The Best Ever Cheesecake and How to Create Variations

Cheesecake. It's kind of intimidating and because of this intimidation, I've never tried to make one. It's my husband's favorite dessert for heaven's sake! I had to Betty Crocker up and get in the kitchen. Nothing that I make comes straight from someone else's recipe. I find something that looks good and use that recipe as the basic design but put my own twists on it. I found this recipe for Japanese Cheesecake on Pinterest. It looked pretty good so I gave it a whirl. I don't think I did it quite right because it wasn't as light and fluffy as it says it should be. So, I started changing it...

My mom-in-law asked me to bring dessert to a family lunch so I decided to go for it. I made a cheesecake. Not the Japanese pound cake looking one, but in a real-life springform pan. I didn't want to take pictures along the way until I knew that it would turn out. Boy howdy, did it. Between 6ish people that were eating it, the entire cake was demolished except for one piece.

We're celebrating mine and my husband's birthdays tonight at his parent's house so for his birthday dessert, I'm making him a cheesecake... now that I can finally do it with confidence! He asked for a chocolate peanut butter cheesecake. Well, here's what I did...

Basic Cheesecake

• 2 1/2 pkg cream cheese, soft
• 2/3 C. butter, soft
• 6 eggs - separated into whites and yolks
• 1/4 C. sugar
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 C. sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 9" Springform pan (I got this one from Amazon, it's silicon so it leaves and very clean break on the sides as well as no leakage) 

Make the crust that you want for your cheesecake and make sure it's cooled in the 9" springform pan before starting the filling.

Preheat your oven to 350 and put a water filled pan on the bottom rack.

In a double boiler (I just use a pot with a glass Pyrex bowl on top to make cleanup easier), melt butter and cream cheese together and whip it with a hand mixer. Remove from heat and let cool for a couple minutes.

In another bowl, combine 6 egg yolks, 1/4 C. sugar, cornstarch and vanilla. Mix into the cream cheese mixture.

I separate my eggs with this nifty little contraction that came with my Pyrex set. It makes my life SOOO much easier.

In an upright mixer (I LOOOOOVE my KitchenAid mixer!!!), add a small amount of the 1/2 C. of sugar to the egg whites and whip on medium for a couple of minutes. Add the remaining sugar and whip it until a meringue forms. This takes my mixer about 5 minutes to do on medium high speed - It should fill about half of the bowl.

Add 1/4 of the meringue to the cream cheese mixture and combine it gently. Add the remaining meringue to the cream cheese and fold it in. 

     This is where you can make your variations...

Chocolate Swirled Cheesecake: 

Take 1/4 of the cheesecake mixture and blend it with 4oz melted chocoalte. Pour the 3/4 cheesecake mixture into prepared crust in a springform pan. Drop the chocolate mixture on the top and swirel through the entire cake with a knife.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake:

Separate the cheesecake mixture into thirds. Leave one bowl plain, add 6 oz. melted chocolate to one bowl and 1/2 C. of softened peanut butter to the 3rd bowl. Pour the chocolate cheesecake mixture onto a prepared crust in a springform pan - smooth the top. Next, carefully pour the peanut butter mixture over the chocolate layer - smooth the top. Last, carefully pour the plain cheesecake mixture over the top of the peanut butter layer - smooth the top.

I'm still working on different variations so I'll try to update this with more variations as I get the chance to try them. White chocolate raspberry is next on the list!)

Once the cheesecake is poured into the springform pan over the crust, place it in the oven on the middle rack. Bake the cheesecake for 20 minutes in the 350 degree oven. 

After 20 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 320 and bake for another 30 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN BECAUSE THIS WILL CHANGE THE HEAT TOO DRASTICALLY TO GET EVEN COOKING.

After 30 minutes at 320 degrees, turn the oven off and leave the cheesecake in for another hour. 

Carefully take the cheesecake out of the oven and let cook on a wire rack - be careful because if you jostle it or place it down too hard, you could deflate it which would be a sad, sad moment. 

Cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it until you're ready to serve. Do not remove it from the springform pan until it's completely chilled and ready for serving. 

Cheesecake Crusts

I've never been a fan of cheesecake crust. Personally, it's a waste of calories. Why fill yourself with graham cracker when you could eat more cheesecake filling??? However, some people looooove the crust so I have a few simple recipes that will make a thin bottom crust without creeping up the sides too much.

Basic Graham Cracker Crust

1 C. graham cracker crumbs (you can use plain, cinnamon or chocolate to get the base that you want to compliment your filling)

1/3 C. melted butter

2 Tbsp. sugar.

Mix the ingredients and press firmly into the bottom of a 9" Springform Pan.

Put pan in freezer until you're ready to fill it. 

Brownie Crust

The brownie crust is a richer base if you don't want to use graham cracker. I'm a fan of this. I want to try a blondie crust with my soon to try white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, but we'll have to wait and see on that one. 

• 4 T. melted butter.
• 1/4 C. cocoa powder (unsweetened)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 C. sugar
• 1/4 C. unbleached flour

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Melt butter and mix in the cocoa.
3. Beat in egg and gradually add the sugar. 
4. Gently mix in the flour - don't over mix or it will be tough.
5. Pour batter into a prepared 9" springform pan - I just use a little butter and a sprinkle of cocoa powder to keep it from sticking.
6. Bake for 15 minutes - until a toothpick comes out of the center, clean.

Let this crust cool completely before filling with cheesecake batter.

Easy Banana Breakfast Cookies

I'm running out of ideas for breakfasts and quick snacks for the kids. I get tired of the same old stuff everyday and I'm sure they get tired of it too. Cereal bars, animal crackers, yogurt, fruit, blah blah blah... I had some leftover bananas and some quick cookie oats that I decided to toss together to see what would happen. I'd seen a couple recipes before that used these things together but for the life of me, I couldn't find them... yes, even on Pinterest. Ah well, I figured the worst thing that would happen is I ruin 2 bananas and a cup of oats. What's the harm?

The "batter" held up pretty well after mashing and mixing so I added a handful of dried cranberries for some tang and scooped it out onto a parchment lined baking sheet. What can I say? I'm lazy and always use parchment. It keeps the bottoms of things from burning as easily and avoids scrubbing and heavy clean up. I tossed some semi sweet chocolate chips on top of the "cookies" and threw them in the oven. 350 degrees is always my go-to temp if I don't know what I should bake something at. They took about 13ish minutes to firm up.

Let me just say, they came out of the oven and about 3 minutes later, I'd eaten 5 of them. They're good. My 4 year old is a big fan too - he asked if we could make them every day.

I think next time, I may add a dash of cinnamon and maybe a pinch of sea salt just to help bring out the flavors since they were a tad bland... but really, that didn't slow me down.

No oil, no flour, no eggs. Boom. Tasty treat.

Easy Banana Breakfast Cookies

2 Bananas, mashed
1 cup quick oats
Mix-ins: chocolate chips, dried fruit, nuts

Mix mashed bananas and oats. Stir in mix-ins (I mixed in my cranberries but put the chocolate chips on top after they were panned). Spoon onto a lined cookie sheet a smush flat to be about 1/2 inch thick. Put chocolate chips on top. Bake at 350 for 13-14 minutes. Makes about a dozen cookies.

Creamy Southwest Chicken Chili

I found a recipe for "Slow cooker cream cheese chili" that I thought looked really good. Per my usual, I changed it up a little bit but kept it pretty similar. Instead of mixing the ingredients and then dumping them into the Crock pot, I just like the dump method. One less step to take and dish to clean.

So, get a can of Rotel, black beans and corn. Then add a packet of ranch mix, chili powder, onion powder and cumin. Add in a clove of garlic... 2 if you have small cloves. Then a room temperature block of cream cheese. I usually use low fat to cut out the extra calories, but all I had was regular. Ooooooh well.

I started off using a rotisserie chicken that I got at the store and shredding it myself. They were on sale and they tend to be more flavorful and juicier than using frozen chicken that the original recipe called for. This also cuts down on the cooking time since the ingredients just have to come together rather than cook the raw chicken. 

Then just dump it all in on top of the chicken.

Let it all cook for about 4 hours on low and mix the cream cheese in.  

I served it with a bit of grated cheddar cheese on top but you could add whatever you want: sour cream, chives, bacon bits... whatevs.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken

1 can Rotel, NOT drained

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can corn, NOT drained
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp chili powder (add more of less depending on the spice level you want)
1 tsp onion powder
1 packet dry Ranch seasoning mix
1 clove garlic, chopped or whole... whatever you want.
1 8oz block cream cheese

Put everything into the slow cooker bowl in the order listed (I don't think it REALLY matters just so long as the seasonings are on top). Top it all with the cream cheese. Let it cook on LOW for about 4 hours. Mix in the cream cheese. Serve with whatever toppings you want.

Perfectly Shredded Chicken in Seconds

I was cruising around on Pinterest a couple months ago when I saw something about perfectly shredding chicken in a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I didn't think much of it and kept moving. I didn't pin this ingenious idea but that's ok because I remembered it.

I'm trying a new recipe tonight for Chicken Pillows and it calls for 2-3 cups of cut up/shredded chicken. I really hate sitting there for what seems like FOREVER shredding chicken breast after chicken breast. I didn't read the details about this "perfectly shredded chicken" so I just threw my 3 cooked chicken breasts (straight from the oven) in my mixer with the paddle attachment and turned it on.

***side note, use the shield or you will have chicken bits flying out at you***

About 15 seconds later, I had perfectly shredded chicken. Not pulverized and no big chunks. I wish I had pinned this idea so I knew who to give credit to because I DID NOT COME UP WITH THIS IDEA. However, I wish I had... it's ingenious!

Why, I Don't Mind If I Fondue!

I had a girls' night to go to last night and we were asked to bring something to share. I like to try to come up with fun and different things to take instead of always doing the same old stuff. So I thought, hmmm... what's better for a girls' night party than a vat of melted chocolate? I couldn't think of anything better either. 

The decision was made... fondue it would be.

I looked up a few recipes for basic fondue, seeing as I've never really made it before AND I was doing it in a CrockPot instead of an actual fondue pot. So the recipes were all similar: chocolate, some sort of canned milk and vanilla. Booooooorrrrriiiiiiiinnnnnggggg!!

So I took those basic ideas and made it my own...

Here's what I did:

• 2 bags of semisweet chocolate chips. (most recipes called for chopped up semi-sweet chocolate. I'm sure you can use the Baker's chocolate, but why waste time chopping when Nestle/Hersheys/Ghirardelli has already done the work for you?)
• 1/2 - 1 bag of milk chocolate chips
• 1 can evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed!)
• 1/3 c. powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup Kahlua
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

My CrockPot is 4 quarts but you could do this in a 3 quart pot and be just fine. It doesn't look like it makes ALL that much, but it does... and it's great for breakfast the next day: cold and spread over leftover macaroons (which I'll get to in a second).

Dump the chocolate into the pot... all of it. Pour about 3/4 of the can of evaporated milk over the chips. Pour the remaining 1/4 of the milk into a microwave safe bowl and heat it up a bit. Dissolved the powdered sugar into the warmed evaporated milk and pour over the chips as well. 

Turn the CrockPot on low for about an hour. 

Stir the mixture and add the Kahlua and vanilla - stir it again to get it mixed in. I used a whisk because I felt like it helped get it smoother. Then let it sit on low until the chocolate is completely melted. If it starts to bubble, turn the CrockPot to "Keep Warm" - if you don't have a keep warm setting, then I don't know what to tell you. My Low setting will burn the chocolate after about an hour.

Go ahead an serve it whenever the chocolate is all melted. I used dippers like strawberries, bananas, pound cake (thanks to a certain Kim Underwood) and homemade macaroons (which are super easy to make!)

Coconut Macaroons

I wanted to take something to dip that was a little out of the ordinary so I thought macaroons would be good. Again, they were so easy!

Here's what I did:

• 1 1/3 c. flaked coconut
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 2 Tbsp flour
• a pinch of salt
• 2 egg whites (whisked)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Combine the coconut, sugar, flour and salt. Then add the egg whites and vanilla. Mix well.

Drop them onto parchment by small teaspoons (if you're using them as dippers) so they're about as wide around as a quarter. Bake them for about 15 minutes on 325.

Because you're dipping them, you don't want to make them very big so you can get a nice bite-sized amount. I got about 2 dozen from this recipe which was a good amount since there were so many other dipping options.

White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

This week's recipe isn't a dinner item. I'm altering the rules to my "goal" I just have to try a new recipe/create a new recipe each week. Some weeks, I simply don't have the time or energy to do a giant dinner and that's ok.

About a month ago, I bought a cookie mix from Target for White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Oatmeal cookies (try saying that five times fast). I was really disappointed when I made them and I didn't even get a dozen cookies out of the recipe... plus, after eating one, turned out to be sub-par. I knew I could do better - so I did.

Taking a few ideas from a a couple of my favorite cookie recipes, I came up with a recipe to use (needing tweaks down the road is expected). I'm not a fan of wide, flat cookies that look like just melted on the sheet so in my cookie recipes, so I like to use a mix of cake flour and regular (unbleached) flour. The cake flour doesn't spread as much as regular flour does because of the starch content (I think). Also, I prefer baking powder to baking soda because powder has a bit of acidity to it which, again, promotes puffier cookies. Ok, enough with the science lesson...

Ingredients:

3/4 c. white sugar
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/2 c. cake flour
3/4 c. quick cooking oats
3/4 c. dried cranberries
6 oz. white chocolate chips (half a bag)

Directions:

• Cream the butter and sugars. Add in the egg and vanilla. Add cinnamon, baking powder, salt and flours.
• Fold in the oatmeal, cranberries and chocolate chips. 
• Roll into 1-1/2 inch balls and place about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. I always line my sheets with parchment - it discourages burning on the bottoms and makes clean up a breeze.
• Bake the cookies at 375 for about 8-10 minutes.

Let them cool and DEVOUR THEM! Remember, there is oatmeal AND cranberries in them so they're healthy... right?