A Thousand Miles From The Place I Was Born

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Awww, Daring Bakers… how did you KNOW that I was a cheesecake fiend??? I have been making cheesecakes for years, and have gotten it down to a science by now. I love the little tangy, creamy devils and I love to make them! In fact, there was even a time in my life when I had a little cheesecake business on the side. It was fun, all until that fateful Christmas when I had to make 25 white chocolate-peppermint cheesecakes in one week in my little home kitchen and that was enough for me. I hung up my shingle and vowed to only bake them for friends in the future.

So when I saw this challenge, I was stoked. I could surely come up with something insanely creative to tweak this recipe into a new realm. I could impress all the amazing Daring Bakers with my cheesecake expertise! Bwah hah hah haaaahhhhh!

And then I realized that I would be preparing said cheesecake in CCB’s tiny (read: apartment-sized) kitchen with his limited ingredients and tools. Like for instance, if I need fish sauce or saffron, Dude has it. But pure vanilla extract? Hah. Good luck finding that. Interestingly enough, he had a springform pan (I would never attempt to make a cheesecake without one), but didn’t have any sort of mixer. I guess because when you’re a guy, you can use a whisk to whip things into fluffy oblivion and it’s cool because you’re workin’ on the guns at the same time. But me? I’m a chick. I have zero upper body strength. I need a freakin’ KitchenAid, thankyouverymuch.

So I improvised with ingredients that CCB had in his kitchen. I used gingersnaps instead of graham crackers, Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur instead of vanilla and when it came time to mix it all up, I whipped that batter until my arm was about to fall off. And you know what? It was delightful! It was an insanely smooth, tangy and sweet cheesecake that made our eyes roll back in our head.

Best of all? It was E-A-S-Y. Give this one a try, and I think you’ll agree.

Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake

Crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs (I used crushed gingersnaps, but they don’t absorb the butter as well as graham crackers, so you need to use a little less melted butter)
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract (I omitted this, of course, partially because I was using gingersnaps and partially because CCB had none)

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) (again, I omitted this)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake (I used 2 tbsp. of Bailey’s to make up for the vanilla and to give it a little extra flavor)

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. (I like a thicker crust on the bottom, so I don’t press it up the sides.) Set crust aside. (I decided to prebake mine for about 5-7 minutes, just to make it a little less soggy.)

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. (And this is where my right arm fell off!)

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. (My trick for using a water bath is to wrap the bottom of the springform pan securely with foil, then add another layer of foil in the opposite direction. If you press it really firm, and then place it into the larger pan BEFORE you slowly pour in the water, it will be water-tight. Be careful when pouring the water, though, don’t let it slosh into your cheesecake or get higher than the foil!)

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. (I like it to be set only on the outer 1/3 of the cake and still jiggly in the center 2/3. If you overbake it, it will also crack as it cools. Plus, you want it soft and creamy, not firm and tofu-like.) 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. (And if it cracks, so what? Spread some caramel on the top and no one will know!) 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 springform 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.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

Andi’s Caramel Topping

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream

These measurements are only a suggestion. When I make homemade caramel sauce, I just dump stuff in and mix it until it looks right. I start by putting some sugar in a saucepan and mixing enough water in it to dissolve all the sugar. I don’t particularly like it to be very watery, but it needs to be thinner than a paste. Stir the sugar water over medium-high heat until the sugar starts to bubble. At this point, stop stirring and just gently swirl the pan as the syrup turns golden brown. If crystals start to develop on the sides of the pan, you can dip a basting brush into water and swish them back down into the syrup. Once it starts to change color, it will brown rather quickly, so keep an eye on it. When it gets to be a nice deep caramel color, remove it from the heat. At this point, I put the pan in my sink because when you add the cream, it will sputter and splash a lot and I don’t like picking hardened caramel off my counter tops. Slowly pour in the cream (again, watch out so you don’t get burned!) and whisk vigorously as you incorporate the cream. If the caramel is too thick, you can add a little more… or less, if you want a thicker caramel. It all depends on your taste. When I finished the caramel, I stirred in some toasted, chopped pecans and spooned the caramel sauce on the slices of cheesecake. YUM!!!