Cheesecake success! Thanks to everyone who shared recipes and ideas with me.....

B

barbara-in-va

Well-known member
I did end of making a sorta turtle cheesecake as suggested by DawnNYS and GayleMO. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to do one with a layer of caramel on the bottom topped with a layer of chocolate, topped with plain cheesecake batter. So, I tried this, I made Joe's caramel as suggested by AngAK and it turned out soooo delicious but I was afraid that it was a bit too thin to use as a bottom layer. I ended up doing the melted caramel thing. That one turned out substantially thicker. May have just been my cooking technique (ha!) not sure. So the Kraft caramel mixture went on the top of the Famous Chocolate Wafer cookie crust topped by some Trader Joe's melted bittersweet chocolate mixed with a few T of cream. Then came the regular cheesecake, I used the recipe from Cooks Illustrated Oct 95 (I think) and it was delicious! I decorated with chocolate dipped pecan halves stuck to the cake rim with some of Joe's caramel. I brought the rest of Joe's caramel in a jar to offer as extra topping and they practically ate it right out of the jar with a spoon!

As we were quite a crowd, I made a second cake just to be sure there was enough for everyone. I made the Black & White Alice Medrich recipe that GayR posted and it too was a success. I am not as talented at making the marble swirls as Alice is but it sure was a delicious cake!

I brought home empty plates and many requests for the recipes! So thank you all for your help, I appreciate it a lot.

Barbara

 
Barbara, the sauce should be runny--you made it just right. If you liked Julia's caramel sauce,

check out her chocolate sauce below.

"Sorta Turtle Cheesecake," I think you've invented a keeper here!

 
Oh, I almost forgot, a great trick from Alice Medrich to prevent cracks....

Instead of leaving the cheesecake in the oven after it has cooked, Alice instructs you to remove the cake from the oven, place on a cooling rack and cover with a large, inverted mixing bowl. I am thinking this keeps some of the moisture in and prevents the cake from cracking? If that was the goal, it works! No cracked cake!

 
Another tip for no-crack cheesecake...

Alice's method works well in part, I'm guessing, because it seems to encourage a slower cooling time for the cake (?). However I use another method that I think gives me really consistent results. I make the crust, let it cool, then brush melted butter on the insides of the pan above the crust and let that set for a few minutes. Then I pour in my batter and bake. Greasing the pan, before adding the batter (as opposed to before baking the crust), seems to foil the usual cake-to-pan surface tension that causes cracking. I simply turn off my oven when it's done, prop the door open (at least 4"), and let the cake cool in there before wrapping and chilling. Using this method I haven't had a cracked cheesecake in at least 5 years. I make them for home/gifts/holidays but also as wedding cakes, so I'm guessing I've tried this method at least a hundred times, and the results have been consistent for me.

Argh, now I'm craving cheesecake...
*g*

 
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