White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

My mom made this for Valentine's Day for my Dad. It was amazing! The white chocolate adds so much to the flavor of the cheesecake. The raspberry adds just enough tangy contrast to make this dessert over the top. You must make this recipe for your sweetheart.

Oreo Cookie Crust:
13 Oreo cookies
1/4 cup melted butter

Cheesecake filling:
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, room temp (that's three 8 ounce packages)
1 cup white sugar
3 large eggs
2 Tbsp unbleached white flour
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup white gourmet chocolate like Ghirardelli, melted with 2 Tbsp half and half
3/4 cup raspberry preserves, seedless

What to do:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place pan of hot water in the bottom of the oven. This will steam during the baking process and provide a more stable environment for the cheesecake to cook in; one with a more constant temperature.

Prepare a 9 inch spring form pan with foil and spray. Just place foil over the base of the spring form pan with the foil overlapping the base. Then place the spring rim over the foil and close. then fold the foil up the sides of the rim; this is to make sure the filling stays in the pan.
Mix crust ingredients and pat on the bottom of the prepared pan, making a nice even layer of crust, even if you need to push some of the cookie up the sides of the pan, that is ok.
Using a high-speed mixer beat cream cheese and sugar until creamy.
Add eggs and beat until fluffy, scraping sides of the bowl a few times and mixing after.
Add flour, almond extract, vanilla and salt, beat again and scrape down the sides.

In a double boiler (basically a sauce pan with water boiling and a glass bowl sitting over top the pan, making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water), melt the white chocolate with half and half until creamy.
Then, with the mixer on medium speed, add melted white chocolate. Beat on medium just until mixed and creamy.

Pour half the batter into the pan on top of the crust. Then carefully and evenly spoon half the raspberry preserves on top of the batter. It helps if you nuke the raspberry preserves first, couple of seconds, makes it more pliable. Do not let any preserves touch the sides of the pan.
Then, gently pour the remaining batter on top, being careful not to disturb the preserves.
Place small amounts of remaining preserves around the top of the cheesecake. And using a sharp knife or toothpick cut through the preserves and into the cheesecake to produce a swirled design. You can also drag the toothpick out a bit and make a star like symbol. That is what is on the top of the cheesecake pictured.

Bake at 325 for 60 -70 minutes. Its ok if the middle is still a little jiggly, as long as the cheesecake is mostly firm. If you see hints of brown on the top of the cheesecake, its definitely done.
Place in refrigerator to firm up.

I really hope you make this recipe for your special someone.

A Week in Atlanta for Work...and Food!

I had to train for my work in Atlanta. We stayed at one of the embassy suites hotel. I love embassy suites, but I took my mom with me and each day we would venture out and find some good eats!

One place we went to was the Cheesecake factory. If anyone has been there they know that it has every type of food imaginable on their menu. The menu is literally 20 pages, with everything from Chinese, Italian, Mexican, up-class food and of course 60+ different kinds of cheesecake.

I wish I would have taken a picture of my piece of cheesecake. I had the chocolate-raspberry cheesecake.
It had five layers of delicious!

The bottom was a chocolate crumb crust, then on to a chocolate cheesecake layer, then a chocolate-raspberry cheesecake layer, then a chocolate ganache layer, then finally topped off with a chocolate icing.


Another place my mom and I went was Joey D's Oak Room. It was within walking distance of the hotel.

This place was kind of expensive, but boy was it worth it.

The first course was oyster shooters. These were fresh cold raw oysters in shot classes, covered in a slight spicy vodka water and spicy cocktail sauce on top. I would take an oyster with cocktail sauce and a squeeze of lemon, place it on a cracker and gulp it down. Fantastic!

My mom had a very large filet mignon with creamed spinach on the side. The spinach was a little heavy on the nutmeg, but her steak was cooked perfect.

From where we were sitting we could see the filet cooking in the large rotating oven. Couple passes in the oven and it was a excellent medium.

As for me, I had a mushroom and shrimp pasta, with a light wine sauce. It was very good. I could only eat half, but that was the best next day lunch. I am not a drinker, but I love the taste of cooked wine; it permeated the pasta and really sent this dish over the top. The mushrooms also absorbed the flavor so they just popped in your mouth with juicy flavor.

All in all, this training trip for work turned into a food extravaganza. I really had a wonderful time enjoying the sites, smells, and food of the little area of Atlanta we stayed in that week.

Hopefully I will need more training soon!

Emeril Lagasse's Pumkin Cheesecake

This was a cheesecake that I made for Thanksgiving this year. My sister wanted cheesecake and my dad wanted pumpkin pie, so I found Emeril Lagasse's recipe from foodnetwork.com and decided to compromise for both of them. And boy did the compromise taste good!
Emeril uses a food processor, but I just used my giant stand mixer.

My mom liked the Bourbon whipped topping, but I just like cool-whip on top.

Feel free to check out Emeril Lagasse's other recipes on foodnework.com:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups vanilla wafers, crushed into crumbs
1 cup ground pecan pieces
1 stick melted butter
2 pounds cream cheese, softened and cubed
1 cup light brown sugar
6 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups pumpkin puree
2 cups sweetened whipped cream
Dash bourbon

How to:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the crumbs, ground pecans and the butter together. Mix well and press into a 12-inch spring-form pan.
3. In a food processor, with the metal blade, mix the cream cheese until smooth.
4. Add the brown sugar and blend.
5. Add the eggs 1 at a time to thoroughly incorporate into the cheese mixture.
6. Add the heavy cream. Add the flour, salt, cinnamon and vanilla and blend until smooth.
7. Add the mashed pumpkin and blend until smooth.
8. Pour into the prepared pan.
9. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the cake is set.
10. Remove from the oven and with a knife loosen the sides from the pan. This will prevent the cake from splitting down the center. Completely cool the cake before cutting.
11. Combine the whipped cream and bourbon together, blend well. Garnish each piece of cake with the Bourbon Whipped Cream.