Strawberry Cheesecake

I received a request at work to make a strawberry cheesecake. I found this beautiful cheesecake on a fellow blog, and it looked gorgeous. This little recipe did end up giving me some trouble though. First of all I had to convert it from grams, which was a first for me so I was a little worried about the outcome. Then when it came to the technique of swirling the colors, well let’s just say my technique was a little lacking. It was swirled inside, but not on top so it ended up looking totally different than the one I was trying to recreate. Now to be honest this wasn’t my favorite cheesecake, but strawberry cheesecake is not my favorite and I’m a chocoholic and think that chocolate should always be involved with cheesecake. The coworkers did seem to enjoy it though.

Crust
Ingredients:
10 graham crackers
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/4 C superfine sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F and wrap the outside of a 9in spring form pan three times with foil, making sure to alternate direction. Wrap it tightly as without tight foil barrier, water can seep through the pan.

Combine graham crackers, melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a food processor and pulse until it all mixed together well and moistened.

Press mixture into spring form pan. Make sure you pack it together solid so the cheesecake mixture doesn’t leak through to the bottom.

Cheesecake
Ingredients:
3 (8oz) packages cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 C superfine sugar
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
16oz bag frozen strawberries, thawed and drained (of course you can use fresh here if you’d like)
3 drops red food coloring

Directions:
Place 2 1/2 blocks of cream cheese in a food processor along with the lemon juice, vanilla and sugar and process till the mixture is completely smooth. Scrape down the sides, add the eggs and egg yolks then process again till smooth and well combined.

Remove about 2/3 of the cheesecake mixture and set aside, then add the berries, remaining 1/2 block of cream cheese and food dye to the 1/3 cheesecake mixture remaining in the processor and blitz till the berries are smoothly incorporated. The food dye is optional, but will help make the layers more striking once baked.

Pour the white and strawberry cheesecake mixtures into the pan, alternating flavors and trying to keep each addition fairly even. Once all the mixture has been added, drag a skewer from the edges to the middle to make a pattern. At this stage, you can also add a little natural strawberry preserve or roasted strawberries to be found as little surprises in each slice.

Bake the cheesecake for 45 minutes – 1 hour, or till the top of the cheesecake feels set to the touch. (I baked mine for 45 minutes and checked it and it felt set, but it was a little too soft when I served it the next day, it should have baked a little while longer) Once the cake is baked, chill overnight in the fridge to allow it to set completely, then slice and serve.

Recipe by the Kitchen Wench (Re-printed and converted with a few changes)