I missed sharing a Holiday that fell on March 6th with my husband David which both David and his dad would have been so excited to celebrate. Can you guess what it is? No, you can’t you say. Well March 6 is National White Cheesecake Day #WhiteCheesecakeDay which isn’t a Cheesecake I’ve ever seen much of but David and his dad both love Strawberry Cheesecake and it would have been fun to share a new dessert with them.
National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day is celebrated every year on March 6, a holiday dedicated to a unique version of everyone’s favorite dessert. Cheesecake is a sweet dessert made with soft fresh, Cream, or Cottage Cheese which I didn’t know, Eggs, and Sugar, on a crust of crushed Graham Crackers, Cookies, Pastry, or Sponge Cake.
Cheesecakes can either be baked or frozen until the Cheese and other components settle into a solid piece. Cheesecake is often served topped with Fruit, Chocolate, Compote, or Whipped Cream. The most common Cheesecake flavors are Blueberry and Strawberry, but today is about their less popular, most special sibling, White Chocolate Cheesecake.
Ancient records show that the early Aztec and Mayan people consumed Chocolate in religious rituals. Not the Chocolate we are familiar with today, but the Cocoa Bean. Once the early Europeans were introduced to Chocolate, many consumed it as a beverage, and after gaining popularity, people started experimenting with many recipes. Soon after, Chocolate Cake enjoyed unparalleled popularity in the 19th Century, and people started using Chocolate in more baked goods. Confectioners realized that Chocolate in desserts had an immense marketing value.
White Chocolate, on the other hand, appeared much later. The Nestle company began creating White Chocolate in the 1930s. Meanwhile, in North America, Kuno Baedeker developed White Chocolate in 1945. In the strictest sense of the term, White Chocolate isn’t Chocolate at all. White Chocolate is made from Cocoa Butter, Sugar, Milk solids, and sometimes, Vanilla. White Chocolate does not contain Cocoa Solids, which are found in Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate.
The origin of Cheesecake is easily traced. During the 1930s, the famous New York-style Cheesecake was created at a restaurant called Lindy’s, combining Cream Cheese and Cake into one delicious treat. While the restaurant shut down in the 1960s, the owner of the restaurant released the recipe to the public through the magazine Duncan Hines which acclaimed restaurants consult for their food innovations. Since then, the recipe has traveled far and wide, and today almost every restaurant serves Cheesecake with its own variation of the original recipe.
NATIONAL WHITE CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE DAY ACTIVITIES
- Websites like Ghirardelli, AllRecipes, and FoodNetwork have lists of recipes for White Chocolate Cheesecake that you can try at home on National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day.
- Experiment today with recipes using White Chocolate along with Cheesecakes and invite your friends and family over to try the recipes. The sooner the better because we already missed celebrating on National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day.
FACTS ABOUT CHEESECAKE
- Some flavors of Cheesecake are more popular than others and did you know Red Velvet is America’s favorite Cheesecake flavor. I would have thought it was Strawberry Cheesecake. Which flavor did you think would be the favorite and why?
- Austrians have Cheesecake-flavored postage stamps available at the Austrian Postal Services.
- Some Cheesecakes can be very expensive and the most expensive Cheesecake costs $5,000 and it takes five days to prepare this Cheesecake.
- Philadelphia Kraft Foods Mexico made the biggest Cheesecake in 2009 in Mexico, which weighed 4,703 pounds.
WHY WE LOVE NATIONAL WHITE CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE DAY
- Most everyone loves Cheesecake of one flavor or another which means Cheesecake deserves a day of celebration.
- National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day is the perfect opportunity to either back a Cheesecake or visit a restaurant and order a slice of White Chocolate Cheesecake or two. No, one will tell on you.
Recipe for White Chocolate Cheesecake Day
Total Time Prep: 40 min. Bake: 45 min. + chilling
Makes 12 servings
Ingredients
- 7 whole cinnamon graham crackers, crushed
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
- filling:
- 4 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
- 2 large egg yolks, room temperature, lightly beaten
- 8 ounces white baking chocolate, melted and cooled
- strawberry sauce:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/2 cup water
- 1-1/2 cups chopped fresh strawberries
- Red food coloring, optional
- melted white chocolate
Directions
- In a small bowl, combine cracker crumbs and sugar; stir in butter. Press onto the bottom and 1 in. up the sides of a greased 10-in. springform pan.
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla until well blended. Add eggs and yolks; beat on low speed just until combined. Stir in white chocolate. Pour over crust. Place pan on a baking sheet.
- Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until center is just set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight.
- For sauce, in a large saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch and water until smooth. Add strawberries. Bring to a boil; cook and stir until thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in a few drops of food coloring if desired. Cool.
- Spread strawberry sauce over top of cheesecake; drizzle with melted white chocolate. Refrigerate leftovers.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
