happy birthday cheesecake

Yesterday was A's birthday, so I knew his "Mama Lynn" would be making him his favorite chocolate kahlua cheesecake to celebrate. Of course there's no way I wasn't going to make him a dessert myself, I just had to do something different (and a day early). I decided to make a standard cheesecake with lots of strawberries and sauce on top, as "refreshing" as a cheesecake can possibly be. I found an Emeril recipe that I took some pointers from as well -- like adding lemon and orange zest, and a splash of bourbon. Other than that, the ratios of sugar to cream cheese, how to make the crust, etc are based on the chocolate cheesecake. It was delicious - and poor A now has to choose between 2 types of birthday cheesecake every night this week.

Grocery list: 24 ounces cream cheese, 1 orange, 1 lemon, splash of bourbon or scotch, 1 package graham crackers, butter, sugar, 5 eggs, sour cream, vanilla.



Start with the crust - preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and crush 1 - 1.5 cups of graham crackers. Mix with 3 T of melted butter and 2 T of granulated sugar, and press into the bottom of a spring form pan. Place in the freezer for 5 minutes, then bake for 8 minutes. Lower the oven temp to 350 degrees.



To make the filling, start with 3 packages of softened cream cheese (I use lower fat neufchatel). With a hand mixer, blend 1 cup of granulated sugar into the cream cheese. Add the zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange, plus 1 T of vanilla and blend until smooth. Next, add the eggs one at a time, blending after each addition. Finally, stir in 1 T of bourbon and 1/2 cup of sour cream.



Pour the filling into the prepared crust (depending on how much you trust your spring form pan to be nonstick, you may want to grease the sides of the pan with more butter). Place the pan inside a large roasting pan, and fill the roasting pan with water until it's about halfway up the sides of the cheesecake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes.



Carefully remove the cheesecake pan from the hot water, and allow to cool to room temperature for an hour or 2, then place in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. I sliced fresh strawberries and poured 1/4 cup sugar over them, so that plenty of syrup was released. I also made some fresh whipped cream (3/4 c whipping cream + 4 T of powdered sugar, whipped with a hand mixer for 3-4 minutes).

lynn's chocolate kahlua cheesecake

I don't normally make a lot of desserts, and I'm one of those weird people that never craves chocolate. I've wanted to learn how to make this for A, knowing that it's his favorite dessert ever. The recipe comes from Lynn, a coworker who adores A (she says he reminds him of her son) and makes this for him every year on his birthday. My first 2 or 3 attempts were disastrous (first time, I didn't think it mattered if I used a regular cake pan instead of a spring-form pan, other times I didn't realize how long the cake needed to cool before removing the outer edge of the pan...). I'll try and give very specific directions so you can nail this on your first try.

Grocery list: chocolate graham crackers, butter, heavy whipping cream, 24 oz cream cheese, sugar, 3 eggs, 1/2 pound block chocolate (semisweet), dark cocoa powder, vanilla extract.



Start by making the chocolate crust: take one package of chocolate graham cookies (normally 3 per box -- just use 1 of them), and crush them with a rolling pin in a large ziploc bag. This should make about 1.5 cups of chocolate cookie crumbs. Melt 1/4 cup (one half stick) of butter, and stir this in with the crumbs and 2 T of sugar in a bowl. The consistency will still be crumby, but don't worry. Press the crumb mixture into the bottom of the spring-form pan, and partway up the sides. Freeze for 5 minutes, then bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove and set aside.



There are 3 main parts to the actual cheesecake: the cream cheese base, the chocolate sauce that you mix into the base, and the chocolate icing. You can ignore the icing part until later, when the cake is cooling.



Next, work on the chocolate sauce. Start by chopping up the 1/2 pound block of chocolate and divide this (should be 3/4 cup + 1 cup). Melt the 3/4 cup chocolate chunks in the microwave, for a minute at a time, stirring in between, until smooth. Stir in 1/4 cup kahlua and 1/4 cup whipping cream -- keep stirring till smooth. I actually used half and half in place of all the heavy cream in this recipe and it turned out fine, so whatever your preference.



Now, for the cream cheese base. I used 3 8-oz packages of neufchatel cheese (lower fat version of cream cheese); soften these by leaving out on the counter for about an hour before starting to cook. Using a hand or stand mixer, beat together the cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Then blend in 1/3 cup powdered dark cocoa (I use Ghiradelli brand). Add the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each.



Now, with a big spoon, just stir in 1 tsp vanilla extract into the cream cheese mixture. Then stir in the chocolate sauce. Stir well, then pour all of this into the spring form pan. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then turn the oven down to 275 and bake for 45 minutes more.



Here's the part I learned the hard way - patience is key. After 45 minutes, turn off the oven and open the door, but leave the cake there, resting. After about an hour, place the cake in the fridge for about 2 hours, then bring it back to the counter for final icing.



To make the chocolate icing, melt the last 1 cup of chocolate chunks in the microwave. Stir in 1/4 cup whipping cream and 2 T kahlua. It will seem very liquid-y, not like icing, but you're going to refrigerate it to harden. Now, take a butter knife and run it along the edges of the spring form pan to loosen the cake. Very carefully remove the sides of the pan. Pour the icing right on top, and using a spatula, carefully smooth the icing around, allowing some of it to run over the outer edges.



Return the cake the fridge for at least 4 more hours before serving.