Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust

Ok, this is the cheesecake Jami made for Aaron's birthday cake. I helped a little with the raspberry puree and I helped eat it too! It is a super complicated recipe and it also mixes fruit and chocolate, two things that you will not find that I do very often. I like simple, easy recipes, most days and I do not like chocolate and fruit together. Apart they are wonderful, but you mix the flavors together and uggghhhh. But, I already told you I helped eat the cheesecake, I ate the top and bottom sections separately, nicely segregating the fruit from the chocolate :). Anyways, on to the goodness.

Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust
Preheat oven to 350, find a big pan that accommodates your cheesecake pan (usually a spring-form pan, but you can use something else too) with room to spare and put the kettle on the stove to boil water, we are baking this cheesecake in a water bath! Make sure the bottom of your cheesecake pan is airtight, if not cover the bottom of the pan securely with foil before submerging it into the water bath, you don't do this until the end, but I am just getting you ready ahead of time. I told you this was complicated.
Crust:
2 cups Oreo crumbs, NO premade crust, it is too small for this recipe and it is not as good!
1 stick butter, melted
2 T. sugar
1 t. vanilla
Combine ingredients and press into a greased spring-form pan, set aside.
Cheesecake:
24 oz. cream cheese, the real stuff, no 1/3 less fat or fat free, it is not as good!
1 c. sugar
3 whole eggs
1 c. heavy cream
1 T. vanilla
Combine cream cheese and sugar until smooth, add one egg at a time and fully incorporate each egg before adding the next, scrape the bowl in between each egg addition as well. Add cream and vanilla and blend until smooth and creamy, it should be very smooooth and creammmy! Pour batter over prepared crust and gently tap the pan on the counter to release any air bubbles.
Raspberry Sauce:
8 oz. frozen raspberries, thawed, or you can use fresh
3 T. sugar
Blend raspberries in food processor until smooth. Press pureed berries through a fine mesh strainer and discard seeds. Mix sugar with berry puree. Use about 2/3 of sauce to swirl into the top of the cheesecake. Save the last 1/3 for topping the cheesecake when it is served.

Place cheesecake pan into larger pan, add boiling water until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. Carefully place pan in oven, bake for 45-55 minutes until the cheesecake is almost done. It should giggle in the middle but still hold together. Close oven door, turn off heat and let it rest and cool down in the oven for an hour. This lets the cheesecake finish baking and cool down nice and slow so you don't get that big ugly crack across the top of your cake. After an hour put the cheesecake in the fridge. When fully chilled, serve with raspberry sauce.

Cheesey Crock-Pot Mashed Potatoes

It has been a while since my last update, but here are the mashed potatoes I made for Aaron's surprise birthday party. I made these ahead of time so all I had to do the morning of was put the crock in the cooker and turn it on. You could just make these right before the meal and skip the whole Crock-Pot part if you want.

7 lbs. red or russet potatoes, washed and quartered
8 oz. light cream cheese
16 oz. sour cream
12 oz. shredded cheese (medium or sharp cheddar or Colby Jack)
salt
pepper

Boil potatoes until soft when speared with fork. Drain and mash by hand or with a hand mixer, add cream cheese, sour cream and 8 oz of cheese, stir. Spray stoneware crock with nonstick spray or use a liner, pour in mashed potatoes and put in the fridge overnight. Next day cook the potatoes on high for 3 hours, stirring every hour or so to keep from getting browned on the edges. 10 minutes before you are ready to serve, add the remaining 4 oz. of shredded cheese to the top of the potatoes to melt.

Nutrition Bonus: leave the peels on the potatoes, they are soft so you won't notice them when the potatoes are all mashed up and they have lots of good nutrients!