I made the heart-shaped cakes for a special Valentines Day event. I used 4 oz of cream cheese and it turned out perfectly (1/2 of a 250 gram block for my fellow Canadians). I put parchment paper in the bottom of my 9X13 pan and buttered it; that made it a lot easier to remove the hearts as I cut each one. I had also cut a second piece of parchment in the same size and used it to plan. I traced around my cookie cutter with pencil so I could see how to arrange the cutting and thus, minimize waste. For the raspberry puree, I used a 400 gram container of frozen raspberries (we don't use ounces here) and added another tablespoon of sugar - that worked fine. I chilled the cheesecake overnight and the next day, I heated the leftover raspberry puree to boiling and added 2 tbsp of cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp water, stirring until thick and then let it cool a bit. This thickened it beautifully for topping the cakes. For the drizzle, I heated 1/8 cup whipping cream in the microwave to boiling and added 1/2 cup chocolate chips, letting it sit for about 2 minutes and then stirring until smooth. I poured it into a sandwich baggie and cut a tiny hole in one corner to use as a decorating bag. I had more than enough drizzle to decorate them. I got 8 nice generous heart-shaped portions. Thanks for a great recipe!! I will definitely make it again :)

Are people NOT READING the recipe right.It states 4-8oz. pkgs of cream cheese,not 4 oz. of an 8oz pkg.If they would use the appropriate amount, they will realize how good this really is.

This is a very rich dish. I followed the directions to-a-t and it turned out great. However it isn't very cheesecakey. The chocolate layer is more like a fudge than a cheesecake. If you want cheesecake, this probably isn't the best recipe as is. I baked it for 40 minutes in a 13X9. Definitely line it with parchment paper if you are wanting to use cookie cutters, I ended up sabotaging a portion of it trying to get it out of the pan!!

I just made this cheesecake. I made the follow changes: I used 8oz. cream cheese. Instead of making the raspberry puree, I used seedless raspberry jam. Also, when mizing the chocolate and whipping cream- you will still need to keep the pot over low heat, as these chips are large, and need help melting down. Also, bake time for me was 35 minutes in the 13x9 pan. I just tried to cut the cheesecake using my heart cookie cutter (after about 1.5 hrs of cool time) and it did not work out so well. I will let this cheesecake cool in the fridge overnight, and cut/decorate tomorrow. Hope this helps!! PS: This cheesecake tastes very good! Very rich! Be sure to serve in small portions. :) ***Addition: I had a HARD time with the two cookie cutters I had. So I was able to get two hearts to come out, and opted to just serve with small squares (I posted under this recipe a picture) After cutting, I added a smear of the seedless red raspberry jam- and then drizzled white and Ghiradelli chocolate on top. THEY ARE DELICIOUS!

This recipe is exceptional! I felt like a top chef winner after making it! To all the questions re: is 4 oz enough? Yes, it is. Having said that, I did add a full 8 oz pkg of cr.cheese b/c I never know what to do with the left over cr. cheese. The dark choc is so rich, it really overpowers the cheese flavor so I don't think it matters if I used 4, 8 or 24 oz of cr. cheese because the chocolate flavor really comes through loud &clear! As a previous reviewer suggested, I placed a piece of buttered parchment paper in the bottom of my 13x9 pan & it came out like a dream. No sticking or crumbling. In fact, the pieces came out with the cookie cutter! I found that rinsing the cookie cutter between pieces helped reduce the problem I was having with the cake sticking to the cutter. I might try buttering my cookie cutter in the future. Also helpful was using a meat tenderizer (basically a glorified hammer) to gently tap on the cookie cutter once placed on the cake & pushed it down as far as I could by hand. It really helped cut through the crust. Like many people, I could not find chocolate graham crackers so instead, I used a package of oreos with the middles scraped out & omitted the sugar in the crust the recipe calls for. I also reduced the butter in the crust to 5 T. to avoid the over greasiness mentioned by another reviewer. This is a 5+ star recipe & I plan to use it year round. Maybe star shapes w/white choc ganache & blueberries atop the raspberry coulis on July 4th.

these are fabulous and delicious

Ghirardelli has changed the amount of cream cheese in this recipe from 4 oz. to 4 (8-oz.) packages.

I used strawberries instead of rasberries. I also put the ganache on top. I then added the strawberry puree, and finished it off with fresh strawberries around it. It was completely delicious! I did use 8oz of cream cheese instead of 4 oz (I agree that the 4 oz was a misprint). The chocolate did have a stronger flavor than the strawberries, so I also recommend adding more of the cheesecake filling to berry portion of the cheesecake. Overall, a complete success.

A number of things: -Don't overcook your cheesecake if you can help. It's done if it's still jiggly in the center when you shake it gently. -Make sure you semi-cover your cheesecake as soon as you get it out of the oven to prevent cracking. -Don't put your cheesecake immediately in the fridge, let it sit either in the open-but-turned-off oven or in another warm place (like the stove above the oven, if you have that) for about two hours. Then let it chill in the fridge for about four more hours (or overnight) before you do any decorating. -There's a LOT of raspberry left over if you put it through a mesh strainer like instructed. What I did with it was mix it into a basic buttercream frosting with a bit of the raspberry juice and some red food coloring, and I coated the top of the cheesecake the morning after baking. Then I decorated with some additional uncolored buttercream frosting (flavored with almond extract) and, after that was done setting, I topped it off with the rest of the raspberry juice mixed with rice flour (about 2-1 ratio rice flour to raspberry) and used that as my final topping. If you prefer chocolate, you could use cocoa powder and a little water instead of the raspberry for that final decorative bit.

The "1 (4 ounce) package cream cheese" was misleading. I used 1 8oz package because that's what I was was thinking this required, and scrambled managing to find another 3/4 of a package in the fridge as well as part of a package of mascarpone cheese... and I still don't think it was enough. I would agree with some of the other comments, in that the idea of this is nice- but if I had it all to do over again, I'd use a better-rated chocolate cheesecake recipe and combine that with a better-rated rasberry cheesecake recipe. OH, also, I almost forgot- while the ground almonds in the crust is a nice touch- there is WAY too much butter and sugar. I currently have grease dripping through the springform pan, it's so greasy. I'd maybe recommend 1/4 of a cup max and half the amount of sugar.