Extremely Creamy White Chocolate Blood Orange Mirror Cheesecake with a Salted Cashew Ginger Graham Crust
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Yield: 12 - 16 servings
 
AS mentioned above, the blood orange mirror, candied orange slices, blood orange dust and white chocolate curls are all optional. Make the cheesecake as is, even without the white chocolate because it is the creamiest most amazing cheesecake you will ever have!
ingredients:
  • Crust
  • 2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
  • 1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
  • 2 tablespoon / 24 g sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ** I added ½ cup finely chopped, toasted, salted cashews, and 2 teaspoons of freshly grated ginger
  • Cheesecake
  • 3 packages of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
  • 1 cup / 210 g sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
  • 1 tablespoon liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake
  • ** I added 6 oz melted and cooled white chocolate and 1 tablespoon Cointreau
Optional Blood Orange Mirror
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon Cointreau
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
  • 1¼ cups fresh blood orange juice (about 3 to 5 blood oranges)
  • ¼ cup simple syrup (1/4 cup sugar plus ¼ cup water, simmered until sugar is dissolved and is syrupy and clear)
  • Optional Candied Blood Orange Slices
directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
  2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan (springform or a lined cake pan see * notes ). You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.
  3. Melt the white chocolate. Set aside to cool. Combine the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, melted and cooled white chocolate, and alcohol of your choice (if using) and blend until smooth and creamy.
  4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Wrap the springform pan in heavy duty tin foil, or double wrap it in regular tin foil, to prevent any water from seeping in. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is still not airtight, take it out and cover securely with more tin foil.
  5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.
  6. Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.
  7. Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!
Optional Blood Orange Mirror
  1. Place lemon juice, Cointreau and water in a medium bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over this mixture, and set aside until spongy and soft.
  2. Combine fresh blood orange juice and simple syrup in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Pour over gelatin mixture and stir to dissolve gelatin. Place bowl over bowl of ice water and stir occasionally until the mixture is syrupy and just begins to thicken (do not let gel); remove from ice water.
  3. When mixture is syrupy, pour a 1/16-inch layer over the top of set and chilled cheesecake in springform pan. Refrigerate until set.
notes:
* No springform pan? No worries! Just line a 9 or 10-inch round cake pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper, making sure you leave some overhang over the sides. Once it's ready to serve and eat, just use the overhang to the cheesecake out of the pan!
Recipe by parsley sage sweet at https://parsleysagesweet.com/2009/04/27/say-cheesecake/