This one is just a quick follow up of my last one, Zen and the Art of Cheesecake.
My Thanksgiving Day Masterpiece:
I'm up in the night with a cup of tea.
Thinking of my middle of the night, tea drinking British friend, Gerry.
Hi Gerry, if you are reading this!
So it was 3:40 am when I put my teapot on the stove to boil. I sat with a candle and some cards for a bit and then I went into the kitchen for a snack. There is still some of my GORGEOUS Thanksgiving Day cheesecake left in the refrigerator that my visiting son hasn't polished off yet. With my help of course.
I wrote my last article a couple of days ago, about the new cheesecake pan (and the fact that I haven't made one of these in over 8 months)! Then I decided to go for it and make one for the holiday. I had all of my ingredients rounded up, most of them totally by accident. Only... I went to bed Wednesday night, thinking it was still Tuesday! So I had to scramble. But I got it together and came up with this one. As surprised as I am, I think this is the best one that I've made, in the four years I've lived in this house. And the four years I've been on this quest - to produce the perfect cheesecake, especially for my location. High altitude, the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
I got a new recipe to try for the last one, but I only got to use it that once! After which, my old springform pan decided that I needed to step back and take a break on my gourmet baking hobby for awhile. The biggest difference in this recipe from my last one? Butter. And this time I made a point to use unsalted butter as the recipe calls for, rather than just make do with what I normally keep on hand for my usual household butter supply.
This one is cranberry vanilla. I know I could have gone with pumpkin to be more traditional, but I had been considering the cranberry as one of my possibilities for ingredient combinations in the past. AND I had a bag of frozen, organic cranberries in the freezer that was looking for an excuse to be used in something good. I was going with the Thanskgiving cranberry tradition. Only cranberry for dessert in place of cranberries with dinner.
I am so amazed at how perfect in height and texture this one is!! Just like a classic NY cheesecake. Which is what I've been striving for. The cheese blend could be a bit smoother and more silky ... more puddinglike. But it held together well. It seems the correct stiffness. My bottom crust held together perfectly (which is a trick with gluten free baking) , and even the outter crust was just the right crunchy. I'm realizing that the long baking time at lower temperature is what gets it that way, 3 hours and 9 minutes at 325 degrees.
See?
Note how tall and even it is. Close to level on the top.
The cheese and cranberry combination leaves just a little bit of sourness on the tongue. I'm always working on this!! It is a trick to figure out the perfect blend of cheese and sugar for the ingredient flavors you choose. I normally back off on the amount of sugar noted for most recipes by at least a third or even half. With cheesecake, if you don't use enough sugar, your pie will have a residual sourness that distracts from the other flavors. If I were to try making this variety again, I would add pomegranate for a little more color and to see if it would bring out the cranberry flavor just a bit. I wouldn't want to increase the amount of cranberries though, in order to avoid bringing out that little harsh bite that it has. This one is just right, not overwhelming but you can taste it ... and I would add just a bit more sugar.
All in all, this one is awesome!
Sorry my pics are slightly out of focus.
It's just in time for me to take an early morning nap now. :)
Have a good day peeps!
LR 11/24/2018
Zen and the Art of Cheesecake
https://steemit.com/cooking/@mymoontao/zen-and-the-art-of-cheesecake
