Posts tagged cheesecake

I swear I don’t consume as much sugar as this blog seems to indicate. It just happens to be that when I do, it turns into a post….or diabetes.

Salted caramel cheesecake with a chocolate praline crust and topped with MOAR CARAMEL!

Had to throw in my pretty, thrift-store silver spoons. 

MOAR SUGAR!!! Diet starts…tomorrow. Cheesecake today.

Mini Turtle Cheesecakes:
Makes roughly 1 dozen 

Caramel
(You’ll have some left over in case you want to pour on top of cheesecakes, or you know, eat from a spoon)

Fact: I have the best boyfriend. Ever.
Doubt me? Bring it on. Come at me, bro. (Please don’t really, I would lose, badly—I have the physical prowess of an injured pygmy tarsier).

(Sorry for the absurdly long post. I got a little over-zealous with the camera.)

So, this awesome boyfriend of mine was recently nominated for and won a scholarship for outstanding work in anthropology. Wuh-Wuh.

I’m showing my pride in the best way I know how—cheesecake.

Specifically, a caramel cheesecake layered with candied pecans on top of a salty pretzel crust, and slathered with a semi-sweet chocolate ganache.

If I were pro, I’d top it with that supah fancy fleur de sel stuff. But I’m not, so this will have to cut it.

Oh and I finally mastered good caramel. When I’ve made it in the past it always turned out a little bitter. The ultimate trick? A little bit of water with the sugar. Picked that up from A Pastry Affair. I have no clue how the chemistry works but it seems to slow the cooking process so the sugar caramelizes more evenly and becomes a gorgeous amber without burning. Oh and butter. Lots of butter. But that goes without saying.

This cheesecake has a lot of parts to it. You could take shortcuts, but I guarantee it’ll be better if you don’t.

Is this cheesecake healthy? No. Is it vegan, gluten-free, and sugar-free? No. Is it a “healthier” cheesecake and damn tasty? Yes.

Although I’m normally very anti-sugar, I don’t know of an alternative way to get to caramel. Plus, this is a once in a blue moon kind of thing. And aside from the caramel and the graham crackers and the pretzels and the chocolate there’s no added sugar, just stevia and a touch of some good ‘ole maple syrup.

Saturday night, he was so frustrated with me because I ditched him all day for work and then when I got home, I headed straight to the kitchen to cook up this surprise cheesecake. “It’s for the blog” was not a good enough excuse for not watching a movie with him. The next morning, when he woke up I told him to come downstairs because I needed help with something. Surprise cheesecake breakfast date ensued.

Pretzel Crust

• 1 1/2 cups pretzels (I used mini) (about 3/4 cup ground)
• 10 graham crackers (about 2/3 cup ground)
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• extra salt shaken from the bottom of the pretzel bag (you know what I’m talking about), to taste
• generous pinch of stevia

1. In batches, blend the pretzels and graham crackers into crumbs
2. Mix crumbs with butter, salt, and stevia.
3. Press into 9” springform pan (up the ingredients for a larger pan)

Candied Pecans   

• 2 tbs maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp stevia
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbs butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

1. Combined top 4 ingredients and then pour over pecans, mixing and coating well. Bake in a single layer in a 350 degree oven (or toaster oven) for 8 or so minutes.

Caramel

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tbs water
• 3/4 cup butter, cut into cubes or slices
• 1/2 cup heavy (full) cream

1. In a small saucepan, heat water and sugar over medium-low heat. Swirl the mixture every now and then. It’ll become a clear liquid once the sugar all dissolves/melts and then slowly it’ll get some color and bubble up. Keep swirling.
2. Once it’s a nice amber, turn the heat to low and add the butter in increments, swirling the pan to melt after each addition.
3. Add the cream and swirl/stir until it’s a homogeneous mixture. (If the sugar is sort of hardening and not incorporating the butter and cream, turn the heat back up to medium until it does.) Remove from heat and transfer to a glass jar and let cool at least to room temp (preferably chilled in the fridge).

Filling

• 2 8 oz packages cream cheese (softened)
• 2 eggs
• Caramel
• 1/2 the Candied Pecans
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 tsp stevia

1. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and then add the eggs and stevia, beating until sort of fluffy. Fold in the sour cream, caramel, and 1/2 the pecans.

Ganache (make after the cheesecake is cooked and cooled)

• 10 oz semi-sweet chocolate
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Melt the chocolate. Mix in the cream. Set aside.

Assembly

1. Sprinkle the remaining half of the pecans over the pretzel crust.
2. Pour the filling over that.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in a 350 degree oven over a pan of water. Turn off the oven when you think it’s about done (knife will not come out clean and it will still jiggle a little in the middle, like some other things in life—but that’s okay) and let it sit until the oven’s cooled.
4. Refrigerate for a few hours at least, preferably overnight so the flavors have time to mate develop.
5. Remove from springform pan. Top with warm ganache. Return to fridge so the ganache can harden a little. Eat copious amounts with a loved one.

PS: Did I mention how amazing my bf is?

I’ve got to wait for someone to wake up so I can cut into this baby and finish the shoot. But here’s a preview:

Ooohh yeah. It’s pumpkin pie AND cheesecake. Did I mention the oreo crust?

This is the naked version. Before consumption, it was slathered with maple whipped cream.

Is there a rule against delayed posting? Like a digital expiration date? Is it cheating for me to post this if it’s from Thanksgiving? Not that it is of course…I just happened to shoot it in exactly the same as the pecan pie trifles—I’m that good.

So I planned on making the cheesecake and pumpkin layers about 50/50…but I kind of forgot that adding a cup and a half of pumpkin would actually increase volume (surprise)—that and I’m apparently pretty bad at eyeballing amounts. Fortunately, I think it still worked out.

Also I subbed in condensed milk instead of regular sugar for a more classic pumpkin pie taste/texture (what doesn’t improve when you add more dairy to it?)

Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake (modified from Allrecipes.com)

Makes 1 cheesecake (one mega awesome cheesecake).
Plan to make a few days ahead to give the flavors time to develop.

Oreo Crust

• 2 sleeves of Oreos (or generic equivalent), blended into crumbs*
• 4-6 tbs of butter, melted

1. Combine crumbs and butter and press into a 9” (I think I used my 13”) springform pan. Press a little up the sides of the pan and then wrap the bottom in tin foil—you wanna catch all that awesome caramel-ey butter that leaks through.

*I would have used 3 sleeves (the whole package) if the 3rd sleeve weren’t already in my stomach at that point…

Filling

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 14oz can condensed milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract AND/or 2 tbs real maple syrup (I think you know what you should do)
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree*
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon**
• 1 pinch ground cloves**
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg**

1. Combine cream cheese, condensed milk, and vanilla/syrup. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 1/2 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.
2. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.
3. Bake in preheated 325 oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Turn oven off, open door, and let the cheesecake just chill out in the oven for awhile. Once cool, refrigerate at least overnight. Even better if you wait a few days.

Maple Whipped Cream
(I would say this is optional, but it’s not)

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 - 2 tbs real maple syrup

1. Whip the cream and syrup until stiff peaks form. Slather/pipe/eat off of hands onto the whole cheesecake or to individual slices.

*I make my own pumpkin puree by cutting a pie pumpkin in half, putting it shell side up on a baking sheet and roasting at about 325 for an hour or so. The flesh scoops right out. If you’d rather be lazy take a shortcut, you can use canned, but I can’t vouch for the flavor. Also, the original recipe called for a measly 1/2 cup. What’s that? Pshh. If I’m using pumpkin, I’m gonna actually use it. If you’re not a pumpkin fan, decrease the amount (or maybe don’t make recipes with “pumpkin” in the title).

**I didn’t really measure my spices, but I usually amp up the amounts. So start with what’s listed and try the batter to see if it needs more flavor.

Hope you enjoy!