cooking problems...OH NIK???? suggestions please

well i tried to make some type of dark chocolate turtle cheese cake type of connection following your cheese cake receipe well sort of....i had some dark chocolate cream cheese spread...added a tad bit of raw unprocessed sugar, some stevia and then some honey and some chopped walnuts.....so i m thinking its the honey...
put them into ramikins and water bath...baked them for about an hour...and they are still not setting up..i have more like chunky pudding...its tates pretty darn good..but just wont set up...so im thinking its the honey.....

i had made some raspberry sauce in pan from some frozen raspberries....receipe said to strain it with some cheese cloth to get the seeds out...well i have this glob of great tasting raspberry stuff that wont strain..its just sitting there..i have tapped it...banged it....so i m thinking about leaving the seeds in there..but its alot of seeds....it tastes great, just wont strain....

so any suggestion besides just eatting chunky cheesecake pudding with seedy raspberry sauce???

thanks for any help
debby...glad i did not NEED this for dinner..was just playing in the kitchen today since we had a cloudy day....

Alas, I'm not Nik but you may try using the back of a big spoon to sort of mush the raspberry sauce through the cheesecloth. You can leave the seeds in, but they stick like the dickens in your teeth.

As far as the chocolate confection goes, it could well have been the honey. I've not read or tried Nik's recipe so I don't know for certain. You could take one of the ramekins and nuke it in the microwave for a short time and see if that will help it cook a little more and set up. If it doesn't then you have only sacrificed one ramekin instead of all of them.

Good Luck

 Also not Nik, but as a baker, I may be able to help. 
Did you put anything else into your cheesecake mixture other than the chocolate spread, honey, stevia, and walnuts?  If not, then it wouldn't firm up because, by baking it, you've broken down the fat molecules that keep cream cheese firm (and if you used the Philly Dark Chocolate spread, that's not really cream cheese meant for baking anyway).  In order to get it to set, you'd need to add eggs. 

And as for the raspberry sauce, you need to cook it down into a liquid, then strain it while it's liquid by pressing it through a mesh strainer with the back of a large metal spoon. Then let it cool and gel back up again. 

Since the cheesecake mixture basically hasn't changed from its pre-baked form, you could always whisk in an egg and re-bake it.  That should help it set. Set your pan of raspberry sauce back over the stove on medium low (or nuke it) and strain it while it's liquid.  You can set the strained sauce in a bowl over ice to help it thicken while your cheesecakes bake and cool. 

Charlie! I was hoping you were around to answer a baking question. Cute new avi too

You have a baking question? Shoot. :)

And thanks! I got new hair for my birthday, so it was time to update my avatar. The last pic was years old. 

No baking question from me, but I knew I was only going to be of limited help to the OP! I cook a lot but don't bake too much unless it's basic (otherwise I'd find my lost pounds really quick)

Holy Crap Charlie ! I didn't even recognize you! 

I'm loving the new hair. How do you like being a redhead?

Thanks! I'm naturally a redhead. This is very close to my natural color, just a bit brighter. :D  Feels good. I've been coloring my hair darker for so long, I forgot what it looked like. 

thanks for the replies and yes it was the philly dark chocoloate cream cheese spread....i ended up putting the raminkins back into the oven and still did not set up and yes i had put a egg in the beginning of this process...i had 4 ramikins and another square, so i just put them all together and let cool...as for the raspberry sauce..i took out the cheese cloth and still would not strain, stired and tapped and smooshed with spoon so i just put into a container..then dished myself up some of the cream cheese chunky pudding like stuff and put a tad bit of whip cream and some of the sauce and it was actually pretty good....now of course this was just a spoon full of this conconction..but it still tasted pretty good....for it being a failure ha hah...i use to do alot of baking pre op, and this was a fluke since it was not so nice of a day out today and wanted something just totally different than what i have been eating for the last year...oh well...it was frun trying something new...the sauce was very good, kind of tart, but very good.....excpet for the seeds...oh well...a good brush and floss tonight..

thanks again
debby

If your looking for a great cheese cake, the come in a box of 4 mini cheese cakes in strawberry n chocolate, they come frozen they are awesome and cheap. I enjoy one when I hit goals. The
Website is www.cookthebest.net look under desserts
They are from the CheeseCake factory.

Hope it helps