White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake haz sugar

A couple of weeks ago, I made the grave blunder of attempting to give up sugar. It was a rookie mistake, because, as most serial giver-uppers will tell you, to stop something cold-turkey can be pretty much impossible, especially when you have as little willpower as I do.

The result was a couple of days of extreme crabbiness that would put Lucy van Pelt’s tetchiness to shame. Gosh, how snappy can you get? (Answer: Very!).

What I should have done was to pace it out, plan what to cut out, do it graaaadually. I eventually came to my senses and got some help, but I think it’s going to be a very long road. Check back here in a year’s time and I’ll let you know where things stand.

Meanwhile, here’s a delicious sugar-laden dessert to help ease the withdrawal pangs (only kidding!).

White chocolate and raspberry cheesecake

serves 10

Ingredients

Base:

200g sweet plain biscuits (eg. Arnott’s Scotch Finger or Nice)

100g butter, melted

Filling:

300g white chocolate, chopped

500g cream cheese, at room temperature

½ cup caster sugar

1 cup thickened cream (ie. cream with added gelatine or thickeners)

2 tblsp lemon juice

3 tsp gelatine, whisked into 3 tblsp boiling water

100g raspberries, fresh or frozen (and thawed)

Extra berries, for decoration

Method

1. Grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin with baking paper.

2. For the base: Crush the biscuits into fine crumbs (place biscuits in a plastic bag and hit with a rolling pin, or use a food processor), then mix in the melted butter. Press the mixture firmly into the base of the cake tin. Place in refrigerator.

3. For the filling: Melt the white chocolate (in a bowl set over boiling water, or in the microwave on low setting in 30-second bursts, until melted). Set aside.

4. Place the cream cheese and sugar in a bowl and mix until combined (this can also be done in a food processor). Add the melted white chocolate, cream, lemon juice and gelatine and mix well. Then add the raspberries and mix until just combined.

5. Pour the filling into the biscuit crust and refrigerate for 3 hours, or until firm.

6. To serve: Remove the cheesecake from the tin and top with additional berries and a sprinkle of icing sugar, if desired.

Ingredients, including sugary white chocolate and raspberries;

a food processer means never having to bash biscuits in a plastic bag again;

cutting the baking paper to fit the springform pan is an exact science;

lovely gooey cheesecake filling

A pretty good cheesecake, topped with fresh berries and icing sugar.

What, more sugar? It's for decoration, so it's alright.

It's even prettier from above: