Delicious Cheesecake

May 24, 2014

Who doesn’t love cheesecake? I love a good cheesecake, that’s why I make them all the time! My daughters absolutely love plain cheesecake with a graham cracker crumb crust. I have to admit it is very delicious and it is hard to only eat one piece! If you like cheesecake, you will love this recipe, it is so good!

This is my regular cheesecake recipe that I use a lot, it is very creamy. You can make the perfect cheesecake every time with this recipe. With this recipe you can easily change up the flavors by using a different crust, adding chocolate, add your favorite candy bars or maybe top is with fruit or chocolate, caramel, etc.. My wife likes me to add Butterfinger bars in the filling and on top drizzled with chocolate. I chop the Butterfingers into large pieces and place them in the bottom before pouring in the filling. The Butterfinger cheesecake is delicious!!

Ingredients:

For the crust:
1 – 3/4 cups Honey Maid Graham Cracker Crumbs
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter melted

For the filling:
1 cup granulated sugar
3 – 8 ounce packages of Philadelphia cream cheese
2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract – use the best vanilla you can buy, it makes a difference!
3 large eggs
1 cup sour cream

To get started, prepare your spring form pan. Be sure that it is assembled correctly so that it doesn’t leak at the bottom. I spread butter on the bottom and side, then insert a round piece of parchment paper to line the bottom. This will make it much easier to remove the cheesecake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the crust:
In a bowl mix together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter. Pour the crumbs into the pan. Spread using a spoon to cover the bottom and about one inch high on the sides.

For the Cheesecake filling:
Set out the cream cheese and eggs, let them come to room temperature. In a clean mixing bowl, blend the cream cheese and sugar until combined, scraping down the sides of your bowl as needed. Blend in eggs one at a time until combined, be sure not to over blend the eggs. Blend only until the yolk is mixed.

Now, add the vanilla, using a spatula fold until vanilla is blended. Add the sour cream, again using your spatula fold in the sour cream. Pour filling over the graham cracker crumbs and smooth the top.

Cheesecake filling poured on top of the graham cracker crumbs.

Before placing in the oven, wrap bottom of spring form pan tightly with 2 layers foil and place into a larger, deep baking pan. Pour water into large pan until water reaches about halfway up the sides of the spring form pan to create a water bath.

Carefully place pan in oven and bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes or until center is set and the top looks slightly dry. Don’t over cook or it will not be very creamy, keeping watching every few minutes until the center is set then remove from oven.

Cool cheesecake on a wire rack.

Place pan into the fridge to chill overnight but do not cover the cheesecake. Remove cheesecake from pan after cheesecake has been chilled overnight. Remove from the spring form pan and place on your favorite cake dish! You are now ready to eat or you can add a topping or not. It’s great just plain! 🙂

It’s time to eat cheesecake! This is very easy and it’d very delicious but not fat free!!

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day!

 

Making Crème Brûlée               Hot Fudge Cake

      

Strawberry Pie                            Chocolate Cheesecake

      

Cheesecake                                 Red Velvet Cake

    

 

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Strawberry Topped Cheesecake

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I haven’t met anyone yet who doesn’t love cheesecake!  For Valentine’s Day, I decided to create this delicious glazed strawberry cheesecake for my wife today. She was very Happy! Because strawberries, chocolate and Valentine’s Day just go together.  🙂

This cheesecake is a GORGEOUS show-stopper and is to die for cheesecake. And not only is it beautiful but is tastes delicious! I just love Cheesecakes so I make them all the time.

This is my regular cheesecake recipe that I use a lot. With this recipe you can easily change up the flavors. I went to Sam’s yesterday and while I was there I found the most beautiful strawberries for my cheesecake. Did I say how delicious and creamy this cheesecake recipe is? If you like cheesecake, you will love this recipe, it is so good!

The recipe is easy but it has a good many steps.

Ingredients:
For the crust:
This time I decided to use a brownie crust but if you want to make a graham cracker crust, chocolate cookie crust, vanilla wafer crust, Oreo cookie crust, etc. you can. If you want to make a cookie crust, go to my Chocolate Cheesecake recipe post to get the ingredients. I decided used a Duncan Hines brownie mix for the crust so that I had a nice chocolate crust.

For the filling:
1 cup granulated sugar
3 – 8 ounce packages of Philadelphia cream cheese
2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 cup sour cream

For the topping:
2 cups chopped strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
red food coloring – optional

Let’s get started, prepare your spring form pan. Be sure that it is assembled correctly so that it doesn’t leak at the bottom. I spread butter on the bottom and side, then insert a round piece of parchment paper to line the bottom. This will make it much easier to remove the cheesecake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the brownie mix according to the instructions on the box. Use only half of the mix in your spring form pan, place the other half in another pan. You can bake both of these at the same time, the other half make a good snack! When done remove from the oven and cool completely.

Brownie crust is done!

For the Cheesecake filling:
When the brownie crust is nearly done, start the filling. Set out the cream cheese and eggs, let them come to room temperature. In a clean mixing bowl, blend the cream cheese and sugar until combined, scraping down the sides of your bowl as needed. Blend in eggs one at a time until combined, be sure not to over blend the eggs. Blend only until the yolk is mixed. Now, add the vanilla, using a spatula fold until vanilla is blended. Add the sour cream, again using your spatula fold in the sour cream. Pour filling over cooled crust and smooth the top.

Cheesecake filling poured on top of the brownie ready to bake.

Wrap bottom of spring form pan tightly with 2 layers foil and place into a larger, deep baking pan. Pour water into large pan until water reaches about halfway up the sides of the spring form pan to create a water bath.

Carefully place pan in oven and bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes or until center is set and the top looks slightly dry. Don’t over cook or it will not be very creamy, keeping watching every few minutes until the center is set then remove from oven.

Cool cheesecake on a wire rack. Place pan into the fridge to chill overnight but do not cover the cheesecake. Remove cheesecake from pan after cheesecake has been chilled overnight. Remove from the spring form pan and place on your favorite cake dish! You are now ready to eat or you can add a topping.

Cheesecake is done and is cooling.

Wash your strawberries, remove the stems and pat dry with a paper towel. Pick out the best berries and place them on top of your cheesecake.

To make the filling, chop strawberries, place in pot with sugar and water. Place on medium high heat, stirring bring to a boil. While the strawberry mixture is heating, in a separate small bowl, mix the 2 table spoons of water with corn starch until you have a slurry.

Once the strawberry mixture gets warm, continue stirring constantly until it starts to boil. Then lower the heat to medium and add the cornstarch mixture and continue to stir for 4 minutes or until thick. Remove from heat and let cool for 3-4 minutes before topping cheesecake.

You can serve the topping as-is with a chunky texture, or puree it smooth with an immersion blender. You can also puree it to about halfway, so that it’s almost smooth but still has some texture. Use for anything that requires a sweet strawberry topping, like cheesecake, ice cream sundaes or waffles!! 🙂

Happy, happy, happy, boy this is delicious!!! 🙂

Happy Valentine’s Day!! 🙂

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Strawberry Pie                        Chocolate Cheesecake

      

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Making Crème Brûlée

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“I think every woman should have a blowtorch” – Julia Child

Grab your kitchen torch and let’s make crème brulee, a thick and delicious vanilla bean infused custard with a layer of burnt-sugar on top! I love Crème Brûlée, can you tell? The best part is using the torch!

This creamy, rich dessert is dangerously easy to make and is perfect for Valentine’s Day or any special, romantic occasion. It is so good you will want to eat it every day. If you can’t stop, see your doctor.

You won’t believe how easy it is to make and the best thing is that it can be prepared the day before and all you have to do is grab your torch for melting the sugar on top!

Start off by preheating your oven to 325 degrees and bring a full kettle of water to boil that we will use for the water bath. In a large roasted pan, place a towel on the bottom of the pan, place your ramequins on top of the towel and set aside.

In a medium sauce pan, combine 2 cups of heavy cream, the seeds from ½ vanilla bean and ½ vanilla bean pod. Cut the vanilla bean down the center and scrape out the vanilla beans, then place the beans and the other half bean into the cream. If you don’t have a vanilla bean you can use 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla or vanilla bean paste. I think the vanilla bean adds more flavor. Set the burner between low and medium low. We need to scald the cream mixture to 140 degrees. If you have thermometers use it to check the temperature, whatever you do to NOT let the cream boil.

While the cream is heating, in a large mixing bowl, whisk 4 egg yolks with the ½ cup of sugar. Once the cream reaches 140 degrees we are now ready to temper the cream mixture into the eggs. This is a very important step because you to not want to add the hot cream mixture to the egg mixture all at once otherwise you’ll get scrambled eggs. Pour about an ounce or two of the cream mixture into the egg mixture while whisking at the same time, whisk until completely incorporated.

Egg yolk mixture before adding sugar

Egg yolk and sugar mixture.

Notice the above picture with the bubbles, after the egg yolk and sugar has been mixture you will have some bubbles. You need to remove all of the bubbles using a ladle and discard.

Egg yolk and sugar mixture after bubbles have been removed.

Now continue adding the cream mixture to the egg mixture until it has all been incorporated. This is your custard mixture for the base of your Crème Brûlée. Before pouring the custard mixture into your crème brulee ramequins, you need to strain it through a fine mesh sieve. This will remove the vanilla bean pod as well as other bits of egg that cooked.

Now fill your ramequins, I find that using a soup ladle makes this an easy step. Place pan in oven and then fill the pan with the boiling water until the water comes up about halfway on the ramequins. Bake for approximately 30 to 35 minutes depending on the size of your ramequins and your oven until the custard is just set. I always watch the custard closely the last 5 to 10 minutes. You will know the custard is set if you carefully shake the pan and the custards tremble like jello just slightly in the center.

Remove the pan from the oven and using tongs, carefully remove the crème brulee ramequins and let cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Be careful not to let any water drip into the Crème Brûlée.

Ramequins just taken out of the oven cooling on rack.

Place in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2 hours and up to 3 days. This is an important step because the custard is going to finish setting up during this time.

Grab your torch, after 2 hours they are ready to serve. This is where I start to get excited to eat these wonderful desserts. Now you’re ready to sprinkle with a layer of turbinado sugar and brulee with your torch. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar to caramelize the top, then swirl the dish around so that the surface is evenly covered with sugar, anything that’s left over, dump on to the next one or into another dish. This is important, there shouldn’t be any loose sugar on top before torching.

Before torching, think about what you are doing, please be careful, be mindful of those around you. It only takes a few seconds to torch the sugar, do this quickly so that it does not heat the cold custard. You are looking for good caramelization. Once you brulee the sugar serve immediately or the caramel topping will become soft.

They are ready to serve and if you ask me, nothing beats the first spoon full of Crème Brûlée… the crackling of the sugar breaking that reveals the sweet gooey silky custard underneath, what could be better!?! 🙂

Crème Brulee Recipe
2 cups heavy cream
1 vanilla bean ( if can substitute the with 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or paste)
4 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
Turbinado sugar to caramelize the top

Makes four servings.

Do you like Crème Brûlée ??

Don’t be intimidated if you’ve never made Crème Brûlée! If I can do it… you can do it.

Have a wonderful weekend, my friends!

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