Lemony Cheesecake With Chocolate Ganache And Raspberry Sauce

Today is my Mother's birthday, so in honor of her I have made a cheesecake. If the batter is any indication of how good the cake will be, this is going to be excellent. I have it baking even as I type this.

So here is how I made it:

Lemony Cheesecake With Chocolate Ganache and Raspberry Sauce

Ingredients:

Filling
3 ½ 8oz. packages of Philadelphia Cream Cheese®
½ cup plus 2 T. granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
3 T. all-purpose flour
1 t. ± vanilla extract
4 packets True Lemon® crystallized lemon

Crust
4 cups graham cracker crumbs crushed
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup unsalted butter melted

Raspberry Sauce
1 cup sugar
2 cups fresh raspberries
¼ cup water
3 T cornstarch
¼ t. salt
1 T unsalted butter

Chocolate Ganache
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
24 ounces dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350° F

For the crust:
Combine the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar. Add the melted butter and mix thoroughly. Pour crumb mixture into a 10" springform pan and firmly pack the mixture over the bottom and up the sides of the pan forming a crust. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and cool.

For the filling:
Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer at medium speed until fluffy, then beat in sugar. Add whole eggs and yolks, 1 at a time, beating well at low speed and scraping down bowl after each addition. Add the crystallized lemon and mix well. Beat in flour and vanilla until just combined.

Pour the mixture into the crust (which should still be in the springform pan!)

Wrap the sides and bottom of the pan with aluminum foil. Place the springform pan into a larger pan in the oven (like the drip pan) and fill the larger pan with water. (Of course you don't want to fill it so full that it overflows into the cake! The aluminum foil is to help keep the water out of the springform pan.) Bake until the sides of the cake are firm about 2 ½ inches in. Turn off the oven and allow it to cool.

Run a thin knife around edge of cake to loosen, then cool completely in pan on a rack. (Cake will continue to set as it cools.) Serve at room temperature or chilled.


For the Raspberry Sauce:
Combine sugar, salt, and berries in a sauce pan. Mix the water and the cornstarch together to make a slurry and add to the sauce pan. Over medium-low heat stir the mixture constantly until the sauce thickens. Stir in the butter while the sauce is still warm.

For the Ganache:
In a heavy pan heat whipping cream, butter and powdered sugar to a boil while whisking constantly. Place chips in a large stainless steel bowl, add hot cream mixture and let set for 5 minutes. Whisk together until smooth. Let cool until it reaches spreading consistency.

UPDATE:
The cake is just about done baking. I will do my best to add some photos of the cake and a finished product report a little bit later tonight!

LATER UPDATE:
Sorry. No pictures. Candles kind of messed up the aesthetic anyway. The ganache and the raspberry sauce were good, but I think I need to find a better way to do the sauce so that it doesn't thicken quite so much. Perhaps less cornstarch. I could have used fewer graham crackers for the crust too. All told I liked the cheesecake best without anything on it. It had a nice lemony flavor - which is good because that is what I was going for! It was a pretty big hit too. It is ¾ gone!