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Ice Box Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

This dessert is easy to switch up to your personal preferences. I've provided a few alternate options in the notes section for ideas to make it perfect for you.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 to 2 cups heavy cream or heavy whipping cream see notes
  • 1 8 ounce block of cream cheese, I use Philadelphia Cream Cheese
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips or shaved chocolate
  • 1 box Famous Chocolate Wafers
  • two pints fresh raspberries you'll need about 56 raspberries for filling and garnishing
  • fresh mint for garnish

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl, whip cream with a mixer until it forms stiff peaks.
  2. In another bowl, use a hand mixer to soften the cream cheese, about 30 seconds.
  3. Add sugar, salt and vanilla to the cream cheese and whip until fully combined and creamy. Check a small bit between your fingers to insure sugar crystals have "melted" into the mixture so there is no grittiness.
  4. Fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture then use mixer until it's fully combined and fluffy.
  5. Fold in chocolate chips or shaved chocolate.
  6. Line a sheet pan with parchment or waxed paper. I portioned out stacks of three cookies and spaced them out on my sheet pan to await filling. This is particularly helpful if you have some broken cookies so that you can plan out which stacks you want to use them in. (See notes)
  7. Cut raspberries in half. You'll need six halves for each stack. Leave the rest uncut for garnishing or to serve extra on the side.
  8. For easy assembly, place filling in a sturdy zip top bag and cut off the corner or use a piping tip. I used a large open tip, an Ateco 7, which has about 1/2" opening. Or, simply spread it on with a spoon, spatula or butter knife.
  9. Pipe a dollop of filling onto a wafer. You want enough filling to cover as much of the cookie as possible. The cookie parts that don't have filling touching them will not get as soft as those that do.
  10. Press three raspberry halves gently into the filling cut side down. Pipe a small dollop of filling into the center of the three berries to act as "glue" for the next layer.
  11. Gently press a wafer on top of first layer and repeat the filling, berry, "glue" step.
  12. Top with a wafer and garnish with more filling, a berry and a mint leaf, if desired.
  13. Refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours before serving. Use a spatula to lift them easily off the sheet pan.

Recipe Notes

*Store stacks in the refrigerator up to 3 days, although they will be best on days 1 and 2.

*I used 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream for the photos you see. You can use up to 2 cups, which will give you more moisture for the cookies to soften, but will also set up softer. I'm going to try that option next time.

*You could also make an additional batch of whipped cream, lightly sweetened, completely cover each stack and have the surprise of cheesecake inside. Then, garnish with chocolate shavings and the berry and mint.

*If you want to go a little more sophisticated/adult, you could add some Framboise or Chambord to the filling mixture and/or drizzle a little on top or on the plate right before serving.

*Make sure your berries are thoroughly dry before starting the dessert. Excess water will promote weeping, especially since you are cutting the berries in half. Mine did not weep on day one, two or three.

*If your berries are more tart than you'd like, I would sprinkle each stack with powdered sugar just before serving. It will give you extra sweetness and it will make for a pretty presentation.

*Refrigerated chocolate chips, even minis, can be kind of hard. This didn't bother even one person that ate this dessert, except for me. I often use and love mini chips in this filling for cakes, but here, they seem to stay much firmer. I would use chocolate shavings next time, or pulse the chips in a processor to break them up further or leave them out of the filling and sprinkle each layer with chocolate shavings. Choose the option you like best.

*Don't let broken wafers get you down. I had quite a few broken wafers in my box. Keep the halves together so you have matched pairs. (I didn't do that and spent more than a few minutes finding all the matches.) Save the whole ones for the top. The rest you can use for bottoms and middles. The filling will help glue them together.

Filling adapted from Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting

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