- Hi guys, welcome back to my channel.
Today I'm gonna show you how to make
a fantastic cheesecake recipe.
It's rich, it's decadent, creamy, and delicious,
and you'll love that raspberry swirl
that is baked inside the cheesecake
as well as spooned over the top.
Now, because I'm making this for Valentine's Day,
I did wanna incorporate a little bit
of chocolate into the dessert,
so we are gonna be using a chocolate cookie crust,
but you could use a graham cracker crust,
and for that I'm gonna use these chocolate wafers.
We're looking for about a cup of crumbs,
so that's about 20 of these chocolate wafers.
You could use Oreos, you would just scrape out the center.
Then I'm also gonna add a pinch of salt
and two teaspoons of sugar.
These wafers are pretty bitter. They're not that sweet.
If you're using Oreos, though,
I wouldn't add any additional sugar
because they're sweet enough.
Before you add the butter,
I would just pulse these up until you have a nice crumb.
Now, if you did not have a food processor
you could also just put the cookies
in a resealable plastic bag, something like this,
and then seal it, (laughs) make sure you seal it,
and then give them a good whack with a rolling pin.
That also works.
Then you wanna add three tablespoons of melted butter,
in it goes, and then give that a pulse.
Now, one thing to note about using the food processor
after you add the butter,
is sometimes the butter can collect at the bottom here,
so I would just give it a stir just to make sure
all the butter is incorporated with your crumbs.
Now this is an easy crumb recipe,
because we are just going to use one layer of crumbs,
so all of the side is just going to be the cheesecake part.
Then I also like to go in with a one cup measuring cup
and just tamp it down all the way around.
This will just help it bake a little bit evenly,
and prevent it from crumbling too much.
Then you wanna place this in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven
for anywhere from seven to nine minutes.
As soon as you can smell the fragrance of the chocolate,
it's time to pull it out.
Now for the raspberry sauce.
So I love this cheesecake
because you've got the raspberry swirl in the actual cake,
and then you have the raspberry sauce
that we're going to spoon over the top.
But not to worry, it's the same sauce
and we're gonna make it in one big batch. (laughs)
So I have 12 ounces of fresh raspberries here.
To pick out three of the prettiest raspberries
that we are going to place on top as a garnish
with a little sprig of mint.
So oftentimes I forget to do that,
and then I've whirled them all up
and then I don't have a garnish.
If you didn't have the food processor,
you could take the raspberries
and work them through the sieve with a spatula.
I have done that before and that does work.
Then you wanna add a tablespoon of sugar
just to sweeten them up, 'cause they are a little bit tart.
Then you wanna take your fine mesh sieve,
put it over a bowl,
and we are just going to pass this raspberry puree
through the sieve,
because that will catch all of those little seeds
and create a really lovely raspberry puree below.
Now, when your crust is ready,
allow it to cool on your countertop
and this is a perfect time to reduce the heat on your oven.
So the crust bakes at 350,
but we want the cheesecake to bake at 325,
and sometimes it can be really easy to forget that
and stick the cheesecake in at 350.
And cheesecakes are temperamental,
they don't like to be baked at a very high temperature
or they'll start to crack, turn too brown in certain places,
so it's really easy to remember to do that
right when you take the crust out, 325.
For the filling, we're gonna be working
with 24 ounces of whipped cream cheese.
I like the whipped cream cheese
because I just think the texture's a little bit better,
but if you only have the brick, that'll work too.
And then you're also gonna add a cup of sugar,
and then beat this up just until it's nice and combined.
Then we're going to add two eggs, and you can beat that up.
Sorry, you should really add those one at a time.
I think what happens when I'm shooting myself
is one of the skills goes.
(laughs) If I'm concentrating on the camera,
the cooking skills go.
If I'm concentrating on the cooking, the camera skills go.
So anyway, sorry about that. You should do one at a time.
Now we're gonna add the egg yolks,
and add them one at a time.
And egg yolks really work best
when you separate them when they're cold.
They're a little harder
if you wait till they're room temperature,
so I would separate them first
and then allow the eggs to get to room temperature
because they will incorporate better
into the cheesecake mixture if they're at room temperature.
Then we're going to scrape down the bowl
and we're going to add some sour cream.
Sour cream in cheesecakes is really great
because it loosens the cream cheese
and makes the filling really luscious and delicious,
and not so kind of stiff and filling.
If you've ever had a cheesecake that felt kind of too heavy,
chances are they probably didn't have any sour cream in it.
Then we're going to add a full tablespoon
of vanilla extract.
So normally I would probably use
vanilla bean in a cheesecake,
but they've become so expensive nowadays,
I just refuse to do it.
(laughs) They're like $17
for a little dried up shrively thing,
so I'm just gonna use a full tablespoon of vanilla extract.
In it goes.
And then the secret ingredient,
a quarter cup of flour, all-purpose flour.
The flour really alleviates the need
for having to use the water bath.
Now, by all means,
you could use the water bath if you wanted to,
but I just find the texture is not as good,
especially with the swirl,
by baking it without the water bath,
and I've tried it both ways.
The raspberry swirl gets really faded for some reason,
and when you bake it the way I'm gonna show you,
it somehow bakes the swirl into the cake
and it's still just as luscious and creamy and delicious
without the hassle of the water baths.
So just pour your batter into your cooled crust,
and then give it a shake just to level it out.
It's amazing what that does.
(laughs) Gravity is just the baker's best friend.
Then we are gonna create little dollops
all around our cheesecake.
Using the pointy side of your skewer,
you're gonna go in and just start to swirl
these little red dots.
And you'll see sometimes you'll even be able to create
almost like little hearts.
Which you could leave them as hearts if you like,
or you could just keep going.
Then we are going to put this in a 325 Fahrenheit oven
for 45 minutes,
at which point you are going to shut off the oven.
Don't open the oven door, just shut it off,
and let it go for another 30 minutes.
And what will happen
is the cheesecake will continue to bake,
but at a very low reducing temperature,
which will create the most delicious creamy center.
It really does work wonders.
I learned this technique once
when we had a chocolate cake in the oven
right before some company was arriving,
and the electricity went off,
and I just left it in there and let it continue to bake
until I thought it was done with just the residual heat.
And I tell you, it was like the creamiest,
most delicious chocolate cake.
(laughs) We all were like, this is amazing.
You can serve your cheesecake
with the delicious strawberry sauce on top,
and when you take your first bite
you'll see exactly why I love it so much.