Raspberry Mascarpone Cheesecake

I made this cheesecake once before, here. I don't normally like cheesecake, especially a dense one. I can probably eat one small spoonful and I will be content. But after tasting a mascarpone cheesecake, it has become my favorite. My love for mascarpone is undoubted, and it's really hard for me to resist putting this cheese into anything I make. Everytime I think of mascarpone, I would immediately think of raspberry and raspberry mascarpone cheesecake was one of the results of that.

When my asked me if I could make something for him to bring to a housewarming party, I immediately thought dessert. Although cake is a form of dessert, I just don't think a cake would suit that kind of party and besides, it would be pretty heavy I think. So, I was thinking something that's special, tastes really good, doesn't take long to make (you know me, I'm in a time crunch all the time), and can't be found in any bakery stores (at least around here). This cheesecake is one of the things that came up in mind. Although my friend said that I can even experiment with anything (he knows that I like to do that often in every opportunity :D), I just don't want to take that risk serving something to a group of people that I don't know. So, I must resist that opportunity and decided something that I like instead, this mascarpone cheesecake. I knew that I wanted to make fruit-flavored summer dessert, and not chocolate or coffee flavored.

If you read my first raspberry mascarpone cheesecake post, you would know that this is originally a regular mascarpone cheesecake (you can find the recipe in that post too) that I modified slightly. The cheesecake recipe is very basic and standard actually, but once you added mascarpone, it completely changes the taste and makes it extra special. I always think that mascarpone and raspberry is one of the best pair, flavorwise. In my first cheesecake, I added lots of fresh raspberries in the middle of the cheese batter and topped off with a raspberry glaze, but I wasn't really satisfied in the glaze part. This time, instead of scattering raspberries inside, I made a raspberry filling (I don't know what to call it). Basically, I just puree some raspberries, strain it, and cook it with sugar under low heat until the mixture thickens and reduced to half the original volume. My idea was to have a raspberry lava center, so that when the cheesecake is cut, they would have a surprise in the center. I also think that you would get more raspberry flavor this way instead of just whole raspberry, without getting annoyed with that tiny little seeds going in between your teeth.

I also put a sour cream topping on top and baked it for about 10mins, just because I have sour cream leftover in the fridge :P. I didn't taste the cheesecake, but I tasted the crumbs and the cheesecake crumbs that's left in the springform pan, and it tasted as good as I remember it. Too bad I won't really find out how good the combination is with the raspberry lava in the center. I absolutely love the raspberry glaze this time. I just found some leftover raspberry syrup for soaking a cake, and I have a little raspberry puree, so I combined them, add sugar/water as I needed and added enough pectin. I didn't even measure anything, but it came out perfect! The consistency is just right, the flavor is there, and not too sweet at all! The glaze was really shiny that I had a hard time taking picture of it without getting the reflection of the light or anything. I forgot to write down the proportion of the raspberry lava center though. I meant to write it down quickly but I kept on putting it off and by the time I actually want to do it, I forgot already :( (it happens quite often actually), so I'll just have to start over and try out some proportion again next time I make this.