Assortment of Cheesecakes and White Chocolate Cheesecake

I've been on a cheesecake craze lately. I am again, on a mission to fatten up the man (after a failed attempt 1.5 years ago) and cheesecake is one of his favorite dessert, and the most calorie-dense too! Despite his picky-ness towards  food, when it comes to cheesecake, he is pretty flexible. Bread and cheese, are the top two food in his list, which is a bit odd considering his slim figure. He would eat 4 slices of cheesecake any day with no problem while still having cheese pizza or cheese quesadilla for his meal.

I made him cheesecake from Pierre Herme's recipe and he loved that. Since I still have about 2 pounds of cream cheese, more was to come. This time, I made him 3 different kinds (on 3 different times of course), Alain Ducasse's cheesecake with sour cream topping (my favorite so far), mascarpone cheesecake with sour cream topping, and white chocolate cheesecake with white chocolate sour cream topping. Yup, I made them all with sour cream topping after he commented a long time ago that his favorite cheesecake was Sara Lee's frozen cheesecake with sour cream topping. From that day, I was determined to find him a new favorite cheesecake, preferably something I make and not come from a frozen section of a grocery store (and it is a success!). Unfortunately, M didn't get a chance to try the last one, the white chocolate cheesecake as he was sent (again) to Korea for a few weeks :(, though I really think he will love this one too.

The white chocolate cheesecake recipe was taken from a fellow food blogger Trang's Kitchen. I came across her blog one day and I was so glad I did because she is a talented baker. Then I saw her post for white chocolate cheesecake which she named "Chocolate Blanc Delish". I thought this was perfect as I had a little bit of cream cheese left, sour cream, and yogurt. It is rare that I would have all three as leftovers at the same time :).

If you're wondering why most of my cheesecakes have strawberries on it, that is because it is how M likes it (gotta please the man). I kept trying to find new decorating ideas with strawberry so that my cheesecakes don't look all the same. I decorated Alain Ducasse's cheesecake with powdered freeze-dried strawberry. I found it in my local Trader Joe's and I love the look of it!

I didn't have any berries on hand or even leftover cream to decorate the cheesecake as pretty as the original one. 

Alain Ducasse's Cheesecake -- refer to this recipe

Mascarpone Cheesecake -- refer to this recipe

White Chocolate Cheesecake
taken from here

For the bottom crust: (Chef Kathy recipe)
10 oz. graham cracker crumb
3 oz. brown sugar
5 oz. melted butter, let cool

Mix the graham cracker crumb, melted sugar and brown sugar together by hand. Then press evenly to the bottom aluminum foil at the bottom of the ring. Bake at 325F for about 5-10 minutes. Then take out and let cool before we pour in the cheesecake base.

For the Cheesecake base: (Chef Sam Salman recipe)
135 gram white chocolate
135 gram yogurt
2 eggs
400 gram cream cheese (softened at room temp.)
110 gram sugar (I used about 90g)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean)
zest of 1 lemon

1. In a bowl, melt white chocolate and yogurt together on water bath
2. In another small bowl, lightly whisk eggs and vanilla extract and lemon zest together
3. In a mixing bowl, on speed 1, paddle attachment, mix soften cream cheese with sugar until smooth and no lump.
4. Then add the warm mixture of white chocolate and yogurt to the cream cheese mixture and continue to mix on speed 2 until smooth.
5. When the mixture is really smooth, add the egg-vanilla-lemon zest mixture slowly and beat until well incorporated. Then pour the cheesecake base into the ring, on top of the baked and cool crust, and upto 2/3 the height of the ring. Bake at 325 degree F for 40 minutes in warm water bath.

For the topping:
12 oz. sour cream (room temperature)
4 oz. half and half (room temperature) -->; I used heavy cream
3 oz. white chocolate

When 40 minutes almost pass, melt the white chocolate on water bath. Then mix the warm melted white chocolate with the room temp. sour cream and half and half (the temperature of these 3 ingredients should be very closed to each other).

After 40 minutes, the cheesecake is baked, pour the topping mixture above on top of each cheesecake, just enough to cover the top of each. Then return cheesecake to oven and bake for another 5 minutes at the same temperature. Then, take out, let cool completely, then freeze them in freezer before taking them out of the ring and decorating as desire.