Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Daring Lime Cheesecake



Hoo-boy did I drop the ball this month. I should've had this baby up a couple days ago. I'll resist from blaming it on homework (but it was homework's fault. stupid homework.)

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Jenny chose quite the delicious recipe, I will admit. It was a little too rich for me, so I did change it up a little bit.

I replaced the heavy cream with evaporated milk and halved the butter in the crust. I also replaced the extracts and flavorings in the original recipe with fresh squeezed lime juice and added lime zest to the graham cracker crust.



It was delicious.

I let myself eat two pieces before sacrificing it to the trash can gods.

I'm on a diet here, people. (Whoo - lost 12 pounds!) I can't be eating cheesecakes for weeks on end.

Which is how long I would've been eating it because I wasn't smart enough to halve the recipe.

This was a very good cheesecake. It was a very good recipe. Jenny was a great host. Be sure to check out her blog and the rest of the Daring Bakers on the Daring Bakers Blogroll.



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.

9 comments:

The Duo Dishes said...

Kudos to you on your weight loss and having the balls to make half a cheesecake. The smartest idea of them all! You're asking for trouble with something like this sitting in the fridge.

Para i familiaku said...

I would love to be the trash can gods!! so that I can much up the cheesecake in no time..

I love cheesecakes, I plan on making a mango cheesecake this weekend, since it is mango season here in the islands. I will probably try and use your cheesecake recipe...

YUMMY..

Jude said...

That is one pretty lime picture. Congrats on losing the weight! I know it's not easy. I'm almost ready to go shirtless without dying from embarrassment.

katie said...

Yeah homework sucks. Cheesecake is better! I hate-hate!-having to throw away an entire dessert because no one will come and eat it up. Watch me make banana pudding tomorrow and throw it all in the trash. Ugh.

TA先生 said...

This would have been better only with the inclusion of more coconut, as all things are made better with the inclusion of such. The exclusivity of this potential improvement should make it clear that this was a rather fine cheesecake to begin with. Thank you for cooking it! :D (小心拉肚子)

Audax Artifex said...

Just love the pix. Don't worry about the deadline to much they don't check the blogs until the end of month. (1st check 3 days after the deadline and the 2nd check one week after the deadline so you made it in I would think). Beautiful flavour lime I just the lime zests on the cake and plate. Hope all the homework was worth it. Yours from Audax in Australia

Unknown said...

My, your photos are gorgeous! Such a shame you had to trash the rest of the cake, but I understand. I've done the same. It looks wonderful!

Anonymous said...

Looks delish!! You should have invited the neighbors over for a snack LOL!! Shame to waste it, but good for you for having the willpower to do it!! (me, not so much LOL!)
:) D

Unknown said...

Yum, this looks beautiful. I just love lime (and any citrus) with this cheesecake! Thanks for being part of the challenge.

Jenny of JennyBakes