Daring Bakers: Cheesecake

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


Having made cheesecake many times I am doubtful I would have made this recipe. This is why Daring Bakers is so cool because I tried this recipe, and it was one of the most creamiest cheesecakes I have ever had. I loved it.

I did one in a spring form, one in the pan as she suggests, a foil throw away, and the mini muffin tin. They were all creamy and delicious. Even without the waterbath for the spring form one and the mini muffin one it was still dreamy and creamy.

I took it to my Aunt's house for Easter dinner. My Aunt has celiac disease so I made the cheesecake crusts out of nuts. I made one, the one with rum, from pecan meal and the other from almond meal. I just mixed about a cup and half of nut flour with about two tablespoons of sugar and a 1/4 cup of melted butter.

Everyone really liked the passionfruit one. I did too but the rum one was my favorite.


I just don't know why it says infamous in the title, really it should be famous like Junior's cheesecake.

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
*see above for my crust variation.

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
*I omitted the lemon juice, vanilla and liquer to add 3 tablespoons of passionfruit pulp, unsweetened.
for the rum one I omitted those same things and added 3 tablespoons of rum

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 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.

Hot Buttered Rum Sauce

1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons rum
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light cream

In a small saucepan heat all ingredients together until sugar is melted. Let boil for about five minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Spoon over cheesecake.