I had my first cheesecake at a friend's birthday party , I was curious as it appeared different from other cakes and when i had a bite I was sure that it was something different and delicious ! I was too embarrassed to ask as I deciphered that I was perhaps the only one who didn't know what a cheesecake is all about. In my mind I was thinking of how much sugar would go to make cheese taste from salty to sweet and how did the base come so well , didn't the already baked biscuits burn when baked again....I had many questions on my mind but as i said I refused to be labelled the dumbest of the lot .......
Internet came to my rescue and I learnt that there is something called 'cream cheese' which is used specifically to dish out the very heavenly form of cakes;cheesecakes! I also learnt that the biscuits are processed in a food processor , mix with butter and/or cinnamon and pressed to the base and sides of a spring form cake tin and then refrigerate this overnight to yield the perfect base. Now the challenge was to figure out which of the eggless recipes (I am ok with eggs in desserts but my husband is an astute vegetarian). I stumbled upon this blog written by a certain Kosha Vaishnav , it had minimal ingredients , was very easy with the way she managed to describe it and eggless ! I confess that I was happier because my last name while I wasn't married was Vaishnav too ! Her blog is one to add to your reading list , I suggest.
Here is a link to her blog
http://www.vitchen.com/blog/2013/03/14/classic-cheesecake/
I made changes to her recipe and I made this cheesecake thrice . I modified it to reduce the sour cream and cream cheese content and increase the base content , cookies or crackers I meant . I also used digestive biscuits and walkers short bread butter biscuits in equal measures as Graham crackers aren't available in Beijing. I also used custard powder instead of cornstarch as that is readily available on my kitchen shelf. However this recipe as a base is great to begin with !
Serves : 8-10
Preparation time : 20 minutes + overnight refrigeration required for the base
Baking time : 45-60 minutes
Tips : Ensure that the all the ingredients are at room temperature , the Cream Cheese and Butter must be softened (keep them out for longer, no need to microwave them)
For the Cream Cheese top you will need
1 pack 8 ounces cream cheese (I used Philadelphia Cream Cheese)
1 1/2 cups of Sour Cream
1 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 tablespoons Custard Powder
1/4th teaspoon Sea Salt
For the base you will need
2 cups of crushed cookies (I took digestive and walkers shortbread round cookies)
1 stick of butter (100 grams) melted
2 teaspoons of Cinnamon
How to prepare the Base
Process the cookies well in a food processor or put them in a ziplock bag and grind them using a rolling pin.
Add cinnamon while the cookies are still in the ziplock bag or process with the cookies incase you are using a food processor.
Add the cinnamon-ground cookie mix to a round 9" spring form cake tin
Add the melted butter and mix well. Press the mixture on the base as well as on the sides , see that there are no spaces. This should be ideally done using hands.
Refrigerate this overnight and take it out from the refrigerator 30 minutes before Baking.
How to prepare the Cream Cheese Mix
Beat the softened cream cheese till you see a smooth texture , it would be take 3-4 minutes using an electric beater at high speed.
Add the sour cream ,sugar, custard powder and beat for another 2 minutes.
Now blend in vanilla extract , lemon juice and salt and mix well . Ensure that the sugar has been dissolved completely and there are no lumps in the mix.
The above mix can be tailored by adding flavours of one's choice. I modified it to turn this cake into a Mango Cheesecake , Strawberry Cheesecake and Blueberry-Pineapple Cheesecake.Here are the ways I adopted to turn the plain cheesecake into a more gorgeous and heavenly treat !
The final steps
Preheat the oven at 200 degree celsius for 10 minutes. Bring down the oven temperature to 180 degree celsius now.
Pour the cream cheese mix onto the refrigerated base and bake for 45-50 minutes ,sometimes it needs 60 minutes or more as well. Watch for cracks on top which means that the topping has been baked well. Switch off the oven and let the cake cool completely.
Let it stand in the fridge overnight before you serve.
For Mango Cheesecake
1 cup of Mango Pulp to be mixed with the Cream Cheese Mix.
For Strawberry Cheesecake
1/4th cup of Herschey's Strawberry Syrup (You could add upto 1/3rd cup). Cut down the sugar to about 3/4th cup incase you do not prefer it to be too sweet.
Fresh Strawberries to Garnish
For Blueberry -Pineapple Cheesecake you would need
2 tablespoons of blueberry Jam to be mixed in the Cream cheese mix. One might want to tone it down to 2 tablespoons of jam and/or make the sugar to 3/4th cups. I put 3/4th cup of sugar while the jam to be 2 tablespoons and it came out perfectly suitable to my taste buds.
2 Tablespoons of Caanned Pineapple syrup
3-4 rings of drained canned pineapple and blue berry jam for garnishing.
No comments:
Post a Comment