cheesecake for breakfast

On Sunday morning while Dan and the kids were out working in the garden I debated whether to put my feet up and knit or take the opportunity to bake on my lonesome. The possibility of bread, buns and cake was too tempting so I made a terrific mess and some yummy treats. I was rather surprised how quickly I could throw together pans and trays of baking without my usual helpers penning me in on all sides with their chairs…but of course I love the company, mostly. This time it was nice to move quickly around the kitchen gathering what I needed and lost in my own thoughts.

A few weeks ago Dan had brought home a load of cream cheese to bake up one of his famous cheesecakes but never got around to doing it. I decided it was time to soften the cream cheese and give it a go myself. Turns out there isn’t any mystery to making this cake – just yummy goodness.

We use this recipe for The Perfect Cheesecake and I’d have to agree with the title. I’m a New York Style Cheesecake kind of gal – spare me the adulterations, I want it plain and simple. This cheesecake is delightfully cheesy with the lovely hint of lemon tang and vanilla cream to even it off. Absolutely divine.

I started with a graham cracker crust. Graham cracker crumbs, flour, sugar, salt and melted butter pressed into a springform pan and baked at 350°F for 15 minutes. Remove it from the oven and lower the temp to 300°F.

I have to admit the smell of this crust really had me craving banana cream pie (not usually a favourite of mine) but I persisted with the cheesecake and tried not to get distracted by pie…although banana cream pie may just have been added to my list of must-bake desserts.

Where was I?

Cheesecake, right…

I gathered my ingredients and starting by mixing the softened cream cheese with the paddle on my mixer until it was smooth (the eggs should be at room temperature so have them out of the fridge while you prepare the other steps).

Then I scraped the seeds from this precious vanilla bean.

Using a sharp knife cut through the bean lengthwise from end to end. Be careful to cut only through the top of the bean – do not cut all the way through.

Using the back of your knife scrape along the seed again from tip to tip. The seeds will ooze out of the bean onto your knife.

Add the vanilla seeds to your cream cheese along with the sugar, flour, vanilla extract, lemon zest and salt. Beat it around until it is combined. At this point you need to sample…simply because this kind of delicious needs sampling.

Add in the eggs, one a time, mixing after each addition. The filling is ready!

Take your graham crust and wrap the pan tightly in tinfoil. The cake needs to bake in a water bath so this is a very important step – while we’re here boil a kettle-full of water.

Wrap one way and then the other. As Dan told me, “It’s no time to be thrifty with foil.”

Once it is wrapped place it into a large dish which will hold enough water to cover the bottom inch of the springform pan.

Pour in that super yummy filling. Then pour boiling water around the springform pan to an inch above the bottom of the pan.

Bake it in the oven at 300°F for 90 minutes with the door cracked open. That last step was kind of a pain considering the oven required constant supervision – so this baby was baked after the littles were in bed.

When the top is lightly browned (ours ended up a little more golden than I would have liked) allow it to cool for an hour or so…then…and this is going to require some serious strength on your part – refrigerate overnight. Cruel isn’t it?? I’m forever doomed to neglect reading a recipe all the way through before diving in so my dreams of Mother’s Day cheesecake were crushed.

But I figure if there was ever a perfect time to eat cheesecake it’s breakfast, right? I’ve got all day to work off the fat and, ahem, all day to think about sneaking another slice.

And would you believe we ate the whole cake before I got a picture…oops. Guess I need to make another one soon. I’ll add a picture when I do but in the meantime this recipe needs to be shared.

The Perfect Cheesecake

by Anna Olsen with a couple small modifications by me

This recipe makes a huge cake but I’ve never found the need to make it smaller…wonder why?

Crust

• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cup graham crumbs
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• dash of salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Filling

• 4 – 250 gram packages of cream cheese (we’ve found that you can replace up to two of these with light cream cheese – but the list of ingredients is generally longer and more mysterious on the light variety)
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• zest of one or two lemons (I use two because I have a weakness)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 egg, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine crust ingredients until crumbly and press into a buttered 10-inch springform pan. Bake for 15 minutes.

Reduce the oven to 300°F. Beat cheese until smooth. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean (as shown above) and add to the cheese along with the sugar, flour, vanilla extract, lemon zest and salt. Mix well to combine. Mix in the eggs one at a time until combined.

Boil a kettle of water. Prepare springform pan for water bath by wrapping tightly in tin foil. Place pan in a larger pan or oven-safe dish at least three inches deep. Pour the filling over the crust in the springform pan. Pour the boiling water into the large pan around the springform pan until the water rises one inch up the side of your pan.

Place in the oven and bake for 90 minutes with the door of the oven ajar. Remove pan from the water bath and allow the cheesecake to cool at room temperature for one hour, then chill in the refrigerator overnight.

Before removing from the springform pan run a knife along the edge of the cake. Slice into wedges with a sharp knife to serve.

This cake is delicious on its own but it is beautiful served with slices of mango, berries or candied lemon zest.

Next time I’ll try to snap a picture before it’s completely devoured! Let me know if you try it out – and snap a photo if you do!