Wine Lover’s Cooking Diary

Tommy and I love LOVE cheesecake.  I used to hate it – a cake with cream cheese in it?!  Ew.  No thank you.  But as I got a little older I began to broaden my horizons and boy am I glad that I did.  I LOVE IT! 

I received a round springform pan for Christmas and I asked for it specifically with cheesecakes in mind.  I just now got around to actually searching out recipes and making one.  It’s not that it’s  hard exactly but the whole process is somewhat time consuming from start to finish at least in my opinion.  But boy…it is SO worth it to make one from scratch.  Oh man. 

Recipe from my lovely friend Clara’s blog:

INGREDIENTS

For the crust
1-3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake
2 pounds (four 8-ounce boxes) cream cheese, at room temperature
1-1/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1-1/3 cups sour cream or heavy cream, or a combination of the two
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

INSTRUCTIONS

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.

Combine 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.) Add graham cracker crumb mixture into 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. 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, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until it is soft, 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.

Add 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled to 1/3 of the batter in a separate bowl. Pour all of the vanilla batter into the springform pan, dollop the top of the batter with the chocolate batter and use a table knife to swirl the chocolate batter with the vanilla batter.

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 and remove the foil. (Be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum 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.

Pig Rating:  The Pig really had nothing but rave reviews about this one.  He likes his cheesecake plain better as opposed to having chocolate in it so I made this one kind of half and half.  Normally he tells me to take all the baked goods to work so they aren’t in the house but he made me keep some fo this at home 

Mrs. Pig Rating:  As I said, absolutely worth every single minute spent baking this cheesecake.  From scratch is amazing.  I will be making this one again and again and trying different toppings, etc.

Mrs. Pig Co-Workers Rating:  This was a HUGE hit.  I think this might be their favorite thing that I’ve made yet.  Even people who normally don’t eat the sweets I bring in were all over this one.  I aim to please!