As usual (and much to our delight), Lauren and I were charged with dessert for Easter dinner. Last year we made this Easter Bunny cake.

This year we went with New York style mini-cheesecakes. Lauren has three sets of mini cheesecake pans for just this sort of thing and generally we used a completely different recipe for the minis than we use for the big ones. A typical mini cheesecake batter uses about 5 blocks of cream cheese and makes about 36 of these bite-sized cheesecakes. 36 and thats it. So the plan was to make 36, give a bunch of them to Lauren's roommate and take the rest to my parents' house for Easter dinner. However we quickly found out that using the New York style batter to make mini cheesecakes was going result in a whole lot more. We made 36 mini cheesecakes and barely put a dent in the batter.

Rather than do any more minis, we took the remaining batter and made a 9 inch cheesecake, which we took to my parents house for Easter. We left a tray of about 18 mini cheesecakes in her refrigerator.

I am so sick of cheesecake. I'm hoping Lauren takes the remaining minis and drops them off at work.

Lauren decorated the big cheesecake with peaches, strawberries and blueberries with picket fences made from white chocolate Candy Kwik. The little one above was also supposed to have its own picket fence Easter basket decoration, but we were so cheesecaked out that we didn't even bother once we decided not to take them to Easter dinner.

In case it was unclear, the recipe for this cheesecake is the exact same as the one I previously posted for New York style cheesecake. Only this time we baked it at the correct temperature, so the top didn't get hideously browned.

Today is Lauren's birthday (Happy Birthday!) and the (ridiculous) tradition at her work is that you bring in a treat for the office on your birthday. That seems like a kick in the crotch to me, but whatever. We debated making mini-cheesecakes (Lauren's specialty) but decided against it because of the rather large amounts of cooling and storage space needed to make enough for an office. Instead we settled on one 10 inch New York Style cheesecake. My problem with it is that it is so rich that about 25% of it gets wasted by people whose eyes are bigger than their stomach. It doesn't matter how many times you warn them, at least one person cuts into it like its a slice of pizza.

Its been since Christmas since we've made a cheesecake, a fairly long drought by our standards. So I really want a piece of this one. Lauren has agreed to cut us a slice after she presents it to her office. On to the recipe:

To make a New York Style cheesecake you're going to want to use a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer. Other recipes can be made with a powered hand mixer, but this one is so cream cheese intensive that you'll risk burning out your motor. Trust us, its happened before.

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 7 packages cream cheese (8oz, room temperature)
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 cup sour cream (room temperature)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 5 large egg yolks and whites (separated)
• 1 stick (4oz) unsalted butter (melted)
• 1 sleeve graham crackers (crushed)
• 1 sleeve/row Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies (crushed)
• Large sheet, heavy duty aluminum foil
• 1 disposable turkey roasting pan (or 13 x 9 in glass pan)
• 1 10 inch spring form pan
  

Preheat the oven to 350, and boil a large pot of water (approximately 6 quarts). Wrap the exterior bottom of a 10 inch spring form pan with your aluminum foil in a such a way that you believe the seams of your pan are "sealed" from water. Basically you want to wrap one solid layer on the bottom of your pan around the seams, and then 2-3 more sheets half way around the bottom and up the sides so that your flat sheet is insulated from the water. When you get to the water bath step you're going to want your water about halfway up the side of your pan, so wrap your foil above that area. Mix the cookies and graham crackers with the melted butter and press into the bottom of a foil wrapped 9-inch spring form pan. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes-15 minutes. Remove and let cool.

Take your 7 blocks of cream cheese, add them to your mixing bowl and beaten until no lumps remain. The beaten cream cheese will be sticky and firm, like spreadable cream cheese. Whisk together your flour and sugar, then on low speed add the sugar mixture to your beaten cream cheese in a slow steady stream (or multiple installments). As this mixes in, the batter should become softer and smoother. Remove the bowl from the mixer and scrape the sides, checking for any lumps of unmixed cream cheese.

Next add the sour cream and vanilla, mixing on low speed until smooth. Add the egg yolks one at a time on low speed, until just mixed (you see no yellow streaks). Be careful not to overmix at this point, lest your cake become dense, heavy and prone to cracking.

Transfer your cheesecake filling to a large mixing bowl and clean out your stand's mixing bowl. Using the whipping attachment, whip your egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form. By hand, fold the egg whites into the cheesecake filling.

Transfer your completed cheesecake filling into your spring form pan, leaving a small amount of space (1/8th inch) between the filling and the rim of the pan, so your cake can crown early in the bake without overflowing. Shake the pan side to side a little to remove any large air pockets. If you have extra filling that will not fit, that is ok. Sometimes it all fits, other times it does not. It sort of depends on how much air you leave in the batter. In batter form this cheesecake filling may not taste as sweet as you might expect. That is normal. Your finished cheesecake will not taste exactly that way.

Take your boiling water and pour it into your roasting pan. You'll want the water to rise halfway up your spring form, or at the very least not higher than your aluminum foil. If you are not using a roasting pan or your spring form will not fit, pour the water into a 13 x 9 inch pan and place that pan on the rack below your cheesecake. Should you decide to use a glass pan, make sure the water and the glass are of a similar temperature before you pour the water in. Also worth noting is that if your cheesecake and water bath are separate, make sure you use a little less water so that it still boils off and evaporates. The moisture from the evaporating water will keep the cake moist.

Bake your cheesecake in the center of the oven at 350 for 45 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 325 for an additional 30 minutes. When the top is golden brown and the center is firm but slightly jiggly to the touch, turn the oven off, leave the oven door ajar and let the cheesecake sit for one hour. After one hour remove the cheesecake, let it cool completely (about 2 hours, uncovered). Refrigerate the cake (in the pan) for 4-6 hours or overnight. Before removing the spring form ring, run a knife around the outside of the cake to prevent sticking.

You'll notice the lack of baking soda, baking powder and (relatively speaking) flour. The absence of these things makes cheesecake baking a fairly inexact science. It is entirely possible that your cheesecake may require closer to double the amount of baking time. That is fine. It is pretty difficult to overcook a cheesecake. So long as your top isn't splitting while its baking, you can give or take an extra 20-30 minutes of bake time in lieu of resting it in the oven with the door ajar. If your top starts browning severely, lay some aluminum foil over the top of it. If you notice your cheesecake growing a top hat (aka separation between the crowned filling at the top of the spring form ring exposing the pure interior around the edges, don't worry. As the cake cools, the top will deflate and the "hat" will disappear.

Further proof that cheesecake is an inexact science lies in these pictures. The rich, dark brown top you're seeing is the result of a mistake with the oven. "We" set the temperature to 425 for the first hour, before realizing the temperature should be 325 or 350. The result was an overdone top, but as you can see that didn't affect the lower portions of the cake. The superficial remedy for this mistake was to fill the center of the cake with sauteed/caramelized apple slices and decorate the outer edges with whipped cream (not pictured).

I am sure there are dozens more tips and tricks I could offer, but this is neither the first nor the last cheesecake I'll have on this blog, so for now I'll just leave this post as is.

For dessert today my family will be having this Pumpkin Turtle Cheesecake that I stumbled upon in the checkout lane of the grocery store. The recipe is from the Pillsbury Thanksgiving Classics Cookbook.

Crust
* 1 1/2 cups chocolate graham crackers (slightly more than 1 sleeve)
* 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

Filling
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
* 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
* 4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 2/3 cup granulated sugar
* 5 eggs

Topping

* 1/2 cup pecans (or walnuts), toasted and chopped
* 2 ounces bittersweet baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 1 cup caramel topping

Mix the crushed graham grackers and melted butter to make the crust. Spread the crust in the bottom of your springform pan and compact it with something wide and flat (I used the bottom of a coffee mug). Pre-bake at 300 for 8-10 minutes.

Using an electric mixer mix the room temperature cream cheese, making sure to get rid of any lumps. Add eggs one at a time while, scraping the bowl in between to avoid lumps and promote a homogeneous mixture. Add sugar and continue to mix. With the brown sugar be sure to break up any hard sugar balls with your fingers. The mixer won't do the job.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, pumpkin spice and pumpkin filling.

Add the pumpkin filling to your cheesecake filling and mix thoroughly. Your end result should appear to be a very light orange with freckles typical of a pumpkin pie. Don't worry if the batter doesn't taste good on its own. Some cheesecake is like that. This is one of them.

The recipe calls for a 75-85 minute bake at 300 degrees. I use a steam bath for my cheesecakes so I pushed the temperature to 325. Every cheesecake is different, so either way you should bake for about 70 minutes and then check periodically to see if the cheesecake is set and golden around the edges and slightly firm in the middle.

Cool at room temperature for 2 hours, and in the refrigerator for 4 additional hours (or overnight).

For the topping I chopped and toasted (aka sauteed) walnuts and set them on top. Then I steam melted (stainless steel mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water) a 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, dipped the tines of a fork in the melted chocolate and pretended to write cursive over top of the cheesecake. Same with the caramel (though I used the microwave). That gave it the wacky, artfully out of control look you see.Later tonight or tomorrow, I'll add an update to the bottom of this post and let you know what I thought about its taste.

Final Verdict:
Not as sweet as regular cheesecake, not as pumpkin as pumpkin pie. So in the end it sort of leaves you pining for both. A decent recipe, but not anything to write home about. The guests enjoyed it more than I did, but I felt like they would have been more impressed by a normal cheesecake with similar toppings.