Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Cheesecakes
As many people know, I make and sell cheesecakes - moreso around the holidays - but I make them year round. I have decided to share with you how I do them. These cheesecakes are not hard to make; rather they are time consuming but come out beautiful and taste yummy.
I start every cheesecake with a basic recipe of the following: 4 8oz bricks of cream cheese, 4 eggs, 1 cup sour cream, 1 tablespoon of vanilla, 3 tablespoons of four, 1 cup of sugar.

First I bring the cream cheese to room temperture, then I put them in a mixing bowl and beat them with an electric mixer until smooth. I then add the eggs and beat again. Then I add the sugar, sour cream and flour and mix well. Finally I add the vanilla (or any other extract that I would be using for flavor).
The cheescake I recently made that I am going to share with you is a Strawberry cheesecake. After I made my basic batter I took 1/3 of the batter and added 1.5 cups of strawberry glaze and 1.5 cups of fresh, chopped strawberries. I poured this into a prepared cheescake pan (with a graham cracker crust). Next I added a layer of strawberry glaze - about 1.5 cups. In retrospect I should have used less because I do not want my layers to separate like they do - I would say 3/4 to 1 cup of glaze. Lastly, I tooke the remaining 2/3 of the batter and poured it slowly over into the pan spreading the batter evenly. I then piped 1/4 cup of strawberry glaze onto the top and swirled with a tooth pick. I baked the cheesecake in a waterbath for 55 minutes at 350 degrees.Once the 55 minutes is up - I shut off the oven and open the door - allowing the cheesecake to cool in the oven. I then refridgerate the cheesecake over night. This will allow for the cheesecake to release from the pan easily. Once removed I then piped strawberry mousse around the edges of the cheesecake and added fresh sliced strawberries with the strawberry glaze to the center. The next time I make this cheesecake I will freeze it before I garnish and cut - I think this will prevent my layers from separting and falling apart - I have noticed that this happens when I put a fruit glaze layer in my cheesecakes as this has not happened with my other ones.

I learn from my mistakes and either way this cheesecake was very yummy!! Please enjoy making your own!!

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