As you may or may not know...I have a life list (you can find it via this hyperlink or at the "Life List" tab just below the Clusterf#@k header). It's a list of things I want to do in my lifetime. It's something that's kind of corny and slightly Lifetime- (the television channel for women)-ish, but oh well. Anyway, if you scroll down to numero 16 (sorry, it's been a while since I took Spanish) you will see "Make a cheesecake from scratch...delicious cheesecake that makes your mouth water just thinking about it". I know, this seems like a simple enough task...people make cheesecake all the time, right!? Well, making a cheesecake from scratch is something I've always wanted to do, but it's one of those things that I've built up in my mind to be more difficult and daunting than it actually is. I mean, really, not everyone makes cheesecake from scratch! At least no one I know! My mom never has, and my sister, the baking queen herself, hasn't even made one! So, in my mind, it has always been something of a quandary. Until now!
Since I've been on a cooking kick lately and this week is National Preservation week I figured there was no better time like the present to give it a go. I already had a recipe in mind for this little undertaking. A couple years ago (okay, maybe like 4 or 5) I was watching Tyler's Ultimate on the Food Network (the gist of the show: Tyler Florence discusses a variety of "crowd pleasing classics" and makes his ultimate version of them). The episode I happened to be watching was on cheesecake, which I love! In fact, I'd much rather have cheesecake than any other type of cake. For many of my past birthdays I've actually had cheesecake instead of actual birthday cake, which I'm generally not a fan of, unless we're talking birthday cupcakes! There was something about his recipe for lemon-blueberry cheesecake that immediately made my mouth water and I knew, right then and there, that if I ever made cheesecake from scratch that I'd I'd be trying his recipe. So, here we go...
First of all, I had to buy a spring form pan, because I didn't have one (because why would you have one if you've never made cheesecake). Now, Tyler's recipe calls for an 8 inch pan, but Bed, Bath and Beyond only had one pan and it was a 9 inch...oh, well...that'll do! So, after some grocery shopping and some procrastination yesterday the cooking finally began. First, the crust...
Now, if you watch the video for this recipe you will notice how finely ground Tyler's graham crackers are for his crust, and then you'll notice the coarseness of my graham crackers above. See the difference? That's what you get when you don't own a food processor and you have to crush the graham crackers by hand in a ziploc freezer bag. Works for me! And it didn't affect the taste!
Next, the filling...
A fairly easy task, even without a stand mixer! The batter was pretty simple, just cream cheese, eggs, sour cream, sugar, lemon zest and a dash of vanilla. Let me just say, you can actually taste what the sour cream, lemon zest and vanilla does to the cheesecake! Mmmm...
I resisted the urge to lick these clean! I'm not sure how I did that, but I did! The recipe itself is pretty simple.
Except if you're like me and you keep forgetting things. First, I forgot that I needed a large roasting pan for the water bath, I ended up having to run to my sister's house half way through assembling the cheesecake to borrow a pan. Then, I realized we were out of aluminum foil, so it was off to Bigg's for me, because I didn't want to bug my sister again. Then I accidentally preheated the oven to 350 degrees instead of 325 degrees and didn't realize that until about halfway through cooking it. Ugh! Apparently I was having a very forgetful day, but in the end, things worked out.
So, here we are...the final product! Drum roll please...
Ta da! I think it was a pretty successful endeavor! I would have liked the cheesecake to be a little firmer, but the flavor was great! And the topping was delicious, even though Bigg's attempted to rob me blind on the blueberries! If I ever make this recipe again...it will be during blueberry season!
It was tasty, but was it mouth-watering?? Well, I just had a piece and I practically licked my plate clean! And now I want another piece! So, yeah, I'd say I can confidently cross off number 16 from my life list!!
I ended up taking the cheesecake into work for Preservation week (since that's what I do and we're celebrating all week with goodies and treats). I couldn't resist displaying my little pride and joy in our fancy glass cake pedestal dome thingy! I think my co-workers and our students have been enjoying it so far!
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