Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake For The Unmotivated

My name is Bingle. I’m ½ of McBro Adventures and this is my first blog post. This is also my first time baking a cheesecake in a springform pan. This is also my first time baking a cheesecake.

I effin’ love cheesecake. From the dense richness of New York style to the trap house Jell-O No Bake. There is no such thing as a bad one. 

However.

My least favorite cheesecake is the raspberry white chocolate. But, we’re having my BFF over for dinner tomorrow and this is HIS favorite dessert, and I am a nice person. I’m not so nice that I’m going to make it difficult for myself, though, so here’s an easy recipe for a cheesecake that I really don’t want to make or eat.

CRUST

1 cup graham cracker crumbs (buy the crumbs already crumbed; no need to crush crackers yourself unless you already have aggression to work through)

¼ cup unsalted butter, melted

3 TB sugar

SAUCE

16 oz bag frozen raspberries

½ cup water

3 TB sugar

3 ts cornstarch

CHEESECAKE

2 cups white chocolate chips (about an 11 or 12-oz bag)

½ cup half and half

3 packages cream cheese, softened

½ cup sugar

3 large eggs, room temp

1 ts vanilla extract

Make the crust by mixing the graham cracker crumbs with the sugar and melted butter in a bowl. Press the mix into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.

Graham cracker goodness

Make the raspberry sauce by combining the raspberries, sugar, water, and cornstarch in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and cook it for about 5 minutes until it’s thick. Strain it to remove the seeds.

Preheat the oven to 345 degrees F.

Melt the white chocolate chips with the half and half in the microwave, being careful not to burn the mixture. 

Mix together the cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl with a hand mixer until smooth. Beat the eggs in one at a time. Stir in the vanilla and melted white chocolate. Pour ½ of the cheesecake batter over the crust.

Spoon 4 or 5 TB of the raspberry sauce over the batter. Pour the remaining cheesecake batter over the sauce. Spoon another 4 or 5 TB of the raspberry sauce over the batter and swirl it with a knife to make it look pretty and not like a murder scene. Save the rest of the raspberry sauce to top the finished cake later.

murder scene

not murder scene

Bake in the preheated oven until the filling is set. This could be as little as 60 minutes or as much as 1 hour and 45 minutes, depending on your oven, the color of your pan, Mercury being in retrograde, etc. What you need to look for are puffy, golden edges, a center that springs back when touched, but still jiggly like a Jell-O mold. It’ll continue to cook while cooling, even though that doesn’t make any sense. 

Cool it for about 10 minutes, then use a knife to cut around the edges. This will help “release” the cake so that it is less prone to cracking when it shrinks as it cools. Or you can just let it crack and call it rustic. Continue cooling it until it reaches room temperature, cover it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for at least several hours, overnight preferably.

"rustic"

Serve it to your BFF with some side eye.