April 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge #29: Cheesecake Centerpiece, Cafe au lait cheesecake with caramel sauce

The April 2009 challenge is Cheesecake Centerpiece, the main idea is the cheese cake challenge for anyone who never make cheese cake before and the variation for the one who want to play with cheese cake.

Anyway, because I had made cheese cake before this challenge, so I decide to play with the variation. I choose to make Cafe au lait cheesecake with caramel sauce, you might know my reason, haha (my Mom love coffee, and my sister love caramel, so I have my customers, ^ ^).

But I reduced the portion of the recipe, I make only 1/3 of it. I use little cake pan (10cm) but make a silly mistake >*<, I installed the base of the pan wrong side up, and I couldn't take the cake of of the base of the pan. So, you can see that my cake still attach with the base, haha. For the caramel sauce, I use my basic one, and if your be loving recipe just use it.

I have to admit it's fun to play with cheese cake, and this cafe au lait one is very good too.

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

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:
Coffee cheese cake with caramel sauce

10 cm X 2	Full portion
Crust:
60g	2 cups / 180 g	Graham cracker crumbs
40g	1 stick / 4 oz	Butter, melted
8g	2 tbsp. / 24 g	Sugar
⅓tsp	1 tsp.	Vanilla extract
Cheesecake:
8 oz	24 oz	Cream cheese, room temperature
70g	1 cup / 210 g	Sugar
1	3	Large eggs
75ml	1 cup / 8 oz	Heavy cream
1½ tsp	1-2 tbsp	Instant coffee
1tsp	1 tbsp.	Lemon juice
1tsp	1 tbsp.	Vanilla extract
1tsp	1 tbsp	Coffee Liqueur
Caramel
75g	150g	Sugar
½ tsp	1tsp	Water
½ cup	1 cup	Whipping cream

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.

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, (for the small portion 20-30 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.

** Cafe au lait cheesecake with caramel - take 1/4 cup of the heavy cream (for small portion take 2 tbsp of cream) and heat it in the microwave for a short amount of time until very hot. Add 1-2 tbsp. instant espresso or instant coffee; stir to dissolve. Add this to the remainder of cream and use as normal. Top cheesecake with homemade caramel sauce

Make the caramel sauce:

Combine the sugar and water in a heavy saucepan and stir well to mix. Put the cream and salt in a second small saucepan (or put in the microwave proved measuring cup). Place the first pan on medium heat and cook undisturbed until the sugar begins to melt and caramelize-you’ll see a few wisps of smoke coming out of the sugar. Reduce the heat to low and stir occasionally so that the sugar melts and caramelizes evenly. Remove it from the heat when the caramel is still very pale (the sugar will continue to darken off the heat). Slide the pan with the cream onto the burner. As soon as the cream has some bubbles around the edge (if using microwave put the cup in the microwave and heat for 40 seconds), add it to the caramel at arm’s length, averting your face—the caramel will boil up and may splatter out of the pan. Pour the diluted caramel into a medium bowl and cool it to room temperature.

April 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge #29: Cheesecake Centerpiece,
Cafe au lait cheesecake with caramel sauce