Well brie goes well with apples, I immagined removing all the rind before using in a cheesecake. Also remember those baked brie or camanbert (sp?) starters with tart fruit sauce, I can see that being modifed for a cheesecake idea.
Also what is is pear and stilton tarte but a cheesecake eaten as a starter?
Here in California we get some very good and mild goats cheeses that don’t taste ‘goaty’ at all, they may be good for use in a special cheesecake.
To go really out on a limb, I might consider a Stilton tarte with grapes to serve with port after a meal. It would be an unsweetened cheescake except for the sweetness of the grapes.
Cheesecake recipes often have what seem like complicated steps…separating eggs, boiling water baths, springform pans, changing temperature settings during baking. These steps are all fine and good. But you should realize that they are about wringing the last 5% of quality out of the cheesecake. This is for a cheesecake you need to go to 11.
But you can get a cheesecake that goes to 10 very very easily. Cheesecake is really one of the easiest things to make. Cream cheese, sugar, eggs, mix em, and bake in any pan available. Done and done. Don’t be intimidated. Once you’ve made a dozen or so, you can start refining your techinique to move the end product to exactly what you like. But for a basic cheesecake? Just go ahead and do it. It will come out great the first time, easy.
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Depends on how dense you want to go.
Are we talking:[list=A][li]lead,[/li][li]platinum,[/li][li]white dwarf,[/li][li]neutron star, or[/li][li]black hole?[/list][/li][/QUOTE]
given that the cheesecake I’m describing is the densest I’ve ever had, and everybody’s (this thread excluded) idea of “dense” hasn’t even been close, I’d have to say I want the cheesecake that’s sitting right there on the event horizon. . .
oh, and indecisive1, I’m hoping to try making a cheesecake over xmas weekend, for Misery’s Company and family . . . Wish me luck!
Again, you have your choice of crusts… for this flavor cake I recommend a shortbread crust. Run shortbread cookies through the blender until you have two cups of crumbs. Add 1/4 cup sugar and mix together, then add 1/4 stick of melted butter. Press that into bottom and sides of a 10-inch pan (prepped as above) and then refrigerate the pan for about half an hour.
Now, the batter.
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs room temp.
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup amaretto
1/4 dark rum
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
3 tablespoons grated lemon zest
1 pound mascapone cheese
2 cups heavy cream
Combine sugar and cornstarch in a non-reactive saucepan. Dissolve the gelatin in half of the lemon juice. Mix in rum, amaretto, and rest of the lemon juice. Beat eggs separately and add to the sugar and cornstarch mixture. Cook over low to medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Do NOT SCORCH!
Remove from heat. Add gelatin and lemon zest. Cool in a new, larger bowl.
Beat or whisk in mascapone cheese until the mixture is smooth. Whip the heavy cream in a bowl until stiff. Fold the cheese batter into the whipped cream. Spoon - you can’t pour - the mix into your prepped pan and refrigerate for six-eight hours.
Remove from pan using methods described above.
You can garnish with fruit, or drizzle with a cooked-down amaretto sauce or a berry sauce.
I don’t know where you live, MLC, but they have a very dense cheesecake at Giant. Of course, it is not in any way in the league of homemade, but if it’s dense you want, that has it.
on Xmess Eve I made a cheesecake following Msr. Bricker’s recipe, with mixed results as far as what I was looking for.
To be stricktly accurate in my accounting, I used 1/2 c sour cream and ditched the heavy cream all together. The results were VERY close, as far as flavor, though it seemed a little sweet to me and next time I’ll reduce the sugar to 1 Cup.
The texture wasn’t really all of what I was looking for, though - it /was/ pretty dense, but very “wet”. For one thing, I may not have cooked it long enough, but I’m also thinking that the water-bath contributed to an IMO overly moist product.
That aside, the people I cooked the cheesecake for LOVED it. A few of them had also had Dee’s Cheesecake and agreed that the flavor was very close.
Thanks again for the receipe, Bricker. Are my thoughts above on track? Or do you have any further suggestions?
For Christmas I had bought my sister a set of 3 springform cake pans and a small cheesecake cookbook because she loves cheesecakes. She also got a stand mixer for Christmas so I hope there will be plenty of cheesecakes in the future.
Anyway, I read her cookbook and it talked about the water bath while baking. The purpose of the water bath is to keep the cake from drying out and cracking and to keep it moist. It said it was not an absolute necessity and the cakes
should turn out well even if they dry a little and crack. Cracks can always be concealed below garnishes. I gathered that you’d really have to overbake it for it to dry out so much as to be inedible (“Inedible cheesecake” 2 words that should never be used together). A lot also would depend on your oven.
Yah - My desire for a cheescake that doesn’t meet the usual bill of “Light and moist” may prove to be a challenge - one requiring many, many tries to overcome. I’m really bummed. Really. Bummed. I mean it.
The essence of successful cheesecake work is experimentation.
I’ve found the biggest variant is ovens - no two are alike.
If you ended up with something too moist, you can certainly try eliminating the water bath. It has two purposes: to keep the cake moist and to keep the heat even, which assists in avoiding cracking as the cake cools. If the cake was fully cooked, I’d not suggest adding cooking time until you’ve tried the same approach sans water bath.
I made Bricker’s standard cheesecake and his chocolate version. Both on the same night! What a lot of work… I actually had sore muscles the next day! ( I don’t have good kitchen equipment - had to crush wafers and stir huge amounts of stiff ingredients by hand). Anyway, I really liked them both, even though I couldn’t find the right brand of chocolate, and had to reduce the amount of vanilla by half 'cause I was too lazy to drive to the store, and I didn’t make the topping for the chocolate one because I needed to take a pain pill and go to bed. I also baked them both at the same time so I sort of averaged the different times and temperatures.
Anyway, I thought they were great. Misery, I think it’s time for you to just admit that you are a cheesecake-snob and will never be totally satified.
Here is a recipe that I picked up off of a TV show I was watching. I’ve never noticed it to be very moist, but it sure tastes good to me. Better than anything I’ve ever had in a store. Nor did I think it took any length of time to do, or was in the least complex. But that could be my ignorance showing on the proper techniques of making these things (I’ll try some of the suggestions listed here the next time I do it, if ever. These things contain enough calories to power a small city!).
30 crushed oreos
1/3c melted margarine/butter
Mix and spread in a springform pan
My changes:
Don’t put the oreos in the mix. I take them out and put in what I like which happens to be Reeses Pieces and Smarties. Then before serving I melt Callebaut milk chocolate to pour over top of the individual servings… Thinking of this I wonder if skipping the Reeses Pieces and Smarties and using chunks of Callebaut chocolate would be preferable? Although, I wonder what would happen to the cake as they melted inside during the cooking process?
I also have been searching for an answr to Dee’s closing for years. I had good luck with David Lebovitz recipe in My Paris Kitchen. Its called Dee’s Fabulous Cheesecake, so i thought maybe. Its also a crustless recipe so that gave me hope. I made it yesterday, and after it sat in the fridge overnight, its pretty close. That was also my first time ever making Cheesecake. I just used cream cheese to sub for the fromage blanc in the recipe. Yum yum
A comment at Goodreads review of The Joy of Cheesecake reads, " In Albuquerque I was addicted to the dense, rich perfect New York Cheesecake that could only be found at Dee’s Cheesecake Factory. In this little book, is a recipe called “The Heavy One”. Yes, it is as scary delicious as it sounds. This one is comparable to my beloved Dee’s!"
