Monday, April 27, 2009

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

tsp

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

8 comments:

  1. I know there's not a word more recurant than "WOW"? ...but I can't help it it, that's simply what came out... when I opened your post! WOW!

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  2. It looks delicious. This was my favorite variation of those I try. Something about the combination of coffee with cheesecake, just so good. Thanks for being a part of the April Daring Baker's Challenge!

    Jenny of JennyBakes

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  3. nice pictures! your cheesecake looks so good!
    juliana

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  4. Mm that sounds so delicious! And you have beautiful photos, I especially like that one of the caramel sauce being poured over the cheesecake. Great job!

    /another Jenny :)

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  5. I tried this recipe...but I really messed it up because I've beaten the heavy cream...lol

    Anyways,thank you very much for your great recipes!And your pictures are also too cute!

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  6. I think I juussst might be able to do so. Do you think I can use 3 tsp of the hot tea (but already cooled) to replace lemon juice, vanilla and coffee liqueur (10cmx2 portion). If so, at which step do you think I shall add them?

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  7. Yes, I think you can use tea, just add it in the last step.

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  8. I arranged the strawberries around the edge of the cheesecake and melted the chocolate, tempering it all ghetto-style by melting half in the microwave and mixing in the rest of it in until it was smooth. I had to re-melt it a couple times so certain pieces weren’t as nice as the first ones, but I had fun swirling shapes. I made one piece look (sort of) like a strawberry and stuck it to the giant swirl that I stood in the middle of the cheesecake.



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