Cheesecake - expensive indulgent ingredients?

I did my first cheesecake. I get the ramble from others that the ingredients are expensive etc etc . how often do you guys do recipes like these? Also heavy on the dairy side.

I should look for other cheaper stuff like chiffon cakes. Carrot cakes are OK for them.

I was following the recipe, it said if the white chocolate is lumpy when you melt it add some cream, I did that and the thing wouldn't melt. I threw it in a processor with the plastic bag and it creamed it out. It does not melt? I was following this recipe:

http://chelseawinter.co.nz/white-chocolate-cheesecake-recipe/

:)

I cant see what you did wrong? If melted properly it will be ok and if not and you add some cream to make the mixture More runny you still have to heat that through. It's all I can think of that's gone wrong

I used Whittakers white chocolate. I melted it on a glass bowl on top of a water/saucepan it was pretty smooth but a few grainy bits. I took it off the heat. I put the heat back on. I added a splash of cream. Then the thing went like scrambled eggs and wouldn't melt.

Maybe . But I put it in a processor with a plastic "blade" and it whipped it thru :-D

White chocolate isn't. It's just fat and sugar.

The thing about any chocolate is that it and water-based (as cream is) ingredients are not compatible. The chocolate will "seize", or turn into a firm mass, even if you get a tiny splash of liquid in it. The failure was in adding cold cream to the chocolate, I fear. You have to heat the cream and the chocolate together, stirring gently from time to time. If there's enough cream, it will turn into a smooth, thick liquid state. To save what you've done so far, heat some cream, almost to boiling point, pour it over the seized chocolate and leave until the chocolate has softened, when you can stir it all together. or you could turn it into truffles by adding boiling cream, a splash of liqueur and maybe cake crumbs, dried fruit, etc.
Edited to add. I just looked at the recipe. belatedly, sorry.
If you put the cream cheese into your food processor, whip it until it is soft and fluffy, and then add the melted chocolate gradually with the processor going, I think that will be more successful.You can then fold in the whipped cream and carry on with the recipe from there. It won't matter if there are a few small lumps unmelted in the chocolate. Not too many, because that's what firms up this cheesecake recipe. Does that help?

Next time you have to add liquid to melted chocolate, what you so is heat them together and then let them cool.

thinking maybe you heated your choc too hot,,, keep stirring while it's melting, take it right off heat if neccesary

The processor worked. I whipped cold out of the fridge (15mins) cream cheese to smooth then added my lumpy white choc with that cream. It was eventually smooth :)

But yes I did put cold cream into a hot melted chocolate.

That will be why it seized for. We have all learnt the hard way. Now I always add the liquid to the hard chocolate and then heat gently. Just recently my daughter followed a recipe for aquafaba mousse and it seized, boy did she get grumpy. She wouldn't listen to me, she learnt the hard way too.