I’ve mentioned to you several times, how much my husband loves, sweets,  it can be in any form, milk, cake, Turkish or even American.  Since, it was his birthday last week, I’ve decided instead of buying him a cake I’ll make him another cheesecake.  A tad different from last years. I must admit, I  becoming a cheesecake queen, well at least to my husband. 

I had booked mark this recipe from Gourmet Magazines Aug 2008 issue, which was way before I had baked one of Doris Greenspan’s delicious cheesecakes.  Our favorite thing about this cheesecake was its crust, which totally blew us away.  The cheesecake layer was a bit thin, but never the less it was awesome.  Next time, I hope to use the 9×9 baking pan, instead of 9 inch sheet pan.

The crust really was different, maybe it was all those, chopped finely blanched almonds or that stick of butter or that light brown sugar creamed.  What ever it was, it tasted really really good.

Instead of following instructions, I make them up – well because I can and also I wanted to see how different it will look.  Instead of a square 9×9 baking pan, I used a 9×13 baking sheet pan. Which worked great, but the cream cheese batter coated the crust with a thin layer and allowed the cake to bake quickly.

The minted blackberries, where a nice cooling and freshening touch on top of the cheesecake.  Next time, I might just add them as garment next to the cheesecake, instead of on top.

Dice the mint, add the sugar and lemon juice, mix and marinate at room temperature. 

I baked the cheesecake at night, cooled it for an hour at room temperature then cover with plastic and placed in refrigerator overnight and whole day, till I got home from work to assemble the topping.

Arrange the minted blackberries over the cheesecake and serve.

CHEESECAKE WITH MINTED BLACKBERRIES
               adapated from Gourmet Magazine

For crust:

• 3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup blanched almonds, finely chopped

For filling:

• 3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup half-and-half
• 3 large eggs

Preparation:

Make filling and bake:

• Reduce oven temperature to 325ºF.
• Beat together cream cheese, sugar, and flour with cleaned beaters at medium speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add half-and-half, then eggs 1 at a time, mixing until incorporated. Pour filling into crust.
• Bake in a hot water bath until set 1 1/2 inches from edge but center is still wobbly, 40 to 45 minutes. (Center will set as it cools.) Transfer pan to a rack and cool completely, about 2 hours. Chill, uncovered, at least 2 hours. (I left it for over night and placed it in the fridge the following morning to cool for another 8 hours before serving.)
• Using foil overhang, lift cheesecake from pan and peel off foil before cutting into small rectangles.

Oh boy more like oh girl!! I am the first to admit thing have changed for me, especially time wise!  Now I cook around Aleyna’s schedule, you know my little angle I gave birth to almost two months ago.  Ohhh where does the time fly, I really don’t know! All I know is that the time I have is not spend sleeping at all, ohh how I miss those long night sleeps.  At times I feel like a junkie, loning for a good night sleep! It is quite hilarious actually, never the less we mothers manage right.

This past weeks and months have been incredibly busy, we are in the mist of moving and because of that I am sort of over the place.  I normally don’t get much time to cook during the day, but yesterday with my cousin watching Aleyna I took the advantage to make what I have been dreaming about finally. 

I must admit being home around the holiday times is not a good thing, especially when I have the Food Network on 24/7 literally.  All these holiday cooking make me hungry and wanted to create these incredible dishes.

I love anything with pumpkin, lets put it this way I love pumpkin period! A while back I had made a plain cheesecake,with Doris Greenspans help, for this recipe all I did is add some PUMPKIN!   

I apparently did not wrap my spring form very well, a little bit of water was seeked in.  I just had a bit difficult time slicing, I had to make sure to cut into the crust.

Wishing you and your families a delightfully delicious Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE 
                Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients:

For the crust:
1. 1 cup +  3/4  cup –  graham cracker crumbs
2. 3 tablespoons sugar
3. Pinch of salt
4. 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake:
1. 3 - 8-ounce boxes of cream cheese, at room temperature
2. 1 – (15 oz) can of pumpkin puree
3. 2 tablespoons of flour
4. 1 + 1/3 cups sugar
5. 1/2 teaspoon salt
6. 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
7. 4 large eggs, at room temperature
8. 1 cup + 1/3 cup sour cream or heavy cream, or a combination of the two
9. 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
10. 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

Preparation:

To make the crust:

1. Butter a 9-inch spring form pan—choose one that has sides that are 2 3/4 inches high (if the sides are lower, you will have cheesecake batter leftover)—and wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil; put the pan on a baking sheet.

2. Stir the crumbs, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour over the melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients are uniformly moist. (I do this with my fingers.) Turn the ingredients into the buttered spring form pan and use your fingers to pat an even layer of crumbs along the bottom of the pan and about halfway up the sides. Don’t worry if the sides are not perfectly even or if the crumbs reach above or below the midway mark on the sides—this doesn’t have to be a precision job. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven.

3. Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 350°F and place the spring form on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake.

4. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

To make the cheesecake:

1. Put a kettle of water on to boil.

2. Working in a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, add in and beat the cream cheese and pumpkin puree at medium speed until it is soft and lives up to the creamy part of its name, about 4 minutes. With the mixer running, add the flour, sugar and salt and continue to beat another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition—you want a well-aerated batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the sour cream and/or heavy cream.

3. Put the foil-wrapped spring form pan in the roaster pan.

4. Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that nothing has been left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and scrape the batter into the spring form pan. The batter will reach the brim of the pan. (If you have a pan with lower sides and have leftover batter, you can bake the batter in a buttered ramekin or small soufflé mold.) Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the spring form pan.

5. Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top will be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan. Turn off the oven’s heat and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon. Allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.

6. After 1 hour, carefully pull the setup out of the oven, lift the spring form pan out of the roaster—be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum foil—remove the foil. Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.

7. When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and chill the cake for at least 4 hours, although overnight would be better.

Serving:Remove the sides of the spring form pan—I use a hairdryer to do this (use the dryer to warm the sides of the pan and ever so slightly melt the edges of the cake)—and set the cake, still on the pan’s base, on a serving platter. The easiest way to cut cheesecake is to use a long, thin knife that has been run under hot water and lightly wiped. Keep warming the knife as you cut slices of the cake.

Storing: Wrapped well, the cake will keep for up to 1 week in the refrigerator or for up to 2 months in the freezer. It’s best to defrost the still-wrapped cheesecake overnight in the refrigerator.

This is actually the second time I made this cheesecake and honestly it really is fool proof.  Baking can be time consuming but in the end it is most definitely worth it.  Especially with various toppings, so far my favorites have been melted Nutella drizzled over the top and raspberry sauce.

My husband ate half of the cake that same day - mine was a minimal slice and the rest I brought to the store and it was gone within in the hour.  It stood no chance thanks to my dad and my brother.  If you are looking for a good solid recipe for cheesecake, I highly recommend Doris’ recipe.

CHEESECAKE 
                Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients:

For the crust:
1 3/4  cups graham cracker crumbs
3          tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake:
2 pounds (four 8-ounce boxes) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sour cream or heavy cream, or a combination of the two

Preparation:

To make the crust:

1. Butter a 9-inch springform pan—choose one that has sides that are 2 3/4 inches high (if the sides are lower, you will have cheesecake batter leftover)—and wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil; put the pan on a baking sheet.

2. Stir the crumbs, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour over the melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients are uniformly moist. (I do this with my fingers.) Turn the ingredients into the buttered springform pan and use your fingers to pat an even layer of crumbs along the bottom of the pan and about halfway up the sides. Don’t worry if the sides are not perfectly even or if the crumbs reach above or below the midway mark on the sides—this doesn’t have to be a precision job. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven.

3. Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 350°F and place the springform on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake.

4. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

To make the cheesecake:

1. Put a kettle of water on to boil.

2. Working in a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until it is soft and lives up to the creamy part of its name, about 4 minutes. With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition—you want a well-aerated batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the sour cream and/or heavy cream.

3. Put the foil-wrapped springform pan in the roaster pan.

4. Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that nothing has been left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and scrape the batter into the springform pan. The batter will reach the brim of the pan. (If you have a pan with lower sides and have leftover batter, you can bake the batter in a buttered ramekin or small soufflé mold.) Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan.

5. Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top will be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan. Turn off the oven’s heat and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon. Allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.

6. After 1 hour, carefully pull the setup out of the oven, lift the springform pan out of the roaster—be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum foil—remove the foil. Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.

7. When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and chill the cake for at least 4 hours, although overnight would be better.

Serving:Remove the sides of the springform pan—I use a hairdryer to do this (use the dryer to warm the sides of the pan and ever so slightly melt the edges of the cake)—and set the cake, still on the pan’s base, on a serving platter. The easiest way to cut cheesecake is to use a long, thin knife that has been run under hot water and lightly wiped. Keep warming the knife as you cut slices of the cake.

Storing: Wrapped well, the cake will keep for up to 1 week in the refrigerator or for up to 2 months in the freezer. It’s best to defrost the still-wrapped cheesecake overnight in the refrigerator.