Adventures in Cheesecake.

Now while some folks consider baking a chore; I look at it more as a minor hobby. It's not something that I can say I like alot, but I can't say I dislike it, so keep trying it out. There wasn't much cooking I wanted to do over the weekend, so decided to play with cheesecake recipes. Usually I like to mix cream cheese with mascarpone cheese which I posted about on Feb 8, 2011, but not this time. Each recipe I created has two pounds of cream cheese in it, making the cakes denser, but still moist and luscious.

Now this first recipe is Lemon Curd Cheesecake, so it tastes very like eating a lemon meringue pie, but with cheesecake instead of lots of puffy meringue. When I like a little snack, I'll spoon lemon curd onto squares of shortbread, and it's a delightful treat. However, I wanted a little more snap, so used crushed ginger snap cookies for the crust.

Lemon Curd Cheesecake

Spray a 10” spring form pan with nonstick baking spray; cut out a circle of parchment paper to line bottom of pan; spray the parchment paper also.

Crust

1 (16 oz) package gingersnap cookies

6 Tbsp melted butter

Place cookies in plastic bag and crush into a semi-fine crumble.  Mix butter with crumble; press onto bottom of pan and up sides about ½ inch.  Refrigerate for half hour.

Filling

4 (8 oz) boxes cream cheese, softened

¼ cup lemon juice

2 tsp pure lemon extract

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

Beat cream cheese, lemon juice, extract and sugar together till smooth; add eggs; beat until well incorporated.  Pour into spring form pan.  Bake for one hour at 350F; turn off heat, partially open oven door and let cake rest for half hour.   

Topping

While cake is baking, make the lemon curd topping.

 1 cup lemon juice

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs

4 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces

In a large bowl, mix lemon juice, sugar and eggs together till sugar is dissolved.  Pour mixture into a large saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until temperature reaches 175F, and mixture has thickened.  Remove from heat; add butter and stir until all the butter has melted.  Pour mixture through a fine strainer into a clean bowl.  After cake has rested, and curd is still slightly warm; pour curd over filling and spread evenly.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Makes 10-12 servings.

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This second cheesecake is based on the fact that I had some coffee left over in the pot, but not enough for a full cup; throwing it out seemed such a waste.

Mocha Latte Cheesecake

Spray a 10” spring form pan with nonstick baking spray; cut out a circle of parchment paper to line bottom of pan; spray the parchment paper also.

Crust

1 (16 oz) package shortbread cookies

2 Tbsp melted butter

2 Tbsp chocolate syrup

Place cookies in plastic bag and crush into a semi-fine crumble.  Mix butter and syrup with crumble; press onto bottom of pan and up sides about ½ inch.  Refrigerate for half hour.

Filling

4 (8 oz) boxes cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup melted semi-sweet chocolate chips

¼ cup strong brewed coffee

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

Beat cream cheese, melted chocolate, coffee and sugar together till smooth; add eggs and cocoa; beat until well incorporated.  Pour into spring form pan.

Bake for one hour at 350F; turn off heat, partially open oven door and let cake rest for half hour.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Topping

1 Tbsp softened cream cheese

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 tsp vanilla powder

1 cup whipped cream

coffee syrup

Beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract and powder together till smooth; fold in whipped cream.  Spread over chilled filling; refrigerate for one hour.  Drizzle coffee syrup over top before cutting and serving.

Makes 10-12 servings.

Mary Cokenour