White Chocolate & Cranberry Cheesecake

If you follow me on Instagram (you should by the way; my pets are adorable...) you may have seen this beauty posted late Sunday night: White Chocolate Cheesecake on an Oreo crust, with a Cranberry Topping.

It was absolutely as decadent and delicious as it sounds.

I'm in the process of testing out desserts for the various Thanksgiving functions I'm attending. We have a luncheon at my office, we have lunch on Thanksgiving with Graham's family, and then dinner that evening with my family. Graham has already decided I need to bring my apple pie to his families meal, but that still leaves two desserts for me to impress people with. And this cheesecake was definitely impressive. Not only is it absolutely delicious, but I think it's very visually appealing thanks to the all of the colors.

I did try to lighten this up a little bit. Last time I made a cheesecake I used reduced fat cream cheese and sour cream, and you couldn't tell a difference. And considering the addition of melted chocolate in this one, I figured it could use all the help it could get =)

White Chocolate & Cranberry Cheesecake
(Recipe heavily adapted from this one.)

Ingredients:

• 2 C. of crushed Oreos (about 40 cookies, creams removed.)
• 1/2 stick of butter; melted & cooled.
• 3-8 oz packages of reduced fat cream cheese
• 1-8 oz. container of reduced fat sour cream
• 4 eggs
• 1/3 C. of sugar
• 1 & 1/3 C. of white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree. Wrap the aluminum foil around the bottom and sides of your springform pan and set aside. (This helps keep water from seeping in & making the crust soggy.)
2. Remove the creams from the Oreos and then crush them. (I used a food processor, but if you don't have one just put them in a gallon sized Ziploc bag & beat them with a heavy bottomed pan or meat mallet.)
3. Mix the cookies and the butter and press down into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Place in the freezer to set while you make the filling.
4. Melt the chocolate chips by your method of choice. I used a double boiler. If you do this, be careful not to get the water to the boiling point... I did that and my chocolate turned into chalk... Let the chocolate get glossy and then start stirring until all of the chocolate is melted and creamy.
5. In the bowl of your stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl if you're using a hand mixer) cream the cream cheese and the sugar together. Then add the eggs one at a time, then the sour cream & the melted chocolate. Pour the prepared filling into the crust.
6. Pour about an inch of water into a large roasting pan. Place the foil wrapped cheesecake into the pan and bake for 60 minutes. For the last ten minutes open the oven door. Once it's finished, turn off the oven and let it sit for another ten minutes before removing it to cool on the counter.
7. Let rest on the counter for about 30 minutes before putting in the fridge. Let refrigerate for at least four hours, but over night is better.

Cranberry Topping
Ingredients:

• 12 ounce bag of fresh cranberries
• 1 T. cornstarch
• 1 T. Yellowtail Moscato
• 3/4 C. water
• 1 C. sugar

Directions:

1. Combine the wine & the cornstarch and set aside.
2. Heat water and sugar in a large saucepan. Let the sugar dissolve and then add the cranberries. Bring to a boil (about 5 minutes) and then reduce the heat. Add the cornstarch mixture and let simmer for about 5-10 minutes.
3. When thickened, remove from heat and refrigerate.
4. Once it has chilled and is thick, drain the cranberries, reserving the syrup that drains off.

To serve, remove the cheesecake from the pan and move to your serving dish and top with the cranberry mixture (drizzle some of the extra syrup on your slice for extra deliciousness).

Enjoy!