White Chocolate Raspberry Heart Cheesecake

By KeyIngredient

Ingredients

• Raspberry Sauce:
• 1 bag (12 oz.) frozen raspberries, thawed
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 2 tsp. cornstarch, mixed with 1 Tbsp. water
• Crust:
• 1 1/2 c. Chocolate wafer cookie crumbs
• 1/2 stick cold butter, cut up
• Filling:
• 3 cream cheese
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 3 large eggs at room temp
• 2/3 c. sour cream
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 8 oz. white baking chocolate melted as pkg. directs
• Raspberries for decoration

Preparation

Step 1

1. Sauce: Press raspberries with a rubber spatula through a fine strainer set over a small saucepan; discard pulp and seeds. Stir in sugar. Heat over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Stir cornstarch mixture into raspberry mixture and bring to a boil, stirring just until thickened. Cool.

2. Heat oven to 350. Coat an 8x3" springform pan with nonstick spray.

3. Crust: Process cookies to fine crumbs. Add butter; process until crumbs are evenly moistened. Transfer to prepared pan; pat firmly over bottom and a scant 2" up sides (no need to be even).

4. Filling: Beat cream cheese, sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl with mixer on medium speed, scraping down sides occasionally, until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, just until blended. Beat in sour cream and vanilla, then white chocolate until blended. Pour into crust.

5. To Decorate: Starting 1" from edge of pan, using photo as guide, drop 12 evenly spaced 1/2" round puddles of raspberry sauce in a circle on cake batter. Make a second circle of 1/4" puddles 1" from first circle and a third ring of very small puddles 1" from second circle. Starting with outer circle, pull tip of toothpick through each puddle to form hearts. Do same for second circle but in opposite direction. Do same for third circle doing the opposite direction as the second circle. Refrigerate remaining sauce to serve with cake.

6. Bake cake 15 min. Reduce temp to 250 and bake 1 1/4 hours or until center just barely jiggles when shaken. Turn off oven (leave door closed); cool cake in oven 1 hour, then remove pan to wire rack to cool completely.

7. Carefully run a thin knife around edge of pan to release cake. Remove pan sides; place cake on serving plate. Place in cake keeper or cover with a bowl or pot. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

8. About 1 hour before serving: Remove cake and sauce to room temp. Garnish cake with raspberries. Serve with sauce.