mariadnoca
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Vanilla Bean Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust and Salted Caramel Topping
Cheesecake
Crust:
1 recipe chocolate wafers from smitten kitchen
(Or 2-3 boxes Nabisco chocolate wafers. I’m not exactly sure how many boxes you need. Start with 2 and work up from there.)
4 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
1/2 cup flour
4 oz melted butter
(instructions on making the crust below)
Filling:
2 lbs cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 vanilla bean
1/4 cup milk
Topping:
1 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Salted Caramel:
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp water
1 cup cream
2 oz butter
1 tsp fleur de sel (plus 2 tsp more for optional garnish)
Bake the cookies following Smitten Kitchen’s recipe or buy them. If you choose to bake them, make sure you roll out the dough as thin and evenly as possible before baking. I divided the batch in half and then rolled the dough out to 1/4 inch thick onto a silpat with plastic wrap on top (this keeps the dough from sticking to the rolling pin). The cookies can be baked the day before. Break them into pieces and store covered.
Put the cookies or cookie pieces into a food processor and pulse until they are fine crumbs. Remove the crumbs from the bowl, measure out 4 cups of crumbs, and put them back into the food processor. Add the flour and pulse to combine. Add the melted butter and pulse until the cookie crumbs have the consistency of wet sand.
Press about 2 cups the crust into the bottom of the 9” springform pan and then the rest up the sides of the pan to the top edge. You should use all of the crust mix.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Put the milk in a small pot. Split open the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds inside. Put both into the pot with the milk. Heat the milk until it’s hot, but not boiling. Turn off the heat and let the vanilla and milk steep for 15 minutes. Remove the vanilla pod and if it’s softened more by being in the milk, you may be able to scrape out more seeds. If so, whisk them into the milk.
For the filling, put the cream cheese into a mixing bowl (I use a KitchenAid stand mixer, but you can use a hand mixer if you have one). Add in the sugar and beat until combined with the cream cheese and very smooth. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl, and with the mixer on, slowly beat in the eggs one at a time. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides with a spatula. Turn it on again and add in the milk with the vanilla beans, beat until it’s all combined and there are no lumps.
Pour the filling into the pan with the crust. Place the pan on a cookie sheet lined with foil (sometimes the butter in the crust melts and runs from the pan).
Bake for 55 min-1 hour at 325 degrees until set but still soft and jiggly in the center.
While the cheesecake is cooking, mix together the sour cream, sugar and vanilla. When the cheesecake is done, remove from the oven for 10 minutes, but leave the oven on. After 10 min, spread the sour cream topping on the cheesecake and return to the oven for 10 more minutes. Remove, place on a cooling rack and allow to cool for 1 hour. Refrigerate before serving for at least 4 hours. The cheesecake can be made up to two days in advance.
Caramel topping:
In a small, heavy bottomed pot, melt the sugar with water. Cook over high heat until deep amber in color. Remove from heat, and carefully whisk in the cream (it will bubble up). Whisk in the butter, and if the caramel has cooled too much to melt the butter, return to a low heat and whisk until it is all incorporated. Whisk in the 1 tsp fleur de sel.
Allow the caramel to cool and pour over the top of the baked and cooled cheesecake. Garnish the top with flakes of fleur de sel.
Note; If you are making the cheesecake in advance, I recommend you save the salt garnish until right before serving because if refrigerated, the moisture in the refrigerator will melt the salt.
Chocolate Wafers
Adapted from Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert From SmittenKitchen
I don’t usually make a big fuss about buying this brand or that of a product. I don’t believe you need zillion dollar, hard-to-find ingredients to cook well. But there are some recipes, recipes that get their primary flavor from a single ingredient where that quality of that ingredient largely informs the quality of the end product. (I’m thinking of the butter in shortbread, the stock in risotto or soup, etc.) In this case, that cocoa you splurged on that one time for a special occasion might just be ready for its closeup. I went for what I consider “la creme”, Valrhona — I’m throwing this out there not to pressure you to buy something you might feel is out of your budget, but so so you know why my cookies are so dark; Valrhona is a very intense cocoa — but if you have another decadent favorite on hand, go for it.
These cookies are crisp and not overly sweet. They’d be good with anything from coffee to ice cream to fancier things, like ice cream sandwiches, crumb crusts and icebox cakes (scroll down for an Icebox Cupcake recipe).
Last note: As an icebox cookie, these will take longer to soften than the store-bought wafers, so set aside more time than you normally would. I think 24 hours in the fridge would be ideal.
Makes 50 to 60 1 3/4-inch wafers. However, I cut my thinner than suggested and yielded more.
1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (2.4 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder (see Note)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
3 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Combine the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of food processor and pulse several times to mix thoroughly. Cut the butter into about 12 chunks and add them to the bowl. Pulse several times. Combine the milk and vanilla in a small cup. With the processor running, add the milk mixture and continue to process until the mixture clumps around the blade or the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a large bowl or a cutting board and knead a few times to make sure it is evenly blended.
Form the dough into a log about 14 inches long and 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap the log in wax paper or foil and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour, or until needed.
Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut the log of dough into slices a scant 1/4-inch thick (I went thinner, closer to 1/8 of inch. If you’re trying to emulate the store-bought wafers, slice as thin as you can, and watch the baking time carefully, as it might be less.) and place them one inch apart on the lined sheets (cookies will spread). Bake, rotating the baking sheet from top to bottom and back to front about halfway through baking, for a total of 12 to 15 minutes. The cookies will puff up and deflate; they are done about 1 1/2 minutes after they deflate.
Cool the cookies on the baking sheets on racks, or slide the parchment onto racks to cool completely. These cookies may be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks or be frozen for up to two months.
Note: These cookies should crisp as they cool. If they don’t, you’re not baking them long enough, says Medrich — in which case, return them to the oven to reheat and bake a little longer, then cool again.
http://www.formerchef.com/2012/02/06/vanilla-bean-cheesecake-with-chocolate-crust-and-salted-caramel/
Cheesecake
Crust:
1 recipe chocolate wafers from smitten kitchen
(Or 2-3 boxes Nabisco chocolate wafers. I’m not exactly sure how many boxes you need. Start with 2 and work up from there.)
4 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
1/2 cup flour
4 oz melted butter
(instructions on making the crust below)
Filling:
2 lbs cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 vanilla bean
1/4 cup milk
Topping:
1 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Salted Caramel:
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp water
1 cup cream
2 oz butter
1 tsp fleur de sel (plus 2 tsp more for optional garnish)
Bake the cookies following Smitten Kitchen’s recipe or buy them. If you choose to bake them, make sure you roll out the dough as thin and evenly as possible before baking. I divided the batch in half and then rolled the dough out to 1/4 inch thick onto a silpat with plastic wrap on top (this keeps the dough from sticking to the rolling pin). The cookies can be baked the day before. Break them into pieces and store covered.
Put the cookies or cookie pieces into a food processor and pulse until they are fine crumbs. Remove the crumbs from the bowl, measure out 4 cups of crumbs, and put them back into the food processor. Add the flour and pulse to combine. Add the melted butter and pulse until the cookie crumbs have the consistency of wet sand.
Press about 2 cups the crust into the bottom of the 9” springform pan and then the rest up the sides of the pan to the top edge. You should use all of the crust mix.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Put the milk in a small pot. Split open the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds inside. Put both into the pot with the milk. Heat the milk until it’s hot, but not boiling. Turn off the heat and let the vanilla and milk steep for 15 minutes. Remove the vanilla pod and if it’s softened more by being in the milk, you may be able to scrape out more seeds. If so, whisk them into the milk.
For the filling, put the cream cheese into a mixing bowl (I use a KitchenAid stand mixer, but you can use a hand mixer if you have one). Add in the sugar and beat until combined with the cream cheese and very smooth. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl, and with the mixer on, slowly beat in the eggs one at a time. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides with a spatula. Turn it on again and add in the milk with the vanilla beans, beat until it’s all combined and there are no lumps.
Pour the filling into the pan with the crust. Place the pan on a cookie sheet lined with foil (sometimes the butter in the crust melts and runs from the pan).
Bake for 55 min-1 hour at 325 degrees until set but still soft and jiggly in the center.
While the cheesecake is cooking, mix together the sour cream, sugar and vanilla. When the cheesecake is done, remove from the oven for 10 minutes, but leave the oven on. After 10 min, spread the sour cream topping on the cheesecake and return to the oven for 10 more minutes. Remove, place on a cooling rack and allow to cool for 1 hour. Refrigerate before serving for at least 4 hours. The cheesecake can be made up to two days in advance.
Caramel topping:
In a small, heavy bottomed pot, melt the sugar with water. Cook over high heat until deep amber in color. Remove from heat, and carefully whisk in the cream (it will bubble up). Whisk in the butter, and if the caramel has cooled too much to melt the butter, return to a low heat and whisk until it is all incorporated. Whisk in the 1 tsp fleur de sel.
Allow the caramel to cool and pour over the top of the baked and cooled cheesecake. Garnish the top with flakes of fleur de sel.
Note; If you are making the cheesecake in advance, I recommend you save the salt garnish until right before serving because if refrigerated, the moisture in the refrigerator will melt the salt.
Chocolate Wafers
Adapted from Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert From SmittenKitchen
I don’t usually make a big fuss about buying this brand or that of a product. I don’t believe you need zillion dollar, hard-to-find ingredients to cook well. But there are some recipes, recipes that get their primary flavor from a single ingredient where that quality of that ingredient largely informs the quality of the end product. (I’m thinking of the butter in shortbread, the stock in risotto or soup, etc.) In this case, that cocoa you splurged on that one time for a special occasion might just be ready for its closeup. I went for what I consider “la creme”, Valrhona — I’m throwing this out there not to pressure you to buy something you might feel is out of your budget, but so so you know why my cookies are so dark; Valrhona is a very intense cocoa — but if you have another decadent favorite on hand, go for it.
These cookies are crisp and not overly sweet. They’d be good with anything from coffee to ice cream to fancier things, like ice cream sandwiches, crumb crusts and icebox cakes (scroll down for an Icebox Cupcake recipe).
Last note: As an icebox cookie, these will take longer to soften than the store-bought wafers, so set aside more time than you normally would. I think 24 hours in the fridge would be ideal.
Makes 50 to 60 1 3/4-inch wafers. However, I cut my thinner than suggested and yielded more.
1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (2.4 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder (see Note)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
3 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Combine the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of food processor and pulse several times to mix thoroughly. Cut the butter into about 12 chunks and add them to the bowl. Pulse several times. Combine the milk and vanilla in a small cup. With the processor running, add the milk mixture and continue to process until the mixture clumps around the blade or the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a large bowl or a cutting board and knead a few times to make sure it is evenly blended.
Form the dough into a log about 14 inches long and 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap the log in wax paper or foil and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour, or until needed.
Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut the log of dough into slices a scant 1/4-inch thick (I went thinner, closer to 1/8 of inch. If you’re trying to emulate the store-bought wafers, slice as thin as you can, and watch the baking time carefully, as it might be less.) and place them one inch apart on the lined sheets (cookies will spread). Bake, rotating the baking sheet from top to bottom and back to front about halfway through baking, for a total of 12 to 15 minutes. The cookies will puff up and deflate; they are done about 1 1/2 minutes after they deflate.
Cool the cookies on the baking sheets on racks, or slide the parchment onto racks to cool completely. These cookies may be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks or be frozen for up to two months.
Note: These cookies should crisp as they cool. If they don’t, you’re not baking them long enough, says Medrich — in which case, return them to the oven to reheat and bake a little longer, then cool again.
http://www.formerchef.com/2012/02/06/vanilla-bean-cheesecake-with-chocolate-crust-and-salted-caramel/