The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. At this point I can’t count the number of times I’ve made cheesecake but I suppose there’s always room for one more recipe ;) This time I enlisted DH and the kids to help me decide on a flavor and we came to a compromise decision. You see, they wanted chocolate (don’t they always want chocolate? LOL) and I wanted citrus… so one of the cheesecakes was orange with a chocolate ganache top. Satisfied us all :) But I also had another type of fruit gazing at me wistfully from the counter…

The key limes were just calling my name at the market so I bought a bunch, having no idea what I’d make with them. I made the Key Lime Toasted Coconut cupcakes that I posted a few days ago but they didn’t have enough lime taste for me. This time I really upped the ante by using a LOT of juice. The flavor was definitely lime-y but all that excess liquid seemed to create havoc with the recipe when it came baking time. This baby rose beautifully in the oven but never wanted to “set”… so I kept it baking longer… and longer… and when I eventually took it out, the center sank like an anchor in the sea. I wound up with more of a cheesecake basket more than anything! LOL! But it made the perfect well for some fresh raspberries and puree :)

The orange chocolate cheesecake baked up a bit better insofar as I didn’t have the sunken center. I’m sure this was of the batter not being as thin since it did not have the amount of additional liquid as the key lime cheesecake. For the chocolate topping I simply made a thick ganache and spooned it over the top.

Overall, this recipe is nice and fluffy. It’s not a “dry” New York style cheesecake at all. I made 1/3 of the recipe and it fit nicely in two 4″ springform pans. The recipe comes together easily and bakes quickly but the cooling time takes quite a while and you need to chill it overnight so take that into consideration if you’re planning to make it. I probably should have stated this up front since it’s the two-ton elephant in the room… yes, I know I went overboard with the food coloring… WAAAAAAAY overboard. Lesson learned… one drop is plenty. P-L-E-N-T-Y. If you keep adding food coloring until it looks the right shade, trust me it will deepen as it bakes. I learned this the hard way and ended up with neon-orange and day-glo green cheesecakes! LOL! LOL! LOL! But they still taste very good :)  Below is the original recipe for a “plain” cheesecake.  Feel free to make modifications for flavors but please… please… go easy on the food coloring ;)

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!

Have a delicious day!