Blackberry/raspberry swirl cheesecake

Mmm..... Cheesecake.....

I had a good time making this cheesecake. NOT! It was such a pain and I had to do it twice! Meaning I had to run out to the store in the icy icky snow and pick up more cream cheese and sour cream. The first time around, I just dumped the eggs in one at a time and then the flour. The batter had clumps of egg covered flour in it, even though I sifted the flour first. I didn't do that the second time.


The cheesecake recipe I used is the base I use for all of my cheesecakes. I have had this recipe forever, I don't even remember where it came from.

Crust:
1 pkg (12-16 oz) of cookies (in this recipe I used Nilla wafers, but you can use Oreo cookies, minus the cream or shortbread cookies. I am anti-graham cracker)
1/4 cup butter, melted

Cheesecake:
3- 8oz pkgs of cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs, beaten
16 ounces of sour cream
2 tbsp flour, sifted
2 tsp vanilla

For the crust:
Put the cookies in a food processor w/ the melted butter and process until finely crushed. Press firmly onto the bottom of the pan and on the sides, if you wish to. Bake at 325 degrees for 4 minutes to set it.

For the cheesecake:
In a large bowl with electric mixer, at medium speed, beat the cream cheese a little. Add sugar and beat until creamy, but don't over beat.
Blend in beaten eggs, sour cream, vanilla and then the flour, slowly and until just blended. Pour batter into the pan.

For the blackberry/raspberry swirl, I took two pints of blackberries and one pint of raspberries and pulsed them in a food processor. I put the blended mix into the a fine sieve (or you can use cheesecloth and squeeze the juice out) and I used a ladle to push the juice through it. I add 2 tablespoons of red raspberry syrup (you can buy it in the syrup section of your local grocery store) and a tablespoon of sugar and simmered it over the stove top. I did this before I started the cheesecake so that it would thicken enough by the time I was ready to pour it all in the pan. I simmered until it was nape, which means that when you dip a spoon in it and wipe your finger along the back, it leaves a clean and doesn't run.
I poured half the cheesecake batter into the pan, then poured some of the berry syrup around the top and took a thin knife and swirled it around. I pour in the rest of the cheesecake batter on top of that and did the same. I then took foil and wrapped it around the bottom and put it in a roasting pan. I placed that on the oven rack and then poured in boiling hot water into the roasting pan to make a bain marie, or water bath. It looked like this:
Kinda looks bloody huh?


Normally, it takes 50-60 mins w/out a water bath. Yeah, about that. Apparently, a water bath makes it take twice as long!!!! After I was done baking for an hour, it was still jiggly. So I left it in for 15 min longer (yes it was that jiggly). Still jiggly. Now, I know what you are all thinking. The middle should still be jiggly when you take it out. This wasn't just jiggly in the middle. The whole thing was still jiggly!!!
So I left it in for a total of 2 hours. And it was not over baked....

When I took it out, I immediately took a butter knife and loosen the cake from the edges so the top didn't split when it cooled.
When it is cooled enough, you can take it out of the pan, but make sure it is completely cooled before you put it in a container and put it in the fridge. You want it to refridgerate this at least four hours, so it is better to make it the night before.

This cheesecake is super creamy and sweet (but not gross sweet). It definitely sticks to the roof of your mouth.... Plan on having a glass of water or milk next to you....

I was a bit disappointed about the swirl in the middle. If you lookclose, you can see it looks like a shadowed lilac color is in the middle part, it's not completely creamy white. Yeah, I was hoping to actually have swirls, but it work. I think if I do a swirl again, I am going to use some seedless jam/preserves and blend that w/ the reduced juice. Maybe that'll make it thicker so it'll show up more....

Either way, this is a great recipe for cheesecake, no matter what you use to flavor it. I just don't think I would use a water bath again, unless I had 4 hours to actually make this. That was a pain.