Tuesday 13 March 2012

Cheesecake

Purple stumbled across an interesting recipe for Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars and we thought we’d give it a whirl…

Only, _Graham crackers_ aren’t something commonly gotten in Australia, and even managing with the best available substitutes, “a packet” is not a standard unit of measurement, even in the US, as far as I could determine from googling.

So, using the recipe as inspiration, we made something completely different.

Dulce de Leche is also something not so easy to come by, and it’s an expensive specialty item… lucky for me, I know you can take ye olde tin of homebrand sweetened condensed milk, and simmer it (the whole, unopened tin) in a pot of water for about 2 hours – make sure to keep topping up the water so it doesn’t boil dry, et voila! Dulce de Leche!

So start with a few digestive biscuits of some variety. Chocolate Tiny Teddy biscuits work, and I imagine Tim Tams would would really well. Crush up enough biscuits to make about a cup of biscuit crumbs, blend in a couple spoons of sugar and enough softened butter to make it kind of hold together, in a crumbly sort of way. Press this into a 20cm square pan and bake in the oven 160C for 10 mins. Take it out of the oven to cool.

Meanwhile, blend a couple of tubs of cream cheese in the food processer, then add in half a cup of sugar and a couple of free-range eggs. Lick the spoon liberally. Then we added in a small splash of vanilla extract and – the secret weapon ingredient; home made coffee liqueur.

Spread the Dulce de Leche onto the cooled biscuit base, and then pour the cheesecake filling on to that. spread it carefully, and pop it back into the oven for 50 minutes. Then you have to wait for it to cool, but you can occupy yourself with licking the bowl and making sure the home-made coffee liqueur hasn’t gone bad.

For the final topping, make ganache – heat cream till boiling, then pour into a bowl with an equal weight of broken up chocolate, whisk till the chocolate is fully melted in and creamy. Spread a thin layer of this on top of the cheesecake and refrigerate for a while (how long it takes to watch an episode of Firefly and finish off the coffee liqueur should be enough).

Ready to cut and serve!!! OMG soooooooo good

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5 comments:

  1. Aww, I like cheescake so much, thank you for the baking recipe:-)

    Warm regards

    ~Orianne~

    ReplyDelete
  2. For the crust::
    150 g flour
    1 tsp baking powder
    1 pinch(es) salt
    2 tsp vanilla extract
    1 medium egg, beaten
    50 g granulated sugar
    100 g butter
    For the Filling:
    3 medium eggs, yolks and whites separated
    150 g granulated sugar
    2 tsp vanilla extract
    100 g butter, melted
    180 ml whipping cream
    500 g cottage cheese, pureed
    1 ½ tbsp cornstarch

    Method

    Crust:
    Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add in vanilla and butter and beat to a smooth consistency with the egg. Place dough in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

    Preheat oven to 150°C. Grease a springform pan.

    Roll out the dough on a well-floured work surface, then form it into a ball again and roll it out a second time. Place dough in bottom springform pan, pressing it up the sides almost to the top. Set aside.

    Filling:
    Combine the egg yolks with the sugar and vanilla and beat until pale and foamy. Add the butter and cream and beat again. Add the pureed cheese and stir until the mixture is smooth and throughly combined.

    Whisk the egg whites with the salt until very stiff, then very gently fold in the quark mixture. Add sifted cornstarch a little at a time.

    Pour the filling evenly into the crust shell.

    Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until well risen and golden.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am so drooling right now. We go back to the US in one week and I can't wait to bake with graham crackers again!

    ReplyDelete
  4. OMG!! this sounds and looks heavenly. Purple, I think I love you for finding this and MF, I love you for blogging it!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your lovely words, witty banter and entertaining discussion :)