Raspberry Chocolate Cheesecake

A friend requested something chocolatey and something with raspberries for his birthday. I decided to make mini raspberry cheesecakes with chocolate ganache. I halved the recipe, hence the somewhat strange proportions (1.5 eggs) so as not to be completely inundated with cheesecake all weekend long.The recipe ended up making about 11 mini cheesecakes.

Raspberry Chocolate Cheesecake

3/4 cup raspberries

3/8 cup sugar (plus a pinch for the raspberries)

3/4 cup ground vanilla wafers

2 tablespoons butter

1 package of cream cheese (8 oz)

1.5 eggs

1/2 teaspoon brandy

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

small pinch of salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 teaspoon heavy cream

1. Simmer raspberries with pinch of sugar for 10 minutes until thickened.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter and combine with vanilla wafers. Line cupcake pan with liners and place about a teaspoon of the vanilla wafer mixture in bottom of the liner. Press down with the back of a spoon.

3. In a medium-sized bowl, whip cream cheese with sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, brandy, salt, and vanilla extract and combine.

4. Place a small amount of the cream cheese batter into the muffin liners. Put about 1 teaspoon of the raspberries on top of the batter. Fill up until 2/3 of the way full with more cream cheese batter. Repeat with the rest of the liners.

5. Bake for about 20 minutes. I also placed a pan of water in the oven.

6. Allow cheesecakes to cool. In the meanwhile, in a double boiler combine the cream and chocolate chips until the chocolate is melted. Stir continuously. Allow to cool slightly and then top the cheesecakes with the ganache. Add a raspberry to garnish.