Cheesecake by Alita
So you want to make a tasty cheesecake? by Alita
So we've seen quite a few tasty dinners being prepared around this here forum the past few weeks, but nary a cake has been made! So I took it upon myself to document my journey into the domain of cheesecakery goodness. Here follows the recipe I like to use to make the creamiest, fluffiest dream of a cheesecake I know; lime cheesecake with a chocolate chip cookie bottom.
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 200 grams (7 ounces) of sugar
- 750 grams (roughly 26.5 ounces) of cream cheese (preferably Philadelphia cream cheese, and none of that low-fat bullshit)
- juice from 4 limes
- 200 grams (7 ounces) of chocolate chip cookies (preferably Maryland Cookies or something similar), *75 grams (2,5 ounces) of unsalted butter
- round spring tin
- aluminium foil.
Method
Place the bottom of the spring tin of a large piece of aluminium foil (or two overlapping ones, if need be), and fasten the round tin part. Wrap the excess aluminium foil up tightly around the edges, before placing the tin on another piece of foil. Wrap the new layer of foil over the first one; this should be enough to waterproof your tin and keep your cheesecake nice and dry later on.
Put the cookies into a food processor and grind the cookies into fine crumbs. Add the unsalted butter and let the food processor run until the cookiecrumbs and butter turn into a gooey paste, like so:
If you don't have a food processor, you can crumble the cookies by hand and add melted butter instead; you won't be able to taste the difference. The muscles in your hands will be a lot more sore, though.
Take your newly created cookiegoo and spread evenly at the bottom of the wrapped-up tin, either with the back of a spoon or with your knuckles or fingertips (the latter is more fun). This will take a little bit of time to get right, so be patient. Eventually, it will look like the picture above. At about this time, you should start preheating your oven to 180 degrees C, or 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and boil some water (a litre and a half or so should do the trick). Put the tin into the fridge so the bottom of the cheesecake can cool and set.
Now, on to the cheese part of the cheesecake! Put your cream cheese into a large bowl, and stir until it looks nice and smooth. Then, add the sugar...
...the eggs, and the egg yolk. Stir well!
Slice your limes into halves, and squeeze for all you're worth. Stir the lime juice briskly into the cream cheese mix; it should end up looking something like this:
Fetch the by-now cold tin, and simply pour the cheese-mix into the tin.
Place your soon-to-be heavenly cheesecake into a deep pan. This is where the aluminium foil and the water and whatnot come into play; take your boiling water and pour into the pan, until it reaches between 1/3 and halfway up the side of the tin. If you add more water than that, you'll regret it when you caaarefully maneouver your way over to the oven. Spilling hot water all over yourself is no fun.
Let the cheesecake bake for about an hour; start checking on it after about 50 minutes. You can use this time to do the dishes and clean up after yourself... or you can do something completely pointless, like dressing up as a shirt ninja.
The cheesecake is done when it looks solid, but not hard; it should quiver ever so slightly under the surface. Out of the oven with it! Take the tin out of the water as soon as possible, and cut away the excess aluminium foil. Don't try to remove the foil underneath the cake, though; it can only end in disaster. Let the cheesecake cool, and be sure to refridgerate it for at least 20 minutes before serving. And most importantly, enjoy!
