a whisk and a spoon

Daring Bakers in April: Goat Cheesecake

I was this close (picture me squinting while holding my thumb and index finger about a milimeter apart), this close to skipping this month’s Daring Bakers’ challenge.  See, I have done cheesecake one, two, three, four times here already.  One of those was even with the DBs last year.  I thought about it for awhile, and then I decided that since Jenny from Jenny Bakes basically gave us free reign to modify her chosen cheesecake recipe, I may as well make some tweaks and play along.

I’ve had goat cheesecake in restaurants before, but never at home, so I thought I’d give it a shot.  Fresh goat cheese is pretty similar in consistency to cream cheese, and I figured I could do a straight-out swap with the two.  I settled on a combo of half goat cheese and half cream cheese…that way it wouldn’t taste too barnyardy. 

R and I are just a family of two, so we didn’t need a several pound cheesecake on our hands (or our hips).  I scaled back the recipe to a third of its original size, and decided to bake off little individual cakes.  I used 4-ounce aluminium foil cups, and got four servings from the batter.

I think cheesecake is quite a heavy, rich dessert, and I don’t like it further bogged down with too many add-ins.  A little fruit sauce spooned on top suits me just fine.  Here, I made an easy spiced cherry compote.  I simply took a jar of tart cherries in light syrup, stained the syrup into a pot and reduced it a bit with half a cinnamon stick and a couple of cardamom pods.  Once off the heat, I fished out the spices and stirred the cherries back in.

This was quite a nice change of pace.  The cheesecakes had what I would call a “delicate goatiness.”  Not too overpowering, and nice with the cherry sauce.  Check out Jenny Bakes for the original recipe, and visit the new Daring Kitchen site to see what everyone else is up to!

Goat Cheesecake- makes 4 individual-size cheesecakes
modified from Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake

Note: I used Anna’s Almond Cinnamon Thins in the crust and 1/3 less fat cream cheese (that “Neufchâtel” stuff) in the cheesecake base.

for the crust:
2 oz graham cracker or wafer cookie crumbs
1/2 oz butter, melted
1/2 t sugar
pinch of salt

for the cheesecake:
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
4 oz fresh (not aged) goat cheese, room temperature
1/3 c sugar
pinch of salt
1 egg
1 t lemon juice
1/3 c heavy cream
1 t vanilla extract (or small amount of vanilla bean seeds)

-Preheat oven to 350°F (Gas Mark 4 = 180°C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

-Spray four 4-ounce ramekins or aluminum foil cups with non-stick cooking spray.  Mix together the crust ingredients and press into the bottom of the cups.  Place cups on a sheet tray and bake for about 8 minutes, just to set the crusts.  Remove sheet from oven and set crusts aside.

-Process the cream cheese and goat cheese in a food processor until smooth (don’t forget to scrape!).  Add the sugar and pinch of salt; mix and scrape again.  Do the same with the egg, then add the lemon juice, heavy cream and vanilla bean seeds or extract and process until smooth and fully combined. 

-Spoon batter into prepared crusts and gently tap the sheet tray on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Remove the cups from the sheet tray and place them in a small roasting pan or a baking dish.  Pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake cups.

-Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until they are almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cakes to hold together, but still jiggle in the center. You don’t want them to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for another 20 minutes. This lets the cakes finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that they won’t crack on the top.

-After 20 minutes, remove pan from oven and lift the cups carefully out of water bath. Let them finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, they are ready to serve.

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Daring Bakers in April: Cheesecake Pops

I must admit that I almost skipped making these cheesecake pops, this month’s Daring Bakers challenge.  Even though I went out and searched around for lollipop sticks at the beginning of the month, I hadn’t really been in a cheesecake mood.  Then I realized that the photo opportunities here were too good to be missed!  The recipe, from the book Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor, was chosen by co-hostesses Deborah from Taste and Tell and Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms. 

I found a recipe calling for five bars of cream cheese to be a bit much to swallow (literally).  I scaled the recipe way back to just one bar and baked it in a small loaf pan.  I put the batter together my favorite way– in the food processor.  As long as all the ingredients are room temperature, you will never get a lump.  It baked up nicely, but even the tiny amount that I made took about 20 minutes longer than the suggested time.

After a night in the fridge, I used an ice cream scoop to form the set cheesecake into rough balls, and put them into the freezer for half an hour before reshaping them a bit.  They still came out looking a bit…ummm….individual.  Not that that’s a bad thing!  The sticks are really wooden craft sticks (I had no luck finding the paper ones here), and I loved their fun colors.  The packet said non-toxic, so let’s just hope that’s right!

I’m not embarrassed to say that hundreds and thousands are my favorite cake decoration!  Just looking at them makes me smile! 

I decided to roll a couple in some almond cookie crumbs mixed with a little cinnamon to get kind a cheesecake crust thing going on.  In the center of these ones, I managed to hide a blob of strawberry jam.  Sneaky! 

The cuteness factor is unbelievable, and they taste pretty good too!  Just what I needed put myself into a cheesecake mood!  Thanks Deborah and Elle!  You can find the recipe for the pops on Deborah’s site.  I’ve looked at a bunch of posts, and the DBers did a beautiful job this month, so please check out the DB blogroll!