If you are ready for some cheesecakey goodness, check out my white chocolate raspberry cheesecake recipe below and the tips that follow.
White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Spring form pan, 9 in.
- KitchenAid (or mixer of your choice)
Ingredients
The Graham Cracker Crust
- 2½ C Graham Cracker Crumbs
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- ¾ C Melted Butter
The Cheesecake
- 16 oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese
- 16 oz Lucerne Cream Cheese
- 1¼ C Sugar
- ½ C Sour cream
- 2 tsp Vanilla
- 4 Large Eggs
- 1 C White Chocolate Chunks see post on choosing white chocolate
- 1½ C Frozen raspberries see post on why frozen
Instructions
Making the Graham Cracker Crust:
- Prepare the spring-form pan. Place parchment paper at the bottom of the pan and lightly spray the paper and sides of the pan with cooking spray. You can line the sides with parchment paper as well, but I found that to be unnecessary.
- Place the graham cracker crumbs in a medium bowl.
- Mix the cinnamon into the graham cracker crumbs.
- Melt the butter (the flavor of the crust can be more toasted if you brown the butter. To do this, stir the butter over medium heat. It will start to bubble and then the bubbling will go back down. It should start to brown shortly thereafter).
- Add the melted butter into the bowl and mix with a whisk until evenly moistened.
- Pour the crust into the pan and press the crust around the pan evenly using the bottom of a flat cup. (Note: I prefer a thicker, flat crust so that there is an equal amount of crust in each bite. If you wish to have the crust go up the sides, you can do so by pressing the crust against the sides of the pan.)
The White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Filling:
- Preheat the oven to 250°F.
- Place all of the cream cheese into the KitchenAid mixer bowl. Using the beater attachment (not the whisk), mix the cream cheese until smooth. Medium speed is fine. Do not worry about overmixing the cream cheese. You need to make sure it is smooth at this step (and before you add the eggs).
- Add the sugar, sour cream, and vanilla. Continue mixing. You may need to scrape the sides of the bowl using a spatula. You will mix until it looks smooth and uniform in color.
- Add the eggs, two at a time. You only mix until the eggs are incorporated into the mix (ie: uniform in color). You do not want to overbeat the eggs. I used the KitchenAid at low speed and finish with a hand whisk just to ensure no eggs are missed.
- Add white chocolate chunks to the batter.
- Add frozen raspberries to the batter.
- Mix gently by hand until well incorporated.
- Gently pour the cheesecake mix onto the crust in the spring form pan.
- You can even out the top of the cheesecake with a spatula or by lightly tapping the bottom of the pan flatly against the countertop.
Baking the Cheesecake:
- Bake the cheesecake at 250°F for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Place the cheesecake on the top rack so it is in the center of the oven. Also, place a large cookie sheet on the bottom rack beneath the cheesecake. The cheesecake may "weep" extra moisture from the butter or fat from the cream cheese. The cookie sheet will catch this and help avoid mess in the oven.
- After the intial baking, turn off the oven and crack it open slightly. You can wedge a hot pad against the oven door to stop it from closing all the way. This will vent the oven while allowing the residual heat to continue the baking process. Allow the cheesecake to sit in the oven for an additional 60 minutes.
- After this second hour, the center of the cheesecake should still be a little jiggly. Remove it from the oven and let the cheesecake cool to room temperature (about another hour). Allowing the cheesecake to cool will help prevent it from "sweating" in the refrigerator.
- Chill the cheesecake in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours. Overnight is best.
Backstory to the White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake recipe
When I set out to make the Ultimate World’s Best Cheesecake, one thing I discovered is that many people preferred to try lots of different flavors of cheesecake rather than having one big cheesecake of a single flavor. I therefore began specializing in making personal-sized cheesecakes.
I made these cheesecakes in 4-inch spring form pans. Each batch of the Ultimate World’s Best Cheesecake would make five 4-inch cheesecakes. This means that instead of having one cheesecake flavor, you would end up with 5 flavors.
The white chocolate raspberry cheesecake was one of the favorite cheesecakes.
What a fascinating backstory, right?
Selecting the White Chocolate
When I was developing this recipe, I was trying to balance cost and quality because I was considering retailing the cheesecakes. For instance, if people only want to spend $7 on a 4-inch cheesecake, I can’t have expensive ingredients that would cost over $7 to produce. I had to consider the profit margin.
As part of the testing process, I tried making the cheesecake with a variety of types of white chocolate–from expensive white chocolate with real cocoa butter to cheapo white flavor chips.
If you’ve followed my recipes, you probably know the outcome….
By and large, people cannot tell the difference between a cheesecake with expensive white chocolate and a cheesecake with plain old white chocolate flavor chips. There is a difference–better white chocolate creates chunks that are smoother in your mouth. But the difference is miniscule.
So if you are deciding what white chocolate to use, I personally do not think it really matters.
That being said, it may be more emotionally satisfying to know that the cheesecake has higher-quality white chocolate rather than generic store-brand vanilla chips. So, to me, that’s the litmus test–if you feel better about having better chocolate, use that.
But if I’m making this cheesecake for my family, we don’t really care about fanciness, so I use the cheapest white chocolate chips I can buy.
If you are using a Lindt bar (or I supposed any other chocolate), about 8 oz should be fine. That would be two Lindt white chocolate bars.
You should not melt the white chocolate
At the time I’m posting this, the top Google results for white chocolate raspberry cheesecake recipes instruct you to melt the white chocolate in cream and then add the melted white chocolate to the cheesecake batter. (At the time of posting, the top three white chocolate raspberry cheesecake recipes where from, respectively, Allrecipes, Let’s Dish Recipes, and House of Nash Eats).
In fact, the top six recipes are all basically the same–they all instruct you to melt the white chocolate.
I disagree with this method. Melting chocolate works for a chocolate cheesecake, but not for a white chocolate cheesecake.
I will explain…
Unlike brown chocolates, white chocolate is not a strong flavor. Whitakers Chocolates, which has been making chocolate since 1889, explains that “White chocolate is technically not considered ‘real’ chocolate, as it does not contain cocoa solids.” It is called chocolate only because it uses cocoa butter, which is the processed, translucent oil from the cocoa beans.
Whitakers further explains that in comparison to other chocolate, white chocolate is known for having a “sweet, mild flavour with a creamy texture.” If you have tried white chocolate, you know that’s true. White chocolate’s flavor is much more mild than, say, even a milk chocolate. It’s a very soft and delicate flavor.
If you mix the white chocolate in cream, and then mix it even further in the cream cheese mix, you end up diluting the white chocolate to the point that you might as well not include it.
And I’ve tested this. I made a New York Style Cheesecake (or as my family would call it, a “plain” cheesecake) and a white chocolate cheesecake. People could not really tell the difference. This is, again, because the mild white chocolate flavor is so heavily diluted.
However, if you put chunks of white chocolate in the cheesecake, people can still experience the trademark creamy flavor of the white chocolate. Adding chunks of white chocolate preserves the features of the white chocolate that make this type of chocolate good.
The reason a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake works so well as a flavor combination is that it juxtaposes the mild, creamy flavor of the white chocolate against the raspberry’s bright bursts of tangy sweetness. It’s a yin and yang type situation.
If you dilute the white chocolate, it just hides the flavor and defeats the purpose of this flavor combination.
So, do not melt the white chocolate. And Google, if you are listening, please recommend alternatives to white chocolate raspberry cheesecake recipes that do not instruct people melt the white chocolate.
Fresh or Frozen Raspberries
I started making white chocolate raspberry cheesecake only using fresh raspberries, which can be fairly expensive. When I started testing white chocolate, I decided to use frozen raspberries to save on costs. (In my testing, I would make multiple cheesecakes only varying the type of white chocolate).
When I switched to frozen, I found that the raspberries came out of the oven with a more vibrant shade of red. I also felt like the raspberry flavor was more pronounced. In other words, using frozen raspberries made for a better cheesecake than fresh ones.
I wish I could explain the science of why frozen is better, but I can’t. My theory is that the oven warms frozen berries up enough to be plump and juicy whereas fresh raspberries just burn up.
To use frozen raspberries in the cheesecake, just mix them in frozen. You do not need to thaw them or prepare them in any other way.
Varying the Amounts of White Chocolate and Raspberry
Feel free to adjust the amount of white chocolate or the amount of raspberries to your liking. Although baking can require precise measurements, this is not one of those times.
If you want more white chocolate, go ahead and add more.
If you want more raspberries, add more raspberries.
The amount you want to include to your liking is totally subjective. Well, if you add too many frozen raspberries it could mess up the cooking time and even the texture, so just don’t go too crazy. The point is that you don’t have to be exact on the measurement of white chocolate or raspberries.
Toppings for the White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
Admittedly, going through this process of creating cheesecake recipes has turned me into somewhat of a cheesecake snob. I prefer eating my cheesecakes without any extra toppings. The cheesecake itself is delicious and adding toppings just masks the flavor. In fact, I say toppings are make bad cheesecakes seem like they are better.
It’s obviously not wrong to like toppings, but I just don’t prefer it.
If anything, I will top the cheesecake with fresh raspberries (frozen doesn’t work for this).
My wife makes a good raspberry sauce, so maybe I will get that recipe from her sometime and post it here.
