Basic Cheesecake

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

I love cheesecake! It is one of my favorite desserts. I have waxed on about cheesecake in a previous post and my Aunt Julie but it is her cheesecake recipe that reminds me of this one. Aunt Julie (really my great aunt) was born in the U.S. but her parents were immigrants from Italy. She married my Slovakian grandmother's brother and she brought her cheesecake recipe into the family. It was a real treat to have Aunt Julie's cheesecake. Her recipe called for 1 pound of cream cheese and 1 pound of ricotta cheese, 5 eggs, 1/4 pound of butter and 1 pint of sour cream - talk about a cheesecake with some heft! Certainly the recipe came about before we knew the dangers of cholesterol! The trick was to bake it for the appointed time and don't open the oven door until morning!!! Of course, it was topped with canned cherry pie filling!

This cheesecake came together in a snap. Thank you Jenny for a lovely challenge. I used David Lebovitz's Speculoos recipe for the crust.  This cake was super creamy! I recommend this recipe.

I topped mine with a chocolate ganache.

Speculoos Crust

2 tablespoons softened butter

3 tablespoons packed brown sugar (light or dark)

1 large egg yolk

½ cup flour

¼ teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground allspice

Beat together butter and brown sugar until to smooth. Stir in the molasses and egg yolk.

In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients and add to butter mixture until smooth. Pat batter onto parchment or silpat into 5 inch rounds. Bake for 18 minutes. Process in the food processor with 1 stick of butter and 2 Tbs of sugar. Pat firmly into springform pan.

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

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). 

Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

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. Double wrap springform pan with foil to make waterproof.

Set crust aside.

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.

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.

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.

Cheesecake Bars

Cheesecake has always been a special dessert in my family because it is the ultimate rich and decadent dessert cake. Growing up, making cheesecake became popular - everyone was making it, and, subsequently cheesecake recipes passed through the family like a wildfire. There is the famous cheesecake my Aunt Julie made and then the excitement over my mother buying a spring form pan. I loved those little mini cheesecakes made with vanilla wafers and cheesecake filling in muffin wrappers that were present at every cousin's wedding and baby shower.  I loved it when my mother made a number of cheesecakes that were delicious and not too sweet as my mother did not like things to be too sugary sweet, of which I take after her.  There was always talk of the cost  because of the number and amount of ingredients, and then there was the famous cheesecake that overflowed the pan and spilled into the bottom of the oven and filled the house with a burnt cheesecake smell. Despite my mom cleaning the oven many times, the smell of burnt cheesecake wafted out of the oven every time we used it for years. 

I still love cheesecake and love to make it in the bar form so my kids can pack it in their school lunches, plus, I will admit, that I like to eat cheesecake out of hand like a cookie. This recipe was easy and delicious with a firm crust. I use Annie's brand bunny grahams for the crust.

Cheesecake Bars

Crust

preheat oven to 325F

1 1/2 cups to 1 3/4 cups or so of graham cracker crumbs

5 tablespoons melted butter

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons flour

dash of salt

Pulverize the graham crackers in a food processor and add the rest of the ingredients until ingredients are incorporated.

Press evenly into pan (I used a removable bottom rectangular tart pan or you can line a 8 or 9 inch square pan with overlapping foil or parchement for easy removal). Play with the size depending on your preference for a thin or thicker cheesecake layer.

Bake at 325F for 12 minutes until fragrant and beginning to brown.

Cheesecake

2 8 ounce packages of softened cream cheese

2/3 cup of sugar

1/4 cup sour cream

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons of lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat cream cheese until smooth. 

Gradually add sugar and beat until incorporated. 

Beat in eggs one at a time until combined.

Mix in sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla until combined. 

Pour filling over baked crust. Spread evenly. 

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until edges are set and center jiggles slightly. (adjust your baking times for your pan size).

Top with a chocolate ganache if desired.

Chill well. Cut into squares and serve.

Chocolate Ganache

Melt 1 cup of semisweet chocolate and about a 1/4 cup of heavy cream over a double boiler. Add more or less cream according to how thick or thin you would like the ganache.