It was judged that year by an assemblage of representatives from various media and news outlets. It is an ingenious way to guarantee that your event gets ample news coverage - to feed media members cheesecake.
I had never been a judge in such a contest, but the organizers were very ... well ... organized about it. First we all went though and
The fanciest cheesecake was a double-chocolate-raspberry swirled thing that the chef had then decorated with pansies. It was truly a work of art. And it tasted fabulous and looked beautiful and I suddenly understood what "mouthfeel" meant. And I loved it.
Except there was a three-way tie for one of the non-"special"
No thanks, I think I'll pass.
On the up side, the contestants had all agreed to allow their winning recipes to be published, and so I offer you my adaptation of the Double-Chocolate-Raspberry Cheesecake that won the 1994 Pittsfield Egg Festival Cheesecake Contest. I have no memory now of who the creator of this marvel is, only that she was exceedingly
Double Chocolate-Raspberry Marble Cheesecake
Crust:
version A (the original):
1 stick oleo, melted
1 package (10.25 ounce) brownie mix
mix together and press into bottom and up the sides of a spring-form pan.
version B (adjusted to be soy-free):
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup Ghirardelli's baking cocoa (yes, the quality is worth the extra buck a can!)
Sift the dry ingredients together, then add the melted butter and mix together. Press into the bottom and sides of a spring-form pan.
The Filling:
4 8-ounce packages of cream cheese
6 small or 4 large eggs
1 cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
Raspberry Puree:
1/2 cup raspberries
1/8 cup sugar
Chocolate:
version A:
1/2 ounce unsweetened chocolate, melted
version B (because I didn't have any unsweetened chocolate handy):
1 Tbsp melted butter
3 Tbsp cocoa
For filling, beat cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl and beating well after each one. Beat in sugar, cream and vanilla until very smooth. Pour all but 1 cup into the prepared pan.
Add 1/2 cup of the filling to the raspberry puree, and the other half cup to
Bake at 350 degrees F for one hour. After 1 hour, turn off the oven, open the door, and allow the cheesecake to cool slowly until it gets to room temperature. Then place in the refrigerator and chill for at least 8 hours. Garnish as desired with raspberries or chocolate (or pansies).
Now along the right side are the pictures of what it looked like going together:
From top to bottom we have butter, dry ingredients sifted together,
Of course there is a story behind why the pan has waxed paper in it. It got lent out over the summer and came back with its shiny black coating all shredded and peeling. Yeah, ick. So I buttered it and stuck the waxed paper to it and am now shopping for a new 10" spring-form pan.
And for the record, I have tried both the package mix and the home-made versions of the crust, and the home-made version is
Below that we've got the beginnings of the filling. Four of the BIG blocks of cream cheese - I use the local store brand, plus eggs and whipping cream. This is not a low-fat thing. It's a cheesecake. You want low-fat, go make yourself a nice salad and leave me the hell alone. Go. Now.
Another thing that is useful to know is that while cream cheese might be smooth when it is still cold, the "smooth" you're looking for in the mixing process is "smooth and creamy and spreadable like peanut butter on hot toast" as opposed to "smooth but still stiff".
The recipe says to add the vanilla after the eggs, but long history has taught me that I never remember to add it there, so I put it in with my first egg. I do this no matter what I am baking. If it frigs with the end flavor, then so be it. If I don't do it that way, it simply never gets in at all.
It's important to make sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl when you add each egg or else you get big lumps of non-whipped
As you can see, I made the raspberry puree in my Magic Bullet. I love that thing. It is truly one of the most useful gadgets in my kitchen. Oh, when you get berries - if fresh are not available or too expensive out-of-season, make sure to get frozen whole berries that are not packed in any kind of syrup. The recipe depends on
I think this is the recipe that finally killed Old Yeller, my grandmother's circa 1938 Sunbeam Mixmaster stand mixer. Gawd but I loved that mixer. It was sturdy as hell, the base had a little metal spinny thing that allowed the white glass bowl to spin this way and that for easy scraping of the sides or adding ingredients here and there. Oh, man, it was just a marvel. Unfortunately, the
When the cheesecake has been in the oven for an hour, turn it off and open the door. This time the cheesecake was taller than I have ever made one before! As the cooler air of the kitchen hit it, the center began to sink, but not to black-hole-like proportions. It
By the time it was fully chilled, including a final blast of cold from 90 minutes spent in L's car in a howling snowstorm, the center of the cheesecake had sunk to just over two inches high. Not beautiful, but not horrid, either.
We brought it in from the car and took off the spring form pan, then carefully peeled off the waxed paper from the sides and bottom. It was touchy going, but not impossible. Not a thing you want to hurry through, that's for sure.
We tried to cut off the toasted brown top, but gave up when we realized that we would have to sacrifice some of the wonderful chocolate crust on the outside edge of the thing. Screw that! was
Dawn
~enjoy~
10 comments:
OMFG!! What a wonderful way to ring in a new year. That was udderly devine.
No kidding, babe. Moo.
monkeys had cut it with a grapefruit knife LMAO!
Oh, Dawn, I wish were there munching on that cheesecake now. I know how you cook.
Oh. My. God.
Here's to a happy, healthy, peaceful new year.
Whimper...oh how I wish I could fall face-first into a slice of that! Excuse me while I wipe the monitor clean, I may or may not have been licking the screen. ;)
Happy New Year, dear! May this year be many, many times better than last.
I am a foodie. So this post was right up my alley.
The cheesecake looks marvelous! I love good food and desserts.
That looks fantastic.
Happy New Year!
Oh yeah...think I'm going to make this...soon.
Yum-MAY
and i didnt get a piece?
LOL
happy new year to all of you up in Maine
Post a Comment