Wild Huckleberry Lovers

Ingredients

For Huckleberry Fruit Filling:
• 2 cups frozen huckleberries
• ½ cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
• ⅛ cup cornstarch mixed with ⅛ COLD water
• ¼ tsp. almond extract
• 1 Tablespoon. butter
• 1 cup more frozen huckleberries

For Crust:
• 1 sleeve + 7 Girl Scout Shortbread Cookies, finely ground, (or 1½ cups after grinding)
• ½ cup finely ground almonds
• 2½ Tablespoon. melted butter

For Cheesecake Batter:
• 4 (8 oz.) packages. cream cheese, room temperature
• 1½ cups sugar
• 3 oz. Baker's White Baking Chocolate, melted and cooled but still pourable
• Seeds of one vanilla bean, (can sub 1 tablespoon. vanilla extract)
• ¾ cup heavy whipping cream
• 4 extra large eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• ⅓ cup white chocolate liqueur (Author uses Godiva)
• 3 tablespoon. Amaretto Liqueur (Author uses Disaronno)
• ¼ cup flour

Instructions

For Huckleberry Fruit Filling:
1. Place 2 cups of frozen berries and sugar into medium saucepan. Over medium heat, gently stir occasionally and cook until sugar has dissolved, there’s some juice, and mixture comes to a boil. Stir in cornstarch slurry, and continue cooking and gently stirring until very thick and clear. Remove from heat and stir in extract and butter until melted. Fold in last 1 cup frozen berries. Set aside to cool.

For Almond Shortbread Cookie Crust:
1. Place cookies and almonds in food processor. Process until fine crumbs. While running, stream in melted butter. Press evenly onto bottom and partially up sides of a sprayed 9" springform pan.

For Cheesecake Batter:
1. Preheat oven to 325º F.
2. In large mixer bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in vanilla bean seeds. Scrape sides, paddle and bottom and beat again.
3. Starting on low speed, blend in melted and cooled white baking chocolate and heavy cream. (Turn up speed once it’s safe to not splatter.) Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just mixed. You don’t want to whip them and create air.
4. Mix in sour cream, liqueurs, and flour until smooth. Scrape paddle, sides and bottom of bowl and mix again. Pour a little less than half of the batter into springform pan on top of crust.
5. Sprinkle small dollops of fruit filling over the batter using a ½ cup.
6. Pour more cheesecake batter evenly and gently over the fruit filling to within a ½" from the top of the springform pan.
7. Evenly sprinkle another ½ cup of the filling over the top in small dollops again. With a knife or spoon, cut into fruit filling and swirl a little.
8. Tear a large sheet of foil off, and set pan onto center. Press foil up sides of pan. Place into large roaster. (Big enough to hold pan level.)
9. Open oven and place onto rack that puts cheesecake in the center of your oven. Fill roaster with boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Close door and bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes.
10. When time is up, turn off oven, open door briefly (about 3 "Mississippi" seconds), close door and leave in oven for 1 hour.
11. Remove from oven. Remove springform pan from roaster and foil, and place on a rack to cool. When cooled down, cover top of pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
12. The next day, run a knife around edge to loosen, and pop open springform ring. Remove ring and place cheesecake onto plate or serving stand.

Notes