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

Disclaimer: My stepmother makes the best cheesecake in the world. I mean, it’s Platonic.

With this bit of business out of the way, let’s get down to this month’s challenge. Having never attempted to bake a cheesecake, this month proved another groundbreaking feat in the rabbit-kitchen.

First, given that we are but two, I decided to make 1/3 of the recipe and that I would make babycakes so that I could divvy up the batter and experiment with different flavours. Although we had been challenged to come up with something creative and original, I think cheesecake is most delicious in its unadulterated form so I decided that I would definitely make some plain cakes.

Second, I wanted to try adding chocolate, so to 1/3 of my batter I added 75g of melted Lindt dark chocolate. I also varied the crust for these cakes, using oreo cookie crumbs for the full-on choco-holic effect.

Finally, I wanted to experiment with something booze-y so I built a variation on rum and raisin, one of Mr. Rabbit’s favourite flavour combos. For this version I added a good splat of dark rum to my batter, a bit of ground ginger, a pinch of cinnamon, and a good smattering of raisins.

The recipe itself is super-easy and comes together quite quickly. The only real zag was an early panic in the grocery store when I could not find heavy cream, thus special thanks to my dad for google-ing the technicalities of Canadian dairy taxonomy during this time of crisis. As it turns out, heavy cream does not exist in Canada (or at least it’s not readily available), so I substituted whipping cream which worked just fine.

I was skeptical that the water bath would make a difference when baking these cakes, but it proved integral to producing a pretty product. Because I didn’t have a suitably large pan to use as for the water bath I ended up using my grill pan… but only half the cakes would fit so I cooked three of my nine cakes sans water bath. The result? The cakes cooked with the bath were quite smooth and even on top, and held their shape after baking.

But those without the bath were cracked and ultimately fell during the cooling process so they appear caved in. They also seem browner on top. So now I’m a believer in the bain-marie.

I also learned (the hard way) about mixing fruit with this recipe. At the last minute, I decided to add some fresh raspberries to one of my plain cakes. This was a mistake — and one that I probably could have anticipated if I had been using more common sense. Raspberries are, of course, delectable little bombs of water, so they totally mushed out my product. The pudding-y result of this failed cake still tasted OK eaten with a spoon, but I was glad I only ruined one cakelet with this experiment. In retrospect, the fruit ought to have been pureed (or just added as a sauce/garnish). Lesson learned.

When it came to the taste test, the plain cupcakes were #1. 

The chocolate were good, but perhaps a bit too decadent. I was surprised how much flavour just that little bit of chocolate could produce.

The rum & raisin were a surprise hit. You could taste just right amount of booze-y-ness and the extra bits of spice gave the cheesecake a very nice flavour. But I think I went overboard on the raisins. Cutting back on said raisins, I’d definitely make this flavour again (or perhaps eliminate them altogether for a spiced rum version).

Thanks to Jenny at www.jennybakes.com for this great challenge. I would definitely bake Abbey’s recipe again, and I especially loved how fun and easy it is to vary and custom the recipe.

Now… here’s Abbey’s recipe! ** Note that I baked 1/3 of this recipe and produced 9 babycakes. I baked my cakes for a little over 30 minutes, but I have a lazy oven.

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 (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

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.

* 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!

Posted on April 27th, 2009 by rabbit
Filed under: Uncategorized