Chocolate Raspberry Strawberry Cheesecake

Oh look, it glows.
Yeah, I left it on the bottom of the springform pan. Classy, eh?
...and the profile
Still a bit soft when i took the photo-I really should have let it set longer before cutting it.


As cheesecakes go, this wasn't terribly difficult for a baked version. Though lighter than some NY style cheesecakes, this still isn't exactly health food. I ended up replaceing one of the three cups of sour cream with plain full-fat yoghurt because I ran out of sour cream-but I don't think it saved much in terms of fat or calories. It does have considerably less sugar than most cheesecakes, which is rather pleasant.

I adapted a recipe from the 1987 Best of Food and Wine Collection. I made so many changes it hardly resembles the original (I didn't swirl jam in the cake, putting it on top instead, used yoghurt, etc.). Still, I thought the technique was good, so I'll go ahead and post it with the changes I made. I liked that it had very specific times for baking, letting it sit, etc. Because I've never been able to accurately ascertain when a cheesecake is sufficiently baked but still "jiggly" in the centre. The only thing "jiggly in the centre" around here is Mr. Eat the Blog. For baking I require a bit more information. Sorry, that's a major annoyance of mine. Anyhoo....hmmm dee dumm, hummmm dee dummm, gonna bake a cheesecake when I'm through railing against the world's injustices hummd-y dummmd-y dum...
...got no real problems so I complain about jiggly food...humm dee....Oh, hi there everyone! Who wants cake?

Right. So the cake was fun to decorate as well. I had a quart of strawberries and a pint of raspberries. I tossed them with 1 1/2 cups of sugar and a generous splash of water-then, I boiled the hell out of them on the stove. When they were sufficiently reduced, but not to the gelling point, I removed it, let it cool and then had a superb topping with plenty of extra for my toast in the morning. A splash of raspberry liquor would have been nice if I had it, but eh, whatever.

Then, you knew there had to be chocolate, right? I melted two ounces of bittersweet chocolate and splashed it on with a spoon. That's it. The most difficult part of making this is leaving enough time for the various stages and for it to set-up properly. Probably would have been best made a day ahead, not when I got home at noon, but when you haven't slept in a couple days, time management skills are the first to suffer. I swear, this is worse than jet-lag, I don't know if I'm day or night or up or down. Hey everybody look, Mama made cake!

For the cheesecake:

1/2 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs
2 8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 eggs at room temperature
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups sour cream
1 cup strained plain yoghurt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Have boiling water at the ready for filling a pan. Grease an 8 inch springform pan and wrap it in foil to prevent seepage. Scatter the cracker crumbs on the bottom to coat. In a large bowl on medium speed, mix the sugar and cream cheese until light. Beat in the cornstarch. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add lemon juice and vanilla, and salt. Beat well. Beat in sour cream and yoghurt.

Pour into pan and set in a larger pan that will be filled with about 1 inch water. Bake 45 minutes. Turn off the heat and bake 1 hour longer with the door shut. Remove foil and set on a rack to cool at room temperature for an hour. Chill thoroughly before removing sides of pan and decorating top. It should chill at least four hours or ideally more.