Martha Stewart's New York style Cheesecake

I meant to post this over the weekend but it's been really hectic around here (and I've got really uncooperative wifi at the moment). Sunday was especially crazy with the hot windy weather causing a huge fire to flare up near my house. Originally it was headed in our direction, so everyone but my Dad and brother in law evacuated to my sister's house. Luckily (for us) the wind changed not long after we'd left and caused the fire to head away from us. We spent the day watching the ABC news channel and listening to the water bombers (helicopters) fly back and forth over the house and trying to entertain 5 very young kids.

 Mum, Dad and I were came home Sunday night and it was so eerie driving through the burnt area and seeing the whole horizon glowing from the fire. On the one hand we were so so lucky that the wind changed and sent the fire in a different direction but I feel terrible for all those other people who have been effected by the fires. They're still going after a couple of days and I'm just hoping that all those amazing fire-fighters are able to put them out.

It's crazy to think only a day before all of this, on Saturday, we were all together as a family celebrating my Mum's birthday. Mum loves cheesecakes so I decided to try this Martha Stewart recipe for New York style cheesecake. There's a lot of cream cheese in this and it makes a huge cheesecake so you could probably half the recipe to make a smaller one. It's a great recipe though, and it went perfectly with the ice cream and strawberries one of my sisters brought over. 

Ingredients:
FOR THE CRUST-
1 packet of Marie biscuits
6 tbsp butter, melted; plus more for pan
2 tbsp sugar
Pinch salt
FOR THE CAKE - 
3.5 lb (1.5kg) cream cheese, room temperature
2 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup plain flour
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 large eggs, room temperature
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Butter the sides of a large springform pan. Wrap exterior of pan (including base) in a double layer of foil.
2. To make the crust, process biscuits in a food processor until fine. Combine biscuit crumbs, butter, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Transfer mixture to the pan and pat into an even layer. Freeze the dough in the pan for about 15 minutes. Plan the pan on a baking sheet and bake until the crust is firm to touch and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire wrack to cool completely.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the cream cheese on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and flour. With mixer on low speed, gradually add sugar mixture to cream cheese; mix until smooth. Add sour cream and vanilla; mix until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined; don't over mix.
5. Pour cream cheese filling into the prepared pan. Set pan inside a large, shallow roasting pan. Carefully pour boiling water into roasting pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the springform pan.
6. Bake for 45 minutes; reduce oven temperature to 160 degrees Celsius. Continue baking until cake is set but still slightly wobbly in the centre, about 30 minutes more. Turn off oven; leave the cake in the oven with the door slightly ajar, about 1 hour. Transfer the pan to a wire rack; let cake cool completely. Refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 6 hours or overnight. Before unmolding, run a knife around the edge of the cake.

Mini Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

Firstly, I'm going to have to start off another post with an apology. I know it's been a long time since I've posted and hopefully I'm going to be able to catch up on posts in the near future. To be honest, though, I haven't been cooking as much as I usually do. Well, when it comes to things I can blog about anyway. This has been for a couple of reasons, but the main two are that I'm saving up for an overseas trip at the end of the year (New York!!) plus I've been trying to eat healthier meals and less snacks. So you can see why I haven't had many things I could blog about! But, I'm not going to let this stop me from blogging. My plan is to share some more budget friendly meal options and less of the usual treats you might have become used to seeing. Well apart from today's post, as you can see!
These cheesecakes were a great last minute recipe for a BBQ I was invited to. They were super easy to make and turned out beautifully (thanks Martha!). My sister didn't need to be asked twice when I offered to leave the 6 leftover cheesecakes for her and her partner to eat. I made it a little more affordable by halving the recipe - there was only 9 of us at the BBQ, so the full recipe for 30 cheesecakes (plus the lemon meringue pie my Mum made) would have been a little over the top!
Ingredients: (for the full recipe)
42 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped
900g (2 pounds) cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 135C (275F). Line muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-filled cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, about 22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate (still in tins) at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Recipe Source:
Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
Recipe for 'Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes'

Mini Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes Ingredients: (for the full recipe) 42 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped 900g (2 pounds) cream cheese 1 cup sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 4 large eggs, lightly beaten 1 cup sour cream Pinch of salt Method: 1. Preheat oven to 135C (275F). Line muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup. 2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla. 3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand. 4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-filled cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, about 22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate (still in tins) at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Baked Caramel Cheesecake with a Ginger-Pecan Crust

This was the other treat that I made for Christmas Day. It's a well loved recipe in my family and my Mum gets asked to make it all the time! I've never made it before, but when we were deciding who would make what for Christmas my sisters (practically begged) asked me to make it. I decided to mix things up a little by swapping the simple chocolate biscuit and butter crust for the lovely ginger pecan crust from this Pumpkin Cheesecake. And it really did work!

Ingredients:

Crust Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/8 cup pecans
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup cold butter
1 tbsp cold water

Filling Ingredients:
500g cream cheese
2 eggs
200g caramel jerseys
1 tbsp water
2/3 cup cream

125g dark chocolate

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Add the flour, brown sugar, salt, pecans and ginger to a food processor and blend until fine crumbs form.

Cut your cold butter into cubes and add to the food processor. Blend until crumbs form. Add the water and blend until the mixture comes together in clumps as a dough. Press the dough evenly into the bottom of a prepared spring form pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool completely. Reduce your oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
To prepare the filling - mix the cream cheese in a mixer with a paddle beater until creamy. Add eggs and mix until combined.

Using a double saucepan melt the jersey caramels with 1 tbsp water.

Let the caramel cool a little before adding the cream and stirring. Add the caramel to the cream cheese and mix until combined. Pour the mixture over the base and cook for 50 minutes or until the middle of the cheesecake is set.

Remove cheesecake from the oven and allow to cool completely. Then over a double saucepan melt your dark chocolate. Once melted pour and spread the chocolate over the top of the cheesecake. Refrigerate until the chocolate is set.

Baked Caramel Cheesecake with Ginger Pecan Crust Crust Ingredients: 1 cup plain flour 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar 1/8 cup pecans 1/4 tsp ground ginger 1/2 cup cold butter 1 tbsp cold water Filling Ingredients: 500g cream cheese 2 eggs 200g caramel jerseys 1 tbsp water 2/3 cup cream 125g dark chocolate Method: 1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Add flour, brown sugar, salt, pecans and ginger to a food processor and blend until the pecans are finely ground. Add cold butter and process until crumbs form. Add 1tbsp water and process in bursts until the dough starts to come together to form clumps. Press the dough evenly into the bottom of your prepared pan. 2. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool completely and reduce oven temperature to 160 degrees. 3. To prepare the filling, first add the cream cheese to the bowl of your mixer with a paddle beater, and mix until creamy. Add the eggs and mix further until combined. 4. Over a double saucepan melt the caramel jerseys with 1tbsp of water. Let the caramel cool a little before stirring in the cream. Add the caramel to the cream cheese and mix until combined. Pour the mixture over the crust and cook for 50 minutes, or until the middle of the cheesecake is set. 5. Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. 6. In a double saucepan, melt the dark chocolate and pour over the top of the cooled cheesecake. Refrigerate until the chocolate is set.

Lindt Chocolate Easter Cheesecake

Easter for me, growing up, has always meant camping and lots and lots of chocolate. Year after year my parents would pack myself and my three sisters into the car and we'd drive up to the Murray River to camp amongst all the other tents lining the banks of the river. We always had so much fun, there were countless other kids to play with and I loved riding my bike around the dirt tracks and playing in the sand. The weather was always beautiful there with warm sunny days, and cold nights spent next to a huge warm fire. On Easter morning we'd always wake up to find piles of Easter eggs and bunnies at the end of our beds. While, after a while, our camping trips slowly died off - mainly due to the river becoming too crowded over the Easter period - the tradition of waking up on Easter morning to find the 'Easter Bunny' had visited never died off. In fact, just this Sunday I woke up to find a box of my favourite Lindt Stracciatella balls and a white chocolate Cadbury bunny sitting on my bedside table. Which was why, when my sister decided to have a family lunch at her house on Easter Sunday and asked me to make something for dessert, I immediately knew that I had to try to make something chocolatey and extremely decadent! And this recipe that I found, for a Lindt chocolate Cheesecake fit both of those categories. 

Ingredients:

1 pack chocolate biscuits

575g cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla

100ml cream

4 eggs

80g unsalted butter, melted

50g sour cream

200g Lindt 70% Cocoa

140g Caster Sugar

pinch sea salt

6 Lindt Gourmet Eggs

6 Lindt Lindor Balls

To make:

1. Preheat the oven to 120ºC
2. For the base, place biscuits in a food processor and blend until ground reasonably fine. Mix in enough melted butter for mixture to just bind together, press evenly over base of lightly greased tin and smooth it with the back of a spoon. Set aside.

3. For the cheesecake mixture, place cream cheese into an electric mixer and mix until softened. Once the cheese is softened, mix in the sour cream and sugar, continue mixing until smooth.

4. Place cream into a saucepan and gently bring to the boil, remove from heat once boiling. Break up the chocolate and mix into cream, stir until melted and set aside to cool slightly.

5. Mix chocolate into the cheese mixture and once again scrape down sides.

6. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

7. Pour enough cheesecake mixture into the springform to cover the base.

8. Unwrap the gourmet eggs and the Lindor balls and arrange Lindor in a circle in the centre with a circle of gourmet eggs surrounding the Lindor.

9. Gently cover Lindor and eggs with a little cheese cake mixture and lightly tap springform to avoid air pockets.
10. Pour in remaining cheesecake and once again lightly tap

11. Place springform into a deep baking tray and pour about 2 cm deep hot water into the base of the tray. This will aid the cooking process and prevent the cake from becoming dry and crumbly.
12. Bake cheesecake for approximately 60 minutes. The cake is ready when it is set on the sides but remains slightly soft in the centre.
13. Completely cool cake in the springform tin.

And here's the finished product. Let me just say....this cheesecake was delicious! I've never actually tasted a chocolate cheesecake before this one, but it was so smooth and rich and the Lindt balls just added that little bit more decadence! I went to the Lindt store in Melbourne the day before Easter Sunday to buy the Lindt balls and eggs but they didn't have any eggs left so I just used all Lindor balls. I got a couple of different flavours though - some milk chocolate, some milk/white ones and some cookies and cream. Delish!

Recipe Source:
Yahoo Food
Lindt Easter Cheesecake