Monday, April 27, 2009

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DB: Oreo Cheesecake

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

I absolutely loved this month's selection. After making the lasagna last month it was nice to get back to baking sweets. The cheesecake was your basic cheesecake, but the challenge was to make it unique. The cheesecake was a perfect canvas for whatever dessert you wanted to create. I tried to recreate one of my favorite cheesecakes with the homemade Oreos I made. The Oreo cheesecake tasted amazing. I've already talked about how great I though the Oreo recipe was, so I need to tell you about this cheesecake...it's divine! It's the creamiest cheesecake I have ever tasted. The cheesecake is incredibly rich, but not overly sweet. I really can't think of another word to describe this cheesecake other than creamy. The batter was pretty liquidy so I didn't expect the end product to be so thick. I was even more impressed that my cake didn't crack and that the cookies didn't sink. This cake was a complete success :)

Thanks for your selection Jenny! Don't forget to check out the fabulous Daring Kitchen site!
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.

Served with Oreos

Ultra creamy

10 comments:

vibi said...

How cool! you used your home made Oreos! Nice touch!

pinkstripes said...

I love that you used your own homemade oreos. HOw awesome!

Jamie said...

That looks really really good...the oreos are too cute!

TeaLady said...

Steph - that looks fantastic. And made your own cookies. Wowza!!! Great job on this challenge.

Mermaid Sews said...

This looks terrific and even more special with homemade oreos.

Flourchild said...

This looks so good. I make homemade oreos too. My family loves them. I try to make them just at Christmas time though!

Heather said...

Oreos with cheesecake - how divine! Your cheesecake looks delicious.

Unknown said...

Those oreos are so cute! I

Unknown said...

Beautifully done. I love how creamy this cheesecake is too. Are you going to post your recipe for homemade oreos? They look so cute. Thanks for being a part of the April Daring Baker's Challenge!

Jenny of JennyBakes

Elyse said...

Mmm, I love Oreo Cheesecake. What a perfect use for those homemade oreos of yours. Looks delicious. Hope law school exams are going well! I transferred law schools to be with my boyfriend, so if you ever have any questions about the transfer process, let me know :) I'm in the midst of exams, too. Hope yours are going well! Can't wait til they're over.