23.2.12

Perfecting my cheesecake recipe


My Mum used to make the world's best cheesecake. Hands down. Don't even argue with me. But it's an expensive dessert to make so we wouldn't have it often and now it's become synonymous with me for special occasions, so I think of it as a real treat.

My beloved Mum passed away in 2003 and although she left me a book of her handwritten recipes, this one isn't included, so whilst I've tried to make cheesecake before they've always ended up missing the mark or not being quite right.

And then, whilst browsing one of my favourite baking websites I came across a recipe for New York baked cheesecake. When I read the ingredients list I realised that this was very similar to Mum's recipe and as I specifically remembered her 'tweaks' (a baker lives by their own recipe tweaks) and I knew I had to give it a go.

So last weekend I made a proper cheesecake. And it was amazing! I use the term 'was' loosely as I'm still enjoying a mouthful as we speak...but it's so creamy and the additional vanilla bean flecks I added were especially delightful as they gave the cheesecake a whole new depth. I didn't make the sour cream topping in the recipe, I'm more of a naked cheesecake fan but you could team this with seasonal berries, oreo crust, dark chocolate sauce etc etc.

I did get the dreaded 'crack' in the cheesecake once it was cooled but I figure homebaking isn't homebaking without the authentic look now is it?

2 comments:

  1. Oooh I love cheesecake, I have never made it though as my mother in laws is something I have to live up to and I am not sure I can cope with failure. Really like the idea of a baked cheesecake (don't think I've ever had it) so might give this a try.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh definitely have a go at this recipe then, it's quite easy to throw together and the key is too cook it on a low temp for a long time. My others have been failures so this is a revelation to me! Good luck with yours :)

    ReplyDelete