April Daring Baker's Challenge: Cheesecake

Yay! My first challenge!! Done! This was fun. The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. We were encouraged to add a little flair to the basic recipe. I chose to do a chocolate turtle variety. Chocolate cheesecake, covered with caramel and pecans. Yum!! My younger sister offered to host Easter dinner at her apartment this year, so I brought this for dessert. I ran into a few speed bumps along the way though, and the cake didn't look too pretty. But dang, it tasted really good. I cooked this the night before Easter at my in-laws house in New Hampshire. I blame the new cooking environment for my accidents ;)

I think the main problem was that I skipped the water bath when I was cooking the cake. I was not able to find an aluminum pan that seemed the right size, so I stuck with a springform pan. I was so afraid of getting a soggy crust that I just skipped the water bath. I would have braved it, but I didn't want to mess up Easter dinner with a soggy cheesecake! When I took the cheesecake out of the oven, it was puffy and VERY cracked. And, well- it just didn't look like cheesecake. However, once I poured the caramel sauce and pecans over the top you couldn't tell. And, the deep cracks actually allowed for the caramel to seep deep into the cake! YUM!!

I think one other problem, that perhaps led to the puffiness, was that I mis-read the instructions and added the heavy cream in with the cream cheese and sugar at the beginning, so it took a little too much beating. The batter seemed a little too fluffy to me.

I also ran into some issues with the caramel sauce. This was due to the fact that I didn't pay very good attention to the stove. Too many distractions:) I over-boiled the sugar/water combo the first time (burned the sugar), accidentally let the heavy cream boil over the once, and burned the cream another time. But, I finally pulled it together and the caramel came out quite well. Unfortunately Dan and I then had to run to 6 stores to find more heavy cream to replace the extra carton of my mother-in-laws that I had to use. That is not an easy task at 8:30pm when you are in the middle of nowhere, NH, and it is the night before a big holiday.

One more note... I think I would add more chocolate next time. I had two 4oz bars of bittersweet chocolate, but I burned one of them while melting it in the microwave. So I just used one, and the chocolate flavor was not very strong. But all in all, this was a delicious recipe! I would absolutely make it again.

Ingredients ready to go, can you tell it's not my usual kitchen?


YUM, graham cracker crust!! Did you know that they sell graham cracker crumbs at the supermarket? I was dreading having to use a food processor (they are SUCH a pain to clean), so I was psyched to see that I wouldn't have to!


Before adding the chocolate
Chocolate and cinnamon are added, mmmm tasty! Definitely looks too fluffy. I think cheesecake batter should be denser.

Note to self, scrape mixing bowl a few times next time.

That doesn't really look like cheesecake to me.

Caramel topping and nuts are added, at least they cover the cracks! This went in the fridge overnight.

Easter Sunday, ready to be cut!

Ok, it doesn't totally look like a cheesecake, but it was so, so, so tasty.

Caramel-y goodness :)
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes
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 room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp liqueur, optional (I didm't use any)
**For the chocolate turtle variety, I added 4oz of bittersweet chocolate, melted and 1 tsp of cinnamon

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. **This is when I added the melted chocolate and cinnamon.

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.

Topping: Classic Caramel Sauce from Cooks Illustrated
2 cups of sugar
2 Tbsp butter, unsalted
pinch of table salt
1 cup heavy whipping cream

1. Pour 1 cup water into 2-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan; add sugar to center of pot to keep granules from adhering to sides of pot. Bring to boil over high heat, covered. Uncover pot, insert candy thermometer, and continue to boil until syrup is thick and straw-colored, registering 300 degrees on candy thermometer, about 15 minutes. Reduce heat to medium; continue to cook until sugar is deep amber, begins to smoke, and registers 350 degrees on candy thermometer, about 5 minutes longer. Meanwhile, when temperature of syrup reaches 300 degrees, bring cream and salt to simmer in small, heavy-bottomed saucepan over high heat. (If cream reaches simmer before syrup reaches 350 degrees, remove cream from heat and set aside.)

2. Remove sugar syrup from heat. Pour about one quarter of hot cream into sugar syrup; let bubbling subside. Add remaining cream; let bubbling subside. Whisk gently until smooth; whisk in butter. Let cool until warm; serve. (Can be covered and refrigerated up to 1 month; reheat in microwave or small saucepan over low heat.)

Pour caramel over cooled cheesecake (before you put it in the fridge for the night). Sprinkle top with chopped pecans.