TWD: Low and Luscious Chocolate Cheesecake

For this week's Tuesdays' with Dorie recipe, The Tea Lady of Tea and Scones chose Low and Luscious Chocolate Cheesecake.

I didn't know what to expect since I've never made chocolate cheesecake, or even tried it.

I thought it was good, but I have to admit it wasn't my favorite cheesecake flavor. (The more I make chocolate-based desserts, the more I'm thinking that chocolate doesn't play well as a back-up flavor.) But I'm glad I tried it. I have been curious to know what chocolate cheesecake tastes like. Plus, it's nice to have a chocolate cheesecake recipe up my sleeve in case I run into any choco cheesecake fans in need of a little homemade love.

I got some pretty major cracking on top. D'oh!



Thanks Tea Lady for the interesting pick. Please check out Tea Lady's site if you'd like to see the recipe, or see Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking From my Home to Yours".

TWD: Espresso Cheesecake Brownies

For this week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe, Melissa of Life in a Peanut Shell chose Espresso Cheesecake Brownies.

Sounds good, huh? It was a brownie base topped by an espresso cheesecake with a portion of the brownie batter swirled in. (I left out the espresso and the sour cream topping.)

I have a feeling this is a recipe that would be perfect if you baked it for exactly the right amount of time. Unfortunately, I don't think I baked it for exactly the right amount of time.

Boo...

So much potential there...

I halved the recipe and baked it in a 7" spring-form pan. I think I over-baked because my cheesecake was a little dry and my brownie was dry and gummy. (Update: I tried them again and I've decided they're actually OK. Maybe I still had a case of the morning grouchies when I first tried them... always a possibility before 9 a.m.)

Chalk it up as "one of those weeks". (Sorry, Melissa, please don't take it personal.)

As always, you can find this recipe in Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking, From my Home to Yours" or, check out Melissa's blog. Hers looks wonderful.

TWD: Brown Sugar-Apple Cheesecake

I feel guilty for dissing that poor lemon tart in my previous post, so let's move on. It's a lot more fun to talk about a Tuesday's with Dorie recipe that I *did* like. Brown Sugar-Apple Cheesecake was chosen by Jaime of Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats in February of last year. (I'm working on making the recipes from before I joined TWD.) Jamie was the third person to sign up for TWD and she's got lots of great posts to share.

It doesn't look like much on the outside, but cut into that baby and you'll find apples and cinnamon galore.



I fall hard for just about anything with apples and cinnamon, so naturally, I loved this cheesecake. So did everyone else who was lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

OK, that's all I got to say. If you'd like to see the recipe, please stop by Jamie's fabulous site, or get yourself a copy of Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking, From my Home to Yours".

Daring Bakers: Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake

It's Daring Baker's time again! The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I never get tired of eating or making cheesecake. It's so versatile. And judging by the variety of cheesecakes the Daring Bakers came up with this month, the possibilities are endless.

I made half of the recipe which gave me two 5-inch cheesecakes to play with.

First, I made an Orange and Amaretto with Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake. It was very good, if I do say so myself. I started out by lining the sides of the pan with cranberry halves.


Then filled with the orange amaretto cheesecake batter and topped with cranberry puree. (I've included details of how I flavored the cheesecake below.)


My second flavor was a total afterthought and surprisingly good. Say "hi" to Mr. Banana Cheesecake, his mouth courtesy of a (not) strategically placed burn mark from the upper rack of my oven.


I was amazed at how good this one tasted, and it was so simple.

Both cheesecakes were very tasty, and nice and creamy and not too dense. I will add this recipe to my list of favorites.



Here are the additions/changes I did. Following is the basic cheesecake recipe.

Orange Amaretto Cheesecake with Cranberry Swirl

For a full recipe:
- Zest two oranges. Add the zest to the sugar that will be used for the batter and rub with fingers until sugar is flavored with orange. Add sugar to batter as directed below.
- Juice one or two oranges, as needed to yield 1/4 cup juice. Combine in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons amaretto. Bring mixture to a simmer and reduce to 2 tablespoons total. Add mixture to batter toward the end of mixing.
- Add 1 teaspoon vanilla.
- Cut fresh or thawed, frozen cranberries in half and place around the sides of the pan before adding batter.
- For the cranberry swirl, combine 6 oz. frozen or fresh cranberries with 2-1/2 ounces (by weight) of sugar, 4 fluid ounces of water and seeds from 1/2 vanilla bean to a small pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Boil until the sauce has reduced and thickened, approx. 5 minutes. Cool completely. Place thickened, cooled sauce in a blender and puree until smooth. Drop the cranberry puree by small spoonful on top of the cheesecake (you may have extra). Run a knife through the batter until the desired degree of swirl is obtained.

Here's the puree before swirling with the knife.



Banana Cheesecake

- mash 1-1/2 small, ripe bananas. Add mashed banana plus 1 tablespoon flour to batter after all other ingredients have been added. Mix on low until incorporated. Proceed with recipe as directed.

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake

crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a spring-form pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

TWD: Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great Christmas! I'm just getting back into the swing of blogging, and this week's Tuesday's with Dorie pick was a perfect excuse. On this week's menu was Tall and Creamy Cheesecake, chosen by Anne of AnneStrawberry.

(Oh, and before I get started, I'm dying to hear what everyone got for Christmas! What was your favorite gift? ...I'll share my prizes in a later post.)

I've made quite a few cheesecakes in my day, so I decided to make one of my favorite cheesecake flavors, apple cinnamon. Mmmmm... yum!


Here's what I did... first, I had some homemade apple pie filling (a canned filling such as Comstock would also work), about a half cup. (By the way, I halved the recipe and baked it in a 7-inch by 2-inch tall cake pan.)


I added about a half cup of my prepared cheesecake batter to the apples and mixed.


I set the apple cheesecake mixture aside. Then, I added half of the remaining cheesecake batter to my pan with my graham cracker crust. I layered the apple cinnamon cheesecake mixture on top of that.


I thought it looked like it needed more, so I added a little more straight apple pie filling.


Then I covered with the rest of the cheesecake batter very nearly to the top of the pan. (Notice the pan is in the water bath, but with no pesky aluminum foil wrap? That's because I don't use spring-form pans for cheesecake anymore. You can read about how I do it toward the bottom of this post.)


Finally, I sprinkled some of the cinnamony liquidy part of the filling on top, just for something different.


Since I added the liquidy apple filling, I baked for about 10-15 minutes longer to make sure the cheesecake was baked through.

I liked the splattered, artsy look on the finished cheesecake. As you can see I got some cracking, but strangely enough the cracks followed my cinnamony sprinkling. I thought it added character.


The verdict? I give it two thumbs up. I have a couple of favorite cheesecake recipes already, but I could easily add Dorie's to the list. It was light and creamy, just like I like. Oh, I forgot to say that I used half cream and half sour cream. I don't like my cheesecake tooooo tangy, just a little bit tang is fine for me.

In addition, I liked the crust. I've never pushed it up the sides before, but I really liked the look of it.

This recipe is a winner in my book. Speaking of books, please check out Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking: From my Home to Yours" for the recipe, or visit Anne's blog above.

Sweet Potato Cheesecake

OK, I admit it, I've gained weight since I started blogging. I am so kicking myself because I had lost weight before I started. I was just about where I wanted to be, weight-wise, before my latest obsession raised its calorie-laden head.

Confessions of a yo-yo dieter.

I'm starting to wonder if it's in a women's genes to have food issues. If we're heavy, we're trying to lose weight, or if we're not trying, then we're feeling bad about ourselves. If we're losing weight, it's like a campaign, a war to be fought and won. An enemy to conquer. If we're at the weight we want to be, it's a constant vigilance to maintain. And like a candle in the wind, it can be gone in an instant. Yesterday I was fine, today I am fat.

Here's my question of the day... do you have food issues? Are you happy with your weight? Have you gained weight since you started blogging? Do guys have these issues?

Speaking of gaining weight (cough, cough) how about a slice of Sweet Potato Cheesecake? *insert cheesy smile* (I know, I know, it makes no sense to be crying about gaining weight and then talking about cheesecake. No sense at all.)



I ran across this recipe at 4 Reluctant Entertainers, a fantastic website with so many mouth-watering recipes. (Click on the link for the recipe.)

This was a luscious, creamy cheesecake. More subdued than pumpkin cheesecake, but still delicious and spicy. I served this at our Thanksgiving get-together and asked guests if they could figure out the "mystery ingredient". Everyone said pumpkin.

While I'm on the subject of cheesecake, I wanted to share one of my favorite cheesecake tips, since I've baked more than a few in my day. (I know, I'm all over the place tonight.)

Here's the deal, you don't have to bake your cheesecake in a spring-form pan, which is shocking to hear, I know. Every recipe you've ever read includes a spring-form pan, but I'm here to tell you it's not required. I never use them anymore. I always use my 2" deep cake pans. Well, except for one time I went way out on a limb and used a Wilton character pan. (FYI, I brushed it liberally with melted butter and then coated that with sugar before adding the batter to the pan.)


One really nice thing about using regular pans is that you can totally dispense with that whole "wrapping the bottom of the pan in aluminum foil" business, if you feel the need to use a water bath. In addition, you can use any size pan you want, which is helpful when you're reducing recipes, and you don't have to mess around with the bottom of the spring-form pan at serving time.

So anyway, here's what you do... line your cake pan with a piece of parchment paper cut to the size of your pan and bake your cheesecake just like you normally would. Cheesecake usually puffs up a little, but then shrinks back down, so you can fill your pan almost to the top. Cool, refrigerate overnight.

Here's Mr. Cheesecake, ready to be freed from the pan. (Please ignore that big cheesecake fart on the top.) Run your knife around the edge of the cheesecake.


Fill your sink, or a large bowl, with hot tap water (don't use boiling water, it's too hot and will melt the cheesecake) and dip the bottom inch of the pan in it. Count to 10 or 15.



Remove the pan from the water and dry the bottom of the pan.



Lay a piece of wax paper over your cheesecake.



Then a cutting board.



Place your hands on top of the cutting board and under the pan, and flip the whole thing over.


OK, people, this is the part that might be scary, but just trust me on this. Pick up the pan and cutting board and give it a good whack on the counter. Cheesecake out yet? No? Repeat a few more times. If Mr. Cheesecake is still in the pan, it's time to show him who's boss. Pick up the pan by itself, still upside down, and give it a good healthy whack on the cutting board. If that doesn't work, go back and warm up the pan bottom a bit longer and repeat the steps.

It's not as intimidating as it sounds. I've never had a cheesecake stick to the pan.

Here he is... free! (That's the bottom, in case you wondered.) Now go get your serving plate, place it upside down on the bottom and flip it over.


Voila!


So there you go, you're no longer a slave to your spring-form pan.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I have been cutting back on the amount of sweets that pass my lips. I've been halving, and sometimes even quartering, recipes, sharing with neighbors, and (gasp!) even throwing away some of the leftovers, especially with those recipes that are only marginal.

OK, later!

Five Cheesecakes, Two Winners

Two things happened recently. First, I started losing sleep wondering what set apart a “New York” cheesecake from other cheesecakes (I'm funny about what I lose sleep over). Second, I suspected the recipe used for the cheesecake pop Daring Bakers challenge a few weeks ago might have been better than my normal recipe. To top it off, there were a few other cheesecakes I’ve had on my “to bake” list.

Clearly, a cheesecake challenge was in order.

The recipes I used in my challenge were:
1. London Cheesecake from “How to be a Domestic Goddess” by Nigella Lawson (recipe here) - the only sour cream-topped recipe in the group. I thought this one had a real nice texture, more solid than the others, but I also thought the filling was just a little bland in comparison. The sour-cream top wasn’t thick enough to impact the filling.

2. Lindy’s cheesecake (recipe here) - this recipe was different in that it was baked for a short time at high temperature (500 degrees) then reduced to a low temperature of 250 degrees. You’ll notice this cheesecake looks a little different too. This cheesecake was the least favorite of all testers except one, who liked it the most (It was still good, just not the favorite). I personally thought it was a tad dry and had a noticeable eggy taste.

3. Junior’s cheesecake (recipe here) – it was very creamy and light and had a great cream cheese flavor. It was just a bit sweeter than the others. Because I ended up with a surplus of egg whites, I used only whites in this cake, although the recipe called for whole eggs and yolks. I wonder if that made a difference (might be worth another taste test someday). The cake was a beautiful ivory color.

4. Sour Cream Cheesecake by Alton Brown (recipe here) – I thought this one was the tangiest but it seemed the sour cream diluted the cream cheese taste somewhat.

5. Cheesecake Pop Cheesecake from "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey" by Jill O'Connor (recipe here) – It was also very creamy and light and had a great cream cheese flavor.


The verdict? Junior’s and the Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey recipe were the overwhelming favorites. Both were creamy and had just enough zip to make the cream cheese flavor pop. Interestingly, these two cakes were the only two with flour or cornstarch added.


By the way, I now have an inkling of what New York cheesecake is. But I've decided it's not really important. Cheesecake is just plain delicious no matter how you tweak it. But, if you can shed some light, or you just want to talk cheesecake… please, feel free!

Daring Bakers: Cheesecake Pops

Yeah! It's Daring Bakers time again! I was glad to see that this month’s Daring Baker’s challenge was from the cookbook “Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey” by Jill O'Connor. I have been eyeing that book and decided this was a good excuse to finally buy it. (Like I need an excuse, lol) There are SO many wonderful-looking recipes; I want to make them all!

The challenge was Cheesecake Pops, chosen by Elle at Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah at Taste and Tell. You'll find the recipe on Deborah's site. Thanks so much for hosting this month, girls.

Quite a few Daring Bakers had problems with the cheesecake being undercooked at the recommended 35 to 45 minutes baking time. I baked mine for an hour and 15 minutes. It was done just fine and in fact, I might try shaving 5 minutes off the time if I bake it again.

I didn’t get any cracking on top. See how nice it turned out…

After the cheesecake was cooled overnight we were to scoop out balls then place the sticks in them and freeze, then dip in chocolate. I thought the scooping would be just that, scooping it out and plopping it on the wax paper. But no, they didn’t scoop nicely so I had to roll each one by hand. I can’t say that I enjoyed that part. Cheesecake tends to get sticky real quick, so I had to wash my hands after every 4 pops or so.

The chocolate dipping went well, nothing eventful to report there. I only got 5 to 6 pops out of the freezer at a time so they stayed firm while dipping.

The verdict: I give the cheesecake an “A”. It was very tasty, very creamy and light. I might just have a new favorite. (My old standby is by Alton Brown. You can find the recipe on the Food TV website -> here. )

The pops, I give a “B+“. I thought they were adorable and there are so many options for decorating. But, they were a little difficult to eat. The cheesecake got soft around where the sticks were inserted and tended to fall off the sticks. That left me eating them with my fingers, which was messy. However, eating cheesecake is never a bad thing, even if it’s a little messy, lol. If I make them again, I think I'll make them smaller... you know, bite-size, so you can eat them in one shot. I'm guessing that would upgrade them to an "A".

I’m glad I tried them. Cheesecake pops are something different and unexpected and this was a fun challenge.

I'll end with my favorite shot, I call it "Cheesecake Pops at the Disco".

Enjoy!