Thanksgiving Dessert Edition

Ohhhhh-kay, so it's been nearly a week since Thanksgiving, but it's never too late to post about a holiday meal that involved cheesecake, right?

I love cheesecake.

So.  Much.

Inside tip: I love cheesecake so much that, when playing the game Apples-to-Apples, if the red cheesecake card is played, I will always pick that one over all others.

I also love coming up with new variations of cheesecake.  Well, maybe not so much "coming up with" as much as "thinking of something yummy and then finding a recipe online."  Someday, I'll come up with something that hasn't been thought of already, but for now, there's always something online.

Thanksgiving seems like as good a time as any to make new cheesecake.  I've experimented with new recipes two years in a row now, and my toughest critic (my dad) has had good comments both times (which is astonishingly high praise).

This year, the recipe experiment was White Chocolate-Cranberry Cheesecake.

Oh yes, you read that right.

Not only was this delicious, but it was SO pretty (it helps that it was sitting on a pretty plate supplied by my mom)!

First of all, let's talk about that chocolate crust.  I used Nabisco chocolate wafer cookies (after a debate with myself in the grocery store about how horrible it would be to toss the chocolate animal-shaped graham crackers into my food processor before I actually found the plain chocolate wafers...seriously, I have issues), and it was fabulous.  With the bits of shaved chocolate blended in with the cookies - yum.  I've saved this recipe for future use if for no other reason than to remember the crust.

The cheesecake itself was really good, too.  I omitted the dried cranberries and amaretto liquor, but added in a generous spoonful of vanilla extract (homemade, by the way...insert pat on the back here).  I was hesitant about the semi-sweet chocolate mixed in, thinking that it should've been more white chocolate but you know what?  I was wrong.  Those little chocolate bits were great!  Baking it at the time specified in the recipe yielded a cheesecake that wasn't set quite as much as I'd have liked, so next time, I'll keep it in the oven for at least five more minutes.

Last was the topping.  I did exactly as the recipe said, except the raspberry jam wasn't seedless (it was, however, also homemade!), but it was all terrific.  It seeped into the cheesecake itself, and looked so great dripping down along the sides of the entire cake.

All in all, this cheesecake was a hit!  Honestly, I'm not usually a super huge fan of fresh cranberries, however the combination of cranberries with raspberry jam was spot-on.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Thanksgiving marks the start of the holiday cooking and baking season, which is always exciting.  Stay tuned for upcoming holiday treat posts!  

And I hope your Thanksgiving was as delicious as mine!