*) randomly onto cheesecake batter. Refrigerate remaining sauce to serve with cheesecake.
*I will say one thing about using the raspberry preserves... they are a little more dense than the homemade raspberry sauce would be so the dollops of preserves sank to the bottom as opposed to some staying on top.
Place aluminum foil covered pan into a jellyroll pan and add enough water to cover the entire jellyroll pan but not enough to spill over the sides. Bake cheesecake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 250 degrees F and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Leaving oven door closed, turn off oven, and cool cake in oven for 1 hour. Remove pan to a wire rack to cool completely.
Cover and place in refrigerator to cool for at least 4 hours. Carefully run a knife around the edge of pan, remove pan sides.
Garnish each piece of cheesecake with additional raspberry sauce/preserves before serving.
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