Homemade strawberry cheesecake
27 Apr
For this month’s Daring Bakers challenge, our mission was to make cheesecake. I read through the recipe and learned that it would require at least a couple of hours, plus chill time in the fridge.
Guest photo by Edmond H. Lee
I followed the recipe – preheated the oven, creamed the ingredients together, made the crust, added to spring pan, then placed it in oven.
After clearing all the dishes, I found an egg hiding behind my stand mixer, on my counter top. How did that get in there? That’s when I realized that I forgot to add the third egg!
It tasted ok, but I’m sure it would have been superbly delicious, had I not made that huge mistake! 
But the good news is that I have the privilege of showing you some great photos by my friend and guest photographer, Edmond H. Lee. More on that later – let’s get back to the recipe!
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.
From Jenny Bakes
Crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs (I needed about 3 cups)
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 / 383 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (I used the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake
Directions:
1. Heat 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.
6. Decorate with fruit and whipped cream!
Guest photo by Edmond H. Lee, whipped cream piping by Sara
Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil “casserole” shaped pans from the grocery store. They’re 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.
Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!
Guest photo by Edmond H. Lee
