change of cheesecake plans...

Well, I guess I spoke too soon about making a White Chocolate Raspberry cheesecake. I get home, get things ready to make my cheesecake and guess what?? No White Chocolate pieces. Guess I should look in the pantry FIRST before I get my heart and mouth set on a cheesecake. Well, what was I to do? Do I make a plain cheesecake, do I make a Bailey's one, or possibly Chocolate. I opted for the last one, good ol' Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. I made the crust, then hte cake, put it in the pan, carefully put it in the oven and then realized I FORGOT THE RASPBERRY JELLY !! Oh no.. it was too late to try and fix it, so I ended up with a Chocolate Cheesecake. No harm done, at least not yet...

I only had to change the recipe slightly. Use cocoa powder instead of flour, and Semi-Sweet chips instead of white chips. And I had to increase the cooking time to over 1 hour and 25 minutes at 325*. That's probably the longest I've ever baked a cheesecake, but the center just would not set. The edges were getting dry and I had to put foil around hte edge to keept them from burning. But the result....A house that smelled of chocolate, and a cheesecake that came out almost perfect. Not even the slightest crack in it. That's the first in a while for me that didn't crack.

Oh, and I've been reprimanded by my sister for leaving out some vital imformation about her cheesecake recipe. She won First place with her cheesecake at a cooking contest in Po-Dunk (name changed to protect the guilty). Thanks Sis...

Also, I made this cake about 4 years ago for a contest at work and got first place with it as well. I even beat out another guy whom people swore his cheesecakes were the best ever made. All of the entries were numbered and when people tasted them, they thought mine was soo god that it just had to be this other guys and they voted for it ...HAHAAHHAAH. He was so mad, it was rumored that he didn't even work the rest of the day, but went home early with "a headache". LOL, yea a White Chocolate Raspberry cheesecake headache.

Mmmmm Cheesecake

Well, the wife asked me to make something for her office Christmas party. I usually hit a roadblock trying to think up things on the spur-of-the-moment. But given a little time and a night to sleep on it I came up with something that will satisfy almost everyone in her office.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake !!!

It's actually a recipe from my sister, Biscuit Girl, but don't tell her.. :)

Crust:
1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (or Oreo crumbs)
2 Tbs sugar (actually to taste. I like a little more sugar in my crust. But more sugar makes the crust stick to the pan).
melted butter (enough to just wet the crust and help it stick together)

Mix all 3 ingredients in a mixer till moist. Press mixture into the bottom and slightly up the sides of a spring-form pan.

Cheesecake filling:
3 pkgs Creamcheese, softened (leave the creamcheese out for a little while so it softens up and isn't ice cold).
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream or whipping cream
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract (I use a good Mexican Vanilla extract, not the cheap imitation kind).
1-2 tsp of flour
1/2 cup melted white chocolate pieces (about 1/2 bag)
4 or 5 tsp of seedless red raspberry jam (make sure to use seedless)

Pre-heat oven to 325-350 degrees. Place a small pan of water below the rack the cheescake will sit on. This will help prevent the cheesecake from cracking.

Place creamcheese into mixer and turn on low. Slowly add sugar to mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, to mixer. Add vanilla. Once eggs, sugar and vanilla are incorporated, turn off mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and beaters with a spatula. Turn mixer back on and add the heavy cream and sour cream. Mix for another minute. Turn off and scrape bowl and beater again. Turn mixer on again, add the flour. Slowly ad the melted white chocolate. Turn off mixer and transfer 1/2 of the batter into the spring form pan. Spoon in the jam on top of the batter then carefully add the rest of the batter to the pan. Now take a small paring knife and gently make a few swirls in the batter to just spread the raspberry around the pan. Do not mix too much or it will mix it in too much and you will not have small pockets of raspberry hidden in the cake. Place cheesecake into oven. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until center of cheese cake is slightly jiggly.

Once cake is done, DO NOT take it out of the oven. Use a small paring knife and go around the edge of the cake to release it from the pan. This will also help prevent cracking. Leave the cake in the oven for about 30-45 minutes, then remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Once cool, cover with plastic wrap and place into refridgerator.

Each time I make this cheesecake it comes out slightly different. Most times it's better but a few have been pretty sad with huge Grand Canyon like cracks in it, or chunks of white chocolate in it. One even had the raspberry sink to the bottom, through the crust, and weld itself to the pan. Just take your time, enjoy using all your baking tools, and have fun.

Variations - Color small portions of the batter red/green for Christmas, or Orange/black for Halloween. Even color all the batter green for St. Patricks Day. Use a little red and make a Valentine's Day one for your sweetie. The combinatiosn are endless.

Enjoy.

Biscuit Girl

The links to the right contain two blogs by Biscuit Girl, my sister. Please pay her blogs a visit. She has a wonderful way with words, and has probably the two finest blogs about food on the internet.

YouGonnaEatAllThat.blogspot.com is her main blog and GlobalFoods.blogspot.com is a listing of every country in the world, and links to many recipies for that countries cuisine.

These blogs are a real labor of love for her. I know her and her husband, Biscuit Boy, really hate trying out some of the various dishes that she posts....can you feel the sarcasm. I know I try to help them with that quest each time I visit them.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I'm going to give this a try, so please bear with me. I'm not usually one to write my thought and feelings down, but I'll give my best shot. LOL.

With Christmas upon us, I'll try to post a few entries this week showing some of our families traditions in food and celebration. Also, being a computer technician, I have lots of tips and tricks that I use that many people may not know about that could make things easier on you, or make mundane tasks fun again.

Stay tuned...