Alpha Bakers -- Mango Bango Cheesecake

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't get putting biscuit under cheesecake. I just wasn't raised that way. If I don't get a crumb crust, I want no crust. For Rose's Mango Bango Cheesecake, developed for Madhur Jaffrey, she recommends a ladyfinger crust. Now, before everyone jumps on me, I know the ladyfinger or cake bases soak up liquid, which is commendable, but then you just have soggy cake. This will never be resolved, and I'm ok with it, and you cake lovers have Juniors on your side, so be cool. 

There was a lot of discussion in the Alpha Bakers group about the procuring and treatment of proper mango pulp. Rose recommends a canned version that I thought would be easy to locate in my neighborhood, which has a large Bangladeshi and Pakistani population. Had I walked a block or two farther in my search, this hunch would probably have been confirmed, but when I discovered that the first grocery I tried was lame, and the second closed, I went to the supermarket and settled on La Fe, a common frozen brand. The La Fe mango pulp was not terribly flavorful, but it did the job. I'll keep an eye open for the good stuff.

Standing firm on my crust policies, I bought gingersnaps, and made two six inch cakes, one with gingersnap crust and one with none for a friend with celiac.  

Both cakes were good, but due to a cake pileup all but a slice or two are still hanging out in my freezer. I doubt the texture will be as good when they're thawed, but I have starving teenagers at work who will eat anything, so I'm not too worried.

Alpha Bakers - Lemon Almond Cheesecake

One of my favorite Rose cakes, the lemon almond bundt, reimagined in cheesecake form. A multi-step affair, but in the end, a simple one.

First, though, let's discuss something that concerns me. Why do so many cheesecakes have cake on the bottom? To me, the only truly acceptable cheesecake base is a crumb layer, graham cracker or, in a pinch, Oreo. Cake as the base of a cheesecake just seems like overkill, a waste of two good things in a combination that heightens neither. UPDATE: via the great RLB herself in the comments--"The reason for the cake layer is to absorb any of the leaking syrup as I don't like to add thickener to the filling though when I make cheesecakes without a base I sometimes either add a bit of cornstarch or replace each whole egg with 2 yolks."

 

Despite my doubts, I went ahead and made a nice spongy almond-filled base layer for this cake, and promptly forgot to put it in to the pan before the tangy lemony cream-cheesy sour cream filling (spiked with toasted almonds). It was an accident, truly. The cake bases, which could have been saved for future projects (ha), made very nice snacking over the next few days.

 

The only adornment this little devil got was a wash of lemon curd over the top--a quick curd that tasted like 'butter jelly,' according to Catherine, the model above. She was very happy with the cheesecake and with the strange peculiarity of my house, in which 'spare cake' is a thing. She particularly appreciated the almonds in the batter.

 

I took the rest of the cake to work, where one colleague deemed it 'lemoncious' and another told me that it should be in a bakery, but shut up quickly when I pointed out that then he'd have to pay for it.

 

Not my favorite cheesecake ever, but it's not like any cheesecake is a BAD cheesecake. Especially not when it doesn't have some stupid cake layer on the bottom.

Quick Roundup of the Unphotographed

Both of my cookthroughs are winding down, and before I get too invested in any other cookbook projects, I am going to try to finish up all or most of what I've missed over the last few years of participating in Tuesdays with Dorie and the Heavenly Cake bake-through. To that end, I've been taking stock, and wanted to mention in passing a few recipes that were made but never photographed, and so never blogged. As I leaf through the books, I'll put up a brief note whenever I discover one of these omissions.


The first was recent--I made Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake the weekend before Thanksgiving, as kind of antidote to the pie frenzy. I left it crustless, with just a few graham cracker bits scattered throughout. With no crust to add salt and contrast, it was almost painfully rich, but well received at work. I've promised my sister a cheesecake for the successful completion of the GRE, so more to come shortly.

Cakes and Cakes and Cakes

On looking back, that last post seems very ambitious. Did I do all of those fun sounding things? Well, not yet. The bike is still blocking the side door, the African dance remains a myth. I did go to yoga, though, once, and I made three cakes. Although the photo above was the only survivor of the process (Matt deemed the others 'unacceptable,' and I have to trust his word), there were in fact three cakes, and all three were Heavenly cakes, it seems only right to have a little discussion of them, photo or no.

Two weeks ago, I made the Apple Upside Down Cake, one of the first recipes in the book but one that I hadn't gotten around to yet. Caramelized apples under a yolky, buttery cake layer, sprinkled with nuts...that one was good. I tried to give it away as a housewarming present for my cousin, who just moved back to town, but only half of it made it over (next time, Sophie). Luckily, my Aunt Nicki was down the following weekend, and as a fellow devotee of Dorie Greenspan, she instigated the making of a Swedish Visiting Cake, so all was well.

Last week, I made the much-awaited Ginger Cheesecake, a fairly classic cheesecake made with a ginger crust (in my case, crushed oatmeal cookies), and juice squeezed from grated ginger. I didn't have quite enough ginger to get the amount of juice recommended, but it was still clearly present in the final product. My crust was oily, probably because my cookies were less austere than your average gingersnap, but the cake itself was excellent, and was devoured whole by hungry librarians at a training I helped conduct on Saturday. 

This week's cake, pictured above, was a riff on the Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake, which I last made for Liana's birthday the year before last. I didn't have white chocolate, which is called for in the cake, so I made Rose's White Velvet cake layers instead, and filled it with a pear buttercream and pear butter, then covered it with the Sticky Chocolate Frosting. The result, although it looked like Boston Cream Pie, tasted more like sheet cake. The pear frosting didn't really make itself heard, and without it the cake was, as Liana and Matt both admitted, somewhat boring.  My co-workers disagreed, and finished it happily, proclaiming Liana and Matt spoiled, to which they both readily and happily admitted. I thought it might improve with chocolate ice cream, but then just went for the ice cream and ignored the cake.

It's been a chaotic few weeks, at least under the surface of placid librarianship.There's a new year coming, and I'm not ready, but maybe I'll get there. Right now, I'm trying to remember what's best in life, and to hold on to it with a fierce grip.

Somewhat on that last note, I've had one more Rose Levy Beranbaum-related milestone. I finally got too annoyed at the broken binding and sticky pages of Rose's Heavenly Cakes, and bought myself a brand new copy. Time to make that one sticky too.

Heavenly Cake Bakers: Blizzard Cranberry Crown

Photo by Matt Korahais.

Can you guess what a girl like me does in a post-Christmas blizzard? If you guessed 'bakes herself silly,' you'd be on the right track. The last few days have been a lot of wind, a lot of snow, and a lot of time in the kitchen (and on the couch). Among the things baked was the Cranberry Crown Cheesecake, above. I get a lot of pleasure out of making ladyfingers, and the ones above were no exception, but I am not sure I'm on board with using them to line a cheesecake--it feels like the bottom ones always get awfully soggy.

Here's where I confess: this isn't Rose's Cranberry Crown cheesecake at all, it just looks like it. Blizzard ingredient imperatives forced me to make several substitutions, so while the ladyfingers are as advertised, and the cranberry crown is intact, the cheesecake itself, meant to be composed of cream cheese and sour cream, is actually made of ricotta and buttermilk. Although this made for a wetter mixture (probably a factor in the sogginess of the bottom), the result tasted good. Some of the bottom ladyfingers did float up, giving it an odd 'pond filled with floating logs' appearance, but we're just calling that a creative take on the buche de Noel. I only made a six-inch cake (1/3 of the recipe) but there's plenty left, as Matt and I are over sweets and craving savory. Anyone want some?

Heavenly Cake Bakers: Coconut Cheesecake

Here it is. At last. Cool, creamy, coconutty, with a crust of vanilla cake crumbs and coconut. I made three minis, two of which have sold at the bakery already.

The little taste I sneaked from the inside of the rings was very good. I didn't have a lot of luck with keeping the water bath entirely out of the tinfoil, but there's always a next time. Next up, Genoise Rose.

Heavenly Cake Bakers: Baby Lemon Cheesecakes

According to Lily, this last week has been Cheesecake Week at the bakery, everyone who comes in is fiending for cool creamy richness. Both of us are constantly bemused by these fleeting market trends--one week everyone wants whole wheat bread, the next they need cheesecake--but it's fun to watch them come and go. And luckily, this week's Heavenly Cake Bakers recipe was right in line with the trend--mini cheesecakes topped with lemon curd. Just the kind of creamy, impressive, twee creation that everyone wants. Too bad I ignored Rose's exhortation in the intro note and made only half the recipe. These flew off the shelf so fast that we might be making more of them very soon.

The cakes are easy, although there are a bunch of steps. Luckily, they're steps I like, such as making sponge cake and lemon curd.  The recipe starts with a small note indicating that one should begin by making the sponge. Several bakers missed the step, and then backtracked in surprise. I was lucky enough to catch it this time (although I've been forgetting everything right and left, so it was just luck, believe me), and whipped my egg whites, yolks, sugar, et al in style. I love sponge cake, and everything that didn't get cut out went straight into my mouth.

Once the sponge was made, I cut it into small circles (Lily came in while I was doing this with a jar lid and pointed out that she has a small box of round cutters in EVERY size. Jealous). Then the very simple cheesecake mix was mixed. It consists largely of sour cream, so it was whiter and creamier than any cheesecake I've ever made, causing one fellow baker to describe it as similar to the Jell-o mix variety. The cake mixture was poured over the biscuit rounds (in paper muffin cups in a regular muffin pan), and baked in a water bath for about 20 minutes.

I cooled the cakes for a day, and the next morning made lemon curd and poured it hot onto the cold cakes. I was a little low on curd (should've made the full recipe), but managed to make it come out even, and by dint of a small offset spatula, was able to peel off the wrappers and smooth the sides pretty successfully. And the last one was gone by 1:00 pm.

The success of the cheesecakes was a balm to my wounded baker's soul, as, owing to some poor flour purchasing on my part, the bread was an unmitigated disaster, with some of it refusing to rise at all and the rest lacking strength in the extreme. Most of it had to be written off. Walking by the store, I saw my most loyal customer, a bread loving Swiss fellow, looking awfully disappointed, and I hid. Next week it will all be better. And I already made the Palet D'or Gateau, so maybe I'll try my hand at some croissants.

Daring Bakers Challenge April 2009: 10 Plagues Cheesecake

So, I joined another baking group. (Stop looking at me that way) This isn't just any baking group, it's the Daring Bakers, one of the most impressive and exciting baking groups out there, who recently launched an ambitious new website to contain all of their forums. This group follows the work of no one cookbook writer nor chef, posts variations on complicated and...well...daring recipes picked by the monthly host. I'm late to the bandwagon and honored to join--these are projects just for the fun of it, for those of us who like difficult technique and hard to find ingredients. (That's been my only complaint about Tuesdays with Dorie, sometimes people seem to be bitching about having to try new things or make something new to them).

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Cheesecake is one of those things that isn't that hard to make yet somehow is easy to mess up. It always tastes good, so I would say that it's forgiving, but it can so easily get soggy or cracked or or just look a little iffy. It's a lump of cream cheese, after all. Not the most photogenic dessert. But, it is always good.

I made this cheesecake for a Passover seder at Stacey and Avi's house, and I rushed through it but got lucky anyway. Everything that could go wrong went wrong and it was delicious. I made the crust out of crushed pink macarons to keep things kosher, and that worked out well.

The rest was simple--mix batter, pour batter, bake batter in water bath, curse when finding that water bath had penetrated springform through foil defenses, drain, carry around all day in bag, bring to seder, get a little drunk, pose cake with 10 plagues puppets, eat. It was much praised, and, like every part of the Passover seder, reminded me just how lucky I am.

Click on through for the recipe and variations...
I left the macarons out of the official recipe because given the chance, I'd probably go with the graham crackers. Oh, and to match the macarons, I did flavor it with a bit of almond extract.
Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

Some variations from the recipe creator:

** Lavender-scented cheesecake w/ blueberries - heat the cup of heavy cream in the microwave or a saucepan until hot but not boiling. Add 2 tbsp of lavender flowers and stir. Let lavender steep in the cream for about 10-15 minutes, then strain the flowers out. Add strained cream to cheesecake batter as normal. Top with fresh blueberries, or make a quick stovetop blueberry sauce (splash of orange juice, blueberries, a little bit of sugar, and a dash of cinnamon - cook until berries burst, then cool)

** Cafe au lait cheesecake with caramel - take 1/4 cup of the heavy cream and heat it in the microwave for a short amount of time until very hot. Add 1-2 tbsp. instant espresso or instant coffee; stir to dissolve. Add this to the remainder of cream and use as normal. Top cheesecake with homemade caramel sauce (I usually find one on the food network website - just make sure it has heavy cream in it. You can use store-bought in a pinch, but the flavor is just not the same since its usually just sugar and corn syrup with no dairy).

** Tropical – add about a half cup of chopped macadamias to the crust, then top the cake with a mango-raspberry-mandarin orange puree.

** Mexican Turtle - add a bar of melted dark chocolate (between 3 and 5 oz., to taste) to the batter, along with a teaspoon of cinnamon and a dash of cayenne pepper (about 1/8 tsp.). Top it with pecan halves and a homemade caramel sauce.

** Honey-cinnamon with port-pomegranate poached pears – replace 1/2 cup of the sugar with 1/2 cup of honey, add about a teaspoon or more (to taste) of cinnamon. Take 2 pears (any variety you like or whatever is in season), peeled and cored, and poach them in a boiling poaching liquid of port wine, pomegranate juice/seeds, a couple of "coins" of fresh ginger, a cinnamon stick, and about a 1/4 cup of sugar. Poach them until tender, then let cool. Strain the poaching liquid and simmer until reduced to a syrupy-glaze consistency, then cool. Thinly slice the cooled pears and fan them out atop the cooled cheesecake. Pour the cooled poaching syrup over the pears, then sprinkle the top with chopped walnuts and fresh pomegranate seeds.

Some variations from Jenny (from JennyBakes):

**Key lime - add zest from one lime to sugar before mixing with cream cheese. Substitute lemon juice, alcohol, and vanilla with key lime juice.

**Cheesecakelets - put in muffin tins, ramekins, or custard cups. Try baking 20-35 minutes, or until still a little jiggly, and cool as before.

Next month, I promise, more attention to presentation and variation. This month, I'm glad to be making it to the table.