Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

When I set out to make this cheesecake by Dorie Greenspan, I did it because I was attracted to the beautiful photo of the cheesecake in her book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.  It had a lovely crust that rose up the sides unevenly (and all the more attractive because of it), with a snowy white top.  You can see this photo on Dorie's blog.



I didn't notice, until too far into the process, that the recipe says the top will be browned.  I didn't know what to do about this discrepancy between the photo and the recipe -- was the recipe incomplete?  Or was the photo wrong?  I had planned to serve the cheesecake at work the next day for a coworker's birthday celebration.  Would it be unattractive with a brown top?  Did I want to risk removing the top?  But at what point?  And how then to make the top look as smooth and beautiful as it does in the photo?

I posted a comment on Dorie's blog the evening I made the cheesecake.  The very next morning, I was delighted to find that Dorie had taken the time to email me a response.  She explained that the book had been written several years ago and she couldn't remember why the top of the cheesecake in the photo was pale, but that when she makes it herself, it becomes very brown as mine did.  Good enough for me!  And thus cheesecake was enjoyed by all.



This was my second attempt at making cheesecake, and both of the recipes I've used must be pretty good, because I've never had a problem with cracking, which I hear can be a problem with cheesecakes.  (The first recipe is here.)  Between the two I prefer this one, for a number of reasons: 1) It spends less time in the oven; 2) The crust is prebaked; 3) The crust, which is my favorite part of any dessert that has one, goes up the sides, which not only makes for a more attractive appearance, but means there's MORE OF IT; and 4) It uses slightly fewer ingredients.  You could solve for 2 and 3 by using the other recipe and simply making more of the crust and prebaking, but the other points stand.

Flavor wise, both are very good.  The difference lies mostly in the texture; this recipe produces a creamier cheesecake, while the other is slightly fluffier.



I chose to make strawberry sauce to accompany it once again, because I just think it complements the cheesecake so well.  I used the same recipe as I did here, but with twice the amount of sugar as the other version is super tart.  If you like things super tart, don't change the sugar amount.  The graham crackers I used came from Trader Joe's, which apparently only sells cinnamon graham crackers.  I was a bit concerned that this would negatively affect the flavor, making the crust too cinnamony, but the problem did not materialize.  It was actually quite delicious.  I recommend it over regular graham crackers!  But because they're already sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, I put less sugar into the crust than the recipe calls for.

Tall and Creamy Cheesecake (from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tbsps sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 stick (4 tbsps) unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake:

• 2 lbs (4 8oz boxes) cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsps pure vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups sour cream or heavy cream, or a combination of the two

Method

To make the crust:

Butter a 9-inch springform pan—choose one that has sides that are 2 3/4 inches high (if the sides are lower, you will have cheesecake batter leftover)—and wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil; put the pan on a baking sheet.

Stir the crumbs, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour over the melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients are uniformly moist. (I do this with my fingers.) Turn the ingredients into the buttered springform pan and use your fingers to pat an even layer of crumbs along the bottom of the pan and about halfway up the sides. Don't worry if the sides are not perfectly even or if the crumbs reach above or below the midway mark on the sides—this doesn't have to be a precision job. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven.

Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 350°F and place the springform on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake.

Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

To make the cheesecake:

Put a kettle of water on to boil.

Working in a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until it is soft and lives up to the creamy part of its name, about 4 minutes. With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition—you want a well-aerated batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the sour cream and/or heavy cream.

Put the foil-wrapped springform pan in the roaster pan.

Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that nothing has been left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and scrape the batter into the springform pan. The batter will reach the brim of the pan. (If you have a pan with lower sides and have leftover batter, you can bake the batter in a buttered ramekin or small soufflé mold.) Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan.

Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top will be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan. Turn off the oven's heat and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon. Allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.

After 1 hour, carefully pull the setup out of the oven, lift the springform pan out of the roaster—be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum foil—remove the foil. Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.

When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and chill the cake for at least 4 hours, although overnight would be better.

Serving:

Remove the sides of the springform pan— I use a hairdryer to do this (use the dryer to warm the sides of the pan and ever so slightly melt the edges of the cake)—and set the cake, still on the pan's base, on a serving platter. The easiest way to cut cheesecake is to use a long, thin knife that has been run under hot water and lightly wiped. Keep warming the knife as you cut slices of the cake.

Storing:

Wrapped well, the cake will keep for up to 1 week in the refrigerator or for up to 2 months in the freezer. It's best to defrost the still-wrapped cheesecake overnight in the refrigerator.

Cheesecake Brownies

These cheesecake brownies are a sure crowd pleaser. After all, they're brownies! They're cheesecake! They're two great tastes in one! Plus, they have that fanciful swirlyness going on that people can't help but be drawn to. And when you're trying to avoid eating every bit of the sinful things you make yourself, it's a good thing when people want to eat them for you.



These brownies talk a good talk, but in reality they are quite easy to make. There's a brownie layer, followed by a cheesecake layer, followed by another brownie 'layer.' Two batters, and they're both very simple.

I ran into a little trouble with the brownie batter being very thick while the cheesecake batter was very thin. But that could also be because I softened the cream cheese by nuking it in the microwave for 30 seconds rather than waiting for it to soften to room temperature. In any case, the final step of dolloping on some reserved brownie batter onto the cheesecake layer, then making the swirl patterns was a bit challenging, as the brownie batter didn't want to move much, and I didn't want to over mix it with the cheesecake.



I also used the microwave for the brownie batter step of melting the butter and chocolate together. You can, of course, use a double boiler if you like, but after discovering how I can bend technology to my culinary will, I can't resist the convenience. In this case, I broke the chocolate into pieces, put them into a bowl along with a stick of butter, and nuked it for 1 minute. It was long enough to melt the butter entirely, while softening up the chocolate. You don't want to microwave too long and risk burning the chocolate. At this point, I stirred until all the chocolate was melted and the resulting mixture was glossy and smooth.

I think I've mentioned this before, but I don't like my desserts super sweet. I adapted the recipe to use less sugar, and substituted some brown sugar for the white in the brownie batter. I thought this made the chocolate flavor stand out more. The resulting brownies are very moist, somewhere between cakey and fudgy. The cheesecake adds a bit of tang, but the brownie flavor definitely overwhelms it. In my view the cheesecake layer adds more aesthetic appeal than flavor appeal, but others may disagree.



Part of the ease of making these is because there isn't any special equipment required (unless you count the double boiler -- but I really recommend using the microwave) -- just a couple of handy bowls and a trusty wooden spoon. It's nice to know that great desserts can be made the old-fashioned way.

Cheesecake Brownies (adapted from Cookies and Brownies by Alice Medrich)

Ingredients:

For the brownie batter

• 1/2 cup (8 tbsp or 1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 4oz dark or unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt

For the cheesecake batter

• 8oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Place a rack in the center of the oven.
2. Prepare a 9-inch square baking pan. Create a foil sling (the idea is to help you lift the brownie out of the pan after baking) and fit it into the pan. Spray with cooking oil.
3. Melt the butter and chocolate together, either by using a double boiler or in the microwave. Stir until glossy and smooth.
4. Stir in the sugar and vanilla extract.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Add the flour and salt, stirring for about a minute, until the ingredients are well incorporated and the batter is smooth.
7. Reserve 1/2 cup of the brownie batter and set aside. Pour the rest of the brownie batter into the reserved pan and spread it out as evenly as you can; it's not super critical.
8. Process the cream cheese until smooth (you can use a hand mixer or food processor if you like, but I just used a fork after softening the cream cheese in the microwave). Add the sugar, egg, and vanilla and stir until just incorporated.
9. Carefully pour the cheesecake mixture over the brownie mixture in the pan.
10. Next, place small dollops of the reserved brownie batter over the cheesecake layer. Use a table knife to swirl the two without overmixing.
11. Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes, or until the brownies have started to pull away from the pan and the edges are starting to brown.
12. Cool the brownies until firm enough to cut (cool completely to room temperature, or after cooling a bit after taking them out of the oven, place the pan in the fridge to cool), then lift them out using the foil sling. Cut them into the desired number of squares with a sharp knife.

Cheesecake with Strawberry Sauce

I'm now going to make a confession now that's going to horrify many a dessert lover out there: I don't really like cheesecake. In fact, the only cheesecake I really like is the kind at the Cheesecake Factory, and then it's because theirs are so light and fluffy that they barely taste like cheesecake. (My favorite, by the by, is Craig's Crazy Carrotcake Cheesecake. It's DELISH.)

I'd never even had the remote desire to make my own, until this recipe. Something about it called to me. And now I know why. It's a creamy, light, and delicious cheesecake that is very like CF's. By light I don't mean light in calories -- no, I don't fool myself about that -- I mean it isn't dense and heavy, like most cheesecakes I don't care for.



It tastes better cold than at room temperature, and I made a strawberry sauce to go with it that can be served at any temperature. In fact, I highly recommend making the sauce; its fruity tartness complements the cheesecake really well.



The trick to a cheesecake without cracks is baking it for an hour, then leaving it to cool in there for 5-6 more hours, without ever opening the oven. That means it's not a dessert you can pull together at the last minute. Immediately after removing it from the oven, I covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge overnight. I didn't remove the springform pan until I was just about ready to serve.

The one "negative" -- but this is about personal taste -- is that the crust was a bit more cakey than crusty. The next time I make this I'll try baking the crust for 10-15 minutes first, then filling it.



Cheesecake with Strawberry Sauce (recipe adapted from chumas at LiveJournal)

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

For the filling:

• 32oz cream cheese (4 8oz packages)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsps all-purpose flour

For the strawberry sauce:

• 1 10oz package frozen strawberries
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice

Method

1. To make the crust, mix all the ingredients together and press into a buttered 9-inch springform pan.
2. Place a rack on the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Make sure all filling ingredients are at room temperature; that will help ensure a smooth batter. Heat a kettle of water.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the cream cheese with the sugar until it's smooth. Don't overmix. (This can all be done by hand as well, if you prefer.)
4. Switch to the whisk attachment and blend in the milk. Add the eggs one by one, mixing just enough to incorporate. Don't overmix.
5. Add in the sour cream, vanilla and flour, then blend until smooth. Don't overmix. Small lumps are okay, big ones are not.
6. Pour filling onto the prepared crust.
7. Set the cheesecake on a sheet pan and slide it into the oven. Take the kettle of water you heated and pour hot water into the sheetpan, covering the sides of the springform pan by about 1/2 inch or more.
8. Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and let it cool in the oven with the door closed for 5 to 6 hours; this prevents cracking. You can turn the pilot light on to peek at the cake, which will be lighly browned on top, but do NOT open the oven.
9. At the end of that time, carefully take the tray out of the oven (there will likely still be some water in it, so you don't want to spill it). Wrap the cheesecake -- springform pan and all -- with some plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge until chilled. Before serving, carefully remove the springform pan.
10. To make the strawberry sauce, heat all the ingredients in a small saucepan until it boils. Turn the heat down so that the sauce is simmering gently. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and crushing the strawberries down to pulp. Serve warm or cold with cheesecake.