Just Say Cheesecake
Saturday, July 30, is National Cheesecake Day, or so I’m told.
Don’t ask me whose idea that was, but do we need an excuse to eat cheesecake?
Here’s a little trivia, as well as a recipe, courtesy or Driscoll’s.
The writer Athenaeus is credited with writing the first-ever Greek cheesecake recipe in 230 A.D. Cream cheese, though, wasn’t added til much later, in the good old USA.
We all know New York cheesecake, but other cities have their own styles, too. Chicago adds sour cream to the filling. Philadelphia makes a lighter, creamer cake than New York, often serving it with fruit or chocolate topppings. And St. Louis incorporates a gooey butter cake, which has an additional layer of cake topping on the cheesecake filling.
Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
Slightly adapted from Driscoll’s.
Makes 16 servings
20 chocolate wafer cookies
2 tablespoons butter
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
2 packages (8 ounces each) 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
2 packages (6 oounces each) raspberries
2 ounce bar of semisweet chocolate
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees..
2. Place cookie wafers in a zip-top freezer bag or double bag. Crush with fingers or roll with a rolling pin or food can to make about 1 cup fine crumbs.
3. Melt butter in a saucepan or medium bowl in the microwave. Stir in crumbs until evenly blended with butter.
4. Press crumbs firmly on bottom of 9-inch spring-form pan. Bake 5 minutes. Cool.
5. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.
6. Beat cream cheeses in a large bowl of electric mixer until smooth. Beat in sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla, starting on low speed then increasing to high, until thoroughly mixed.
7. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping bowl well after each addition. Gently stir in 1 cup raspberries. Pour mixture into pan.
8. Bake 60 to 70 minutes or until just barely set in center. Edges may crack slightly. Turn oven off and leave in oven 1 hour with door ajar. Remove from oven and cool completely. Cover and chill at least 8 hours. Run a knife around edge and remove rim.
9. Top cheesecake with remaining raspberries. Hold chocolate bar over cheesecake; firmly slide a sharp vegetable peeler along edge of chocolate allowing shavings to fall on cake.
(Lighten the recipe by using use four 1/3 less fat packages of cream cheese, or two 1/3 less fat and two fat-free packages. Cheesecake will be denser. Omit crust and coat pan with cooking spray.)
Nutrition Per Serving: Calories 342, Total Fat 21.41, Saturated 12.18g, Protein 6.92g, 32.51g carbohydrate, Cholesterol 108.04mg, Fiber 3.19g, Sodium 274mg
(Recipe and photo courtesy of Driscoll’s)
