Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

Yumm! Cheesecakes are my favorite desserts. If I were skinny I would have one each day. But when I am having a cheesecake, the melting creamy moment in the mouth is totally worth having those extra pounds and I do feel a lot lighter in my head. I tried out raspberry swirl cheesecake and it did come out amazing. I will share with you the regular as well as an eggless cheesecake recipe. The reason being we have friends who are vegetarians and do not eat eggs, and we also have sinner friends like me, who eat eggs. But they all love cheesecakes and I love sharing mine with them... well sometimes;)

The base is a classic NY style cheesecake and this cheesecake can be modified as per your preference to any flavors. You can add any puree as toppings, swirl or just top with fresh fruits and whipped cream. It always comes out to please. I made the regular cheesecake filling using Chantal's NY Cheesecake recipe, which is simple and quick to put together.

Regular Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

Ingredients:
Crust

• 1-1/2 cups crushed graham crackers
• 4 tbsp melted butter

Raspberry Sauce

• 6 oz raspberries
• 2-3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp cornstarch

Filling

• 4 (8 ounce) packs cream cheese
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour

Directions:
Crust

• Preheat oven to 350 degree F
• Crush the graham crackers, using a ziploc bag or a blender/ food processor, whatever you prefer.
• Mix the crushed crackers with melted butter
• Press the mixture to the bottom of a springform pan using a cup or bowl with flat bottom.
• Bake for around 10 minutes.
• Remove and let it cool
• Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degree F

Raspberry Sauce

• Puree raspberries, adding sugar and cornstarch in a blender
• Pass the puree through a sieve to remove all seeds from it.
• In a small saucepan, heat the puree for few minutes till lightly thickened.
• Cool it

Filling

• Cream together cream cheese and sugar using a mixer.
• Add milk, flour, vanilla extract and lemon juice, and blend together.
• Add eggs one at a time. Do not overbeat, just barely till it is well incorporated.
• Add sour cream and just blend till the batter is smooth.
• Grease the sides of the prepared pan with crust and pour half of the filling on the crust.
• Pour half teaspoon of raspberry sauce in dots over the filling
• Pour the remaining batter and again top with raspberry sauce 1/2 tsp dots. It batter will look like having red polka dots on it.
• Take a knife or a skewer and run through the dots to create swirls. You will have a marbled effect on the top. 
• Bake for around 1 hour 5-10 minutes (depends on your oven).
• Turn off the oven and leave the door open for 2-3 hours without removing the cheesecake from it.
• When fully cooled put it in the refrigerator and cool overnight or at least 6 hours.
• Enjoy the cheesecake of your labor.

Eggless Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

Crust

• 1-1/2 cups crushed graham crackers
• 4 tbsp melted butter

Raspberry Sauce

• 6 oz raspberries
• 2-3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp cornstarch

Filling

• 4 (8 ounce) packs cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup sour cream

Directions:

• Follow the directions for the crust and raspberry sauce in the regular cheesecake recipe.

Filling:

• Cream together cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk and sugar.
• Add vanilla extract, lemon juice, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and mix together.
• Add sour cream and blend well till batter is smooth
• Bake in the prepared pan for 1 hour 15-20 minutes.
• Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake cool in it with door open for 2-3 hours.
• Chill the cooled cheesecake in the refrigerator overnight or for at least 6 hours.
• Like I said, enjoy the cheesecake of your labor.

Tip:

• I find that greasing the sides really well helps to prevent cracking in the cheesecake.
• You can give a water bath to your cheesecakes for clean even topped, creamy cheesecakes. You will have to seal the bottom of the spring form pan with aluminium foil to do this.