Who needs to go to a fancy restaurant?

Or to win an auctioned cheesecake? Now I know this post has nothing to do with books but I like to bake so I think I'll intersperse my kitchen endeavors with my literary ones. They make for much pretty pictures. So anyway, my mom was quite upset when our church held an auction for a fundraiser and one of the items included 4 cheesecakes made to order by one of the ladies in the church. Apparently she makes really good cheesecakes. But then I asked myself, how many times is a cheesecake not really good? So I figured I would try a copycat recipe for The Cheesecake Factory's White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle cheesecake. An excellent choice if I do say so myself. 

While the end product has proved to be delicious, there were a number of issues that I intend to learn from. I recently discovered the method of using a water bath when making cheesecake. The theory is that using the water bath will help to prevent the top of the cheesecake from cracking as it bakes. Unfortunately my first attempt did no such thing. It remains unclear whether the cracking was due to the raspberry drizzle (which I actually deviated from the recipe on and poured half in the middle and half on top before swirling) or just a failure on my part to understand the fundamentals of a water bath. (Also a tip to any other inexperienced water bathers out there: make sure the foil pieces are long enough to cover the whole of the cake pan with no gaps for water to get through. Mine got some water seepage which might be the reason the crust wasn't quite so dry when I got it out.) One of the problems I noticed with the recipe (only after I baked it did I notice comments from users noting the same thing and possible corrections) was the raspberry did not stay suspended in the cheesecake. A solution I saw was to add some flour to the liquidated raspberry preserves. I will have to try that next time.

Altogether though, I loved the turnout for this cheesecake. While rich, it was not incredibly dense and sweet like some are. I think the sour cream added some balance to the sugar and created a lovely custard-like density. I also melted some more preserves for a syrup to go over top.

White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake 

(sourced from here)

Crust

1 1/2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs or 20 Oreo cookies (filling removed)
1/3 cup margarine, melted

Filling

1/2 cup raspberry preserves (I used seedless jelly)
1/4 cup water
4 (8oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
5 eggs, room temperature
4 oz white chocolate chips

Garnish

2 oz shaved white chocolate
whipped cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Place in a large pan or oven-safe skillet (I used a turkey roaster) filled with about 1/2 inch of water in the oven while it preheats. This will be the water bath.

Combine raspberry preserves with 1/4 cup water in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 1 1/2 minutes on high in the microwave. Whisk until smooth then strain and discard the seeds. (This might the point at which you can add maybe a tablespoon of flour so it doesn't sink to the bottom of the cheesecake as it bakes - I don't know the science behind this so you might want to do so research there.) Allow preserves to cook then refrigerate until ready to use.

Use a food processor to crumble the Oreo cookies (or measure 1 1/2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs). Mix with 1/3 cup melted margarine in a small bowl. Press the crumbs into a 9-inch spring form pan that has been lined on the bottom with parchment paper. Use the bottom of a drinking glass to press the crumb mixture flat into the bottom of the pan and 2/3 of the way up the sides.

Wrap a large piece of foil around the bottom of the pan to keep the cheesecake safe in the water bath. Put the crust in the freezer until the filling is ready.

Use an electric mixer to combine the softened cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, and vanilla. Mix on the lowest setting for a couple minutes or until smooth and creamy. Don't over beat it. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go.

Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl and then add them to the cream cheese mixture. Blend until the eggs are just integrated into the mix.

Remove the crust from the freezer and sprinkle the white chocolate chips evenly on the bottom of the crust. Pour half of the cream cheese filling on top and then drizzle the raspberry preserves over the entire surface of the filling. Use a butter knife to swirl the raspberry into the cream cheese a couple of times. Don't over do it or they will blend together too much. Pour the rest of the filling into the crust.

Carefully place the cheesecake into the water bath in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes at 475 then turn the oven down to 350 degrees and bake for about 50-60 minutes or until the middle of the cheesecake is set (it should only jiggle slightly when the pan is moved). Remove cheesecake from the oven to cool on a cooling rack. When it has cooled completely, cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

Take the cheesecake out of the pan when ready to serve. Sprinkle the top with the shaved white chocolate before slicing. Apply a pile of fresh whipped cream to each slice and serve with a garnish of fresh raspberries or extra raspberry syrup for an added touch.

The Word

I took a course in media ecology in college last year in which one of the readings we discussed was called The Humiliation of the Word by Jacques Ellul. Now this is going to sound terrible but I didn't actually read the book as it was part of a group project section where small groups gave detailed presentations about each book. I do, however, plan to read the book one day. It sounded incredibly interesting and despite having not actually read it, the fact that it had such an impact should count for something. Right?

The gist of Ellul's book was that the Word (many times referring to the divine word but also to human speech and writing) has been degraded and is no longer revered as it once was and still should be. The Word is Truth but we no longer associate truth with either the spoken or written word. The visual rather than the verbal has become supreme in our culture of images and screens.

While the synopsis was hard to follow at times for anyone who had not read the book (we've all been through those presentations), the general idea fit perfectly into the topics we had been discussing all semester. Namely, the changing media we are exposed to and how it changes us and our environment as well as how to cautiously approach and harness it properly without abusing it.

Throughout the course we read a number of books and looked at statistics that show an alarming trend of people who no longer read. In David Bauerlein's book The Dumbest Generation he describes such people as not illiterate but a-literate. They can read. They just choose not to. As a result of our "Age of the Screen" many people simply do not have the attention span needed to sit down and read for 30 minutes, let alone 3 hours. I find this trend to be rather sad all told. I love the unique experience that a book provides in taking you to places you can never go and introducing you to all sorts of people who can reveal so much about your own experience despite living in a completely different world. Some of the books on my shelves are among my oldest friends. I can't imagine my life now if I has not grown up with Anne Shirley, Frodo and Sam, Jonas from The Giver, the folkish Saaski, or Fiver and Hazel.