Say cheese! (cake)

Ok, I've been postponing the inevitable. I have been asked about my cheesecakes. For those of you that know me, you know I used to sell my cheesecakes, but had not ever been able to cross the chasm between a hobby and actually making money. If you're in a position to sell cheesecakes (or desserts of any kind for that matter) on a per slice basis, then the income to labor ratio becomes much more palatable. For those of you that appreciate good ingredients, you know that there's definitely more cost involved. It's tough to compete with a Sam's $13-$14 cheesecake (no, not in taste, but in affordability). There are a lot of people that seem to be ok with cheaper, store-bought desserts, and that's ok. I'm not typically one of them. However, for me to make a 10" plain cheesecake with raspberry amaretto sauce, my cost is about $15, not to mention the hours of labor, yes hours. It takes a while to make the crust, blind bake it, cool it, add the cheesecake batter, bake it (low and slow is my motto, about 4 hours), let it cool and cut it. So, chalk it up to being a labor of love, I suppose. In a decent restaurant, $5/slice with a little sauce and nice plating is not unreasonable at all, and at $5/slice for 16 slices, now you're starting to make a little headway, but even then it's not a get rich quick deal. I've alos been chastised a bit for giving out all my recipes, so I'll post some pics and maybe a basic recipe, but that's about it for now. Like I said in my "bio" I like to share things, good things I've experienced, so here you go.

Basic plain cheesecake:

Crust:
2 C graham crackers* crushed
6 oz melted butter
1/4 C sugar
*I use Nabisco Honey Maid (off brands don't taste the same) and crush them in the food processor, not too fine. Stir in sugar and melted butter and press firmly into 10" springform, bake at 325° for 10 minutes.

Batter:
2 1/2 lbs of *Philadelphia cream cheese (*it makes a difference as well) room temperature
1 1/2 C sugar
3/4 C sour cream (I like Daisy, but I'm not as picky about this)
1/4 C lemon juice
1/8 C vanilla
Pinch of salt
4 eggs

The most important 2 things are room temperature cream cheese and scraping the bowl frequently, leave cream cheese out overnight if you can. Start creaming on low to medium add sugar, scrape. You can go up to medium (I use a KitchenAid and the beater attachement, not whisk) at this point, BUT when all ingredients are in stay on low, otherwise it will get too fluffy. Add the rest of the ingredients, scrape. I always break eggs into separate bowl as well, in case. Scrape, scrape, scrape. Yup, it's important. Make sure to mix long enough, you don't want lumps of cream cheese.
Bake at 235° for about 4 hours. Since each oven is different it may take more time. I also put a pan of water in the bottom of the oven, too. I do not bake the plain cheesecakes in a water bath, but I do for the 2-layer ones (more later). Bake until the center is convex. Cool on wire rack, then overnight in fridge. Do not wrap until completely cool, condensation will drip onto the cheesecake and make it look awful. When you cut, boil water and put into a pitcher, get the thinnest, longest blade knife you can find (I use a salmon filleting knife). Dip the blade into the water, wipe it off and make a cut. Scrape the blade into a bowl, clean blade, and repeat. Yes, it's a pain, but it will look great. After I cut the cheesecake, I put 2 wax paper slices on each piece or they will stick together.

Raspberry Sauce:
Seedless raspberry jam
lemon to taste
small amount of water or amaretto

Ok, so not the most definitive amounts here, I know. What I do is scrape the whole jar of jam into a pan, add a little lemon, add a little water, heat and stir, and done. Some like more lemon, some like it thicker or thinner, hence the amounts. You can substitue amaretto for water (or my homemade almond liqueur, see earlier post). So, have fun, experiment. add small amounts of lemon and water or amaretto at a time, and taste. Cool, store in fridge in squeeze bottle.

Plain

2-layer choc/rasp

Adding choc ganache

Brown Sugar/Maple Syrup Cheesecake with Maple/Pecan Topping

Plain, cutting/adding wax papers

So, here's some proof. I'll talk about the various kinds of cheesecakes in a later post. For now, notice the plain looks really nice, that's due to the low and slow baking. It comes out somewhere between a NY style and a softer creamy version. Not too dry, not too soft. Here's a fancier one I made, white chocolate raspberry swirl decorated with fresh raspberries and white chocolate leaves, per my wife, she is way more artistic than me.

Buon Appetito!