White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Mousse
For Halloween, yes you can still put raspberry liqueur in the cheesecake mix. Make multiple white dots from melted white chocolate on piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper to be multiple spider's eyes and let set. But then let the cheesecake set firm. Melt semi sweet chocolate and make a circle/blob of chocolate about 1+1/2 inches across to be a spider's body, then using a small ziploc bag pipe spider legs from the body. Once chocolate body sets, place the white dots on spider's body. You can pipe cream around outside, add gf black and orange chocolate pieces to top of cream, or use candy corn. Pipe RIP on top of a cookie that can resemble grave stones (wheat flour days I used vienna fingers). Loosen some cobweb stuff and place cake plate on top of cobweb and add plastic spiders to cobweb. Have fun, be creative, I used to do all this stuff when my son was elementary age - but even at High School his friends would 'blackmail' me. Huge trays of dirt pie for band party with poured chocolate musical instruments.
(easily 12 generous portions)
Appearance on NH's ABC WMUR Cooks Corner on Wednesdy 6 July, 2016. Please note, that WMUR doesn't keep appearances in their archives for very long and YouTube won't allow me to post the ABC piece.
One of my August 2016 recipes for Beyond Celiac - originally National Foundation for Celiac Awareness
Crust:
About 5-6 oz (125-150 g) of gf graham crackers, oreo look alikes, shortbread cookies crushed. Use your favorite gluten free cookies, check weight on the box and do the math. Remember how many crushed cookies you used in wheat flour days.
½ stick (2oz, 56 g) of butter, melted.
I don't add sugar, they're sweet cookies.
Filling:
1 lb ( 500g, 2 bricks) of cream cheese at room temperature - I use the lite version but it sets softer.
1/3 c powdered/icing sugar
½ lb (2 x 4 oz , 2 x 125g bars or 1 +1/3 c) good quality white chocolate -July 2016 internet says Bakers white chocolate, Guitard white chocolate and Aldi's Choceur white chocolate are gluten free. Lindt white chocolate in US now says not gluten free, but that was my favorite white chocolate. (Update December 2016, Lindt now say white chocolate is gf, but shared lines).
1 tsp (5 ml) gf almond extract - optional
1 + ½ c (12 fl oz, 375 ml) whipping or heavy cream
1 packet (11 g) of Knox gelatin
2 tbsp (30 ml) water
2 tbsp (30 ml) raspberry liqueur – I tend to use traditional liqueurs like Chambord, Grand Marnier and trust them to still be gluten free. I ignore 'experts' who tell us about other alcohols distilled to be gluten free.
Raspberry design:
½ c (120 ml) seedless raspberry Jam - I bought Trappist
¼ c (60 ml) raspberry liqueur
1 c (8 fl oz, 250 ml) whipping or heavy cream, whipped with 2 tbsp (30ml) sugar and 1 tsp (5 ml) gf vanilla extract/ essence for garnish.
Fresh raspberries for garnish.
1 Mix together crushed cookies and melted butter. Press into bottom of 9-10” (20 cm) greased spring form pan. Bake in preheated 350*/180 oven for 10 minutes (or let set in fridge.) Remove from oven and cool completely.
2. Pour ½ c (120 ml) cream in 4 c (1 ltr) microwave bowl and heat in microwave for about 1 minute. Add chopped chocolate, let stand for 2 minutes, then stir until chocolate mix is smooth. If necessary, heat in 10 second increments and stir well until there are no lumps left. You have to treat white chocolate very carefully as it has a tendency to harden (seize) if overheated.
3. In a separate 6-8 c bowl, beat together cream cheese, sugar, almond extract and 2 tablespoons raspberry liqueur until smooth and creamy. Don’t try this with cold cream cheese, it must be soft.
4. Slowly beat chocolate mix into cream cheese mixture and beat for about 1 minute to increase fluffiness.
5. Put 2 tablespoons water in small microwave proof cup, pour in gelatin and stir together, it will thicken. Leave to stand for 2 minutes then microwave for about 11 seconds until mixture turns into golden colored liquid that is completely liquid with no pieces of gelatin still visible. If you don’t completely melt gelatin, then it will set into chewy, rubbery lumps. Beat into cream cheese mix.
6. Pour remaining 1 c (240 ml) cream into bowl that was used for melted chocolate and beat cream until stiff.
7. Gently beat cream into cheese and chocolate mix. Pour into chilled crust
8. Melt 1/2c raspberry jam and add ¼ cup of liqueur. Make sure it is completely melted or it blocks ziploc bag. Put about 2 tablespoons of mix into small Ziploc snack bag. Snip ¼ inch hole in one corner. Gently squeeze mix onto top of cheesecake in a spiral pattern, starting at center and spiraling out. Take a knife and starting at the center draw knife to outside of pan, repeat to form a pattern. Then draw knife from outside of pan to center alternating between first series of lines. This forms a spider’s web. It doesn’t matter how accurate you are, it still looks stunning.
9. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until firm.
10. Once chilled, run a thin plastic spatula around edge between cheesecake and pan, release spring form side and remove. Gently run a thin knife between cookie base and bottom of pan, and slide cheesecake onto serving plate. Decorate with piped whipped cream, topped with a fresh raspberry and carefully brush tops of raspberries with sauce of jam and liqueur. Or use rest of jam mix in raspberry sauce below. Straight from the fridge this cheesecake is firm, room temperature it becomes mousse- like. I have a glass base springform pan so I don't have to move the cheesecake.
Raspberry sauce:
12-16 oz bag frozen raspberries - no need to thaw first
¼ c water
½ c sugar
remainder of jam and liqueur mix
Put raspberries, water and sugar in 4 cup non stick pan. Gently heat until raspberries are thawed and sugar is dissolved. Cook gently for a few minutes until raspberries are soft and breaking up slightly. Stir in jam mix and taste for your level of sugar preference. Adding the raspberry jam helps to sweeten the sauce and intensifies the flavor. Frozen raspberries and makes of jam vary in sweetness so you have to adjust the sauce to your preference. Don’t make it too sweet, since you will serve it with a sweet cheesecake.
Note: I found that, covered, this cheesecake (without cream garnish or additional sauce on top) was still good from the fridge after one week. I tried freezing it and found it thawed fine. Obviously the graham/cookie crust goes softer on either storage or thawing.
