The quest for Cheesecake: part 2

Ok, now I have my GF graham crackers. The cheesecake quest can continue! Being fall and all, I settled on a Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe from my favorite go-to recipe source, Cooks Illustrated.

Um, wow, good choice.

I had a little difficulty with the crust. The recipe called for 9 graham crackers/5oz. Well, I made my own crackers where only 4 ended up in (rough) graham cracker shape, and I don't have a scale to do ounces. My counter turned into an edible puzzle as I grouped cookie scraps into approximate graham cracker shapes. I think I ended up with too much though... I forgot to account for the fact that my crackers were much thicker. I compensated by just adding an extra tablespoon or two of butter into the crust. I think it worked out okay.

Drying the pumpkin

Cheesecake batter yuummmmm

First baked the crust for 15 mins

Then poured the cheesecake batter in, placed in a water bath, and cooked. Unfortunately, my tinfoil was not watertight. I thought "no way will any water get in"! I used 2 layers of special extra wide, heavy duty foil. I thought there were no weak points. But alas, there must have been. When I removed the foil at the end there was a good amount of water in there. #$*$.


Well, the little bit that we tried didn't have a soggy crust. Actually, it was perfectly crispy. But, I wouldn't be surprised if there are soggy bits somewhere!

Anyway, this was one delicious cheesecake. Much better than my last cheesecake attempt :)

Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients

Crust
5 ounces graham crackers (9 whole crackers), broken into large pieces
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
6 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted

Filling
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar (10 1/3 ounces)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese , cut into 1-inch chunks and left to soften at room temperature, about 30 minutes
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon juice from 1 lemon
5 large eggs , left at room temperature, about 30 minutes
1 cup heavy cream

Instructions

1. FOR THE CRUST: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Spray bottom and sides of 9-inch springform pan evenly with nonstick cooking spray. Pulse crackers, sugar, and spices in food processor until evenly and finely ground, about fifteen 2-second pulses. Transfer crumbs to medium bowl, drizzle melted butter over, and mix with rubber spatula until evenly moistened. Turn crumbs into prepared springform pan and, using hand, spread crumbs into even layer. Using flat-bottomed ramekin or drinking glass, press crumbs evenly into pan bottom, then use a soup spoon to press and smooth crumbs into edges of pan. Bake until fragrant and browned about the edges, about 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack while making filling.

2. FOR THE FILLING: Bring about 4 quarts water to simmer in stockpot. Whisk sugar, spices, and salt in small bowl; set aside. To dry pumpkin (see illustrations below): Line baking sheet with triple layer of paper towels. Spread pumpkin on paper towels in roughly even layer. Cover pumpkin with second triple layer of paper towels and press firmly until paper towels are saturated. Peel back top layer of towels and discard. Grasp bottom towels and fold pumpkin in half; peel back towels. Repeat and flip pumpkin onto baking sheet; discard towel.

3. In standing mixer fitted with flat beater, beat cream cheese at medium speed to break up and soften slightly, about 1 minute. Scrape beater and bottom and sides of bowl well with rubber spatula. Add about one third of sugar mixture and beat at medium-low speed until combined, about 1 minute; scrape bowl and add remaining sugar in two additions, scraping bowl after each addition. Add pumpkin, vanilla, and lemon juice and beat at medium speed until combined, about 45 seconds; scrape bowl. Add 3 eggs and beat at medium-low until incorporated, about 1 minute; scrape bowl. Add remaining 2 eggs and beat at medium-low until incorporated, about 45 seconds; scrape bowl. Add heavy cream and beat at low speed until combined, about 45 seconds. Using rubber spatula, scrape bottom and sides of bowl and give final stir by hand.

4. Set springform pan with cooled crust on 18-inch-square doubled layer heavy-duty foil and wrap bottom and sides with foil; set wrapped springform pan in roasting pan. Pour filling into springform pan and smooth surface; set roasting pan in oven and pour enough boiling water to come about halfway up side of springform pan. Bake until center of cake is slightly wobbly when pan is shaken, and center of cake registers 145 to 150 degrees on instant-read thermometer, about 1 1/2 hours (see note). Set roasting pan on wire rack and use paring knife to loosen cake from sides of pan. Cool until water is just warm, about 45 minutes. Remove springform pan from water bath, discard foil, and set on wire rack; continue to cool until barely warm, about 3 hours. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, at least 4 hours or up to 3 days.

5. TO SERVE: Slide thin metal spatula between crust and pan bottom to loosen, then slide cake onto serving platter. Let cheesecake stand at room temperature about 30 minutes, then cut into wedges and serve.

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.