O O O-O-O, O Oreo, whats in the middle...

I don't like Oreos that much, but even I love Oreo cheesecake.  I haven't the slightest clue where I found this recipe either.  I know that last summer I wanted to make an Oreo cheesecake and so I searched recipes online, thats about it.  I am also not entirely sure what happened here, I don't remember having any problems with this cheesecake before, but apparently this is another case of too much filling.  I made it work though, just... don't ask me how!

Here is my recipe

3/4 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs
4 tablespoons melted butter

4 packages of cream cheese
1 1/4 cup sugar
4 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
whole buncha oreos cut into quarters

Preheat oven to 425

Mix melted butter and graham crackers crumbs, press into pan to make crust.  Lay a few of the oreo pieces on top of the crust.

Beat the cream cheese and sugar together until fluffy.  Mix in flour, followed by the eggs one at a time.  add whipping cream and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Pour half of the filling into the pan, and cover with oreo pieces.  Slowly pour the rest of the batter into the pan, oreo pieces will start to float up.  Add more oreo pieces to the top of the cake.

Cook at 425 for 15 minutes then lower the heat to 225... not sure how long

The 225 cooking time is where I went wrong.  The recipe called for 50 minutes, but I knew it would be longer than that.  The recipe made a LOT of filling, but I wanted to use it all.  So I set the timer for 50 minutes, and checked it.  The cake was really wobbly, and I knew it needed more time.  I set the timer for 20 minutes and walked away.  Some unknown amount of time later I suddenly realized I had somehow missed the ring of the timer.  I raced into the kitchen and the timer had gotten stuck.  I have no idea how long it was in there, maybe 45 minutes.  It still wasn't done.  I set another 20 minutes, and this time it was done.

It was puffy!  And a pretty golden color.  I wouldn't exactly -want- a cheesecake to come out this color, but I think that with as long as it took to cook this, it was unavoidable.  Maybe if I didn't do the switching temp thing it would be prettier and cook faster.  We'll see next time!

Oreo cheesecake does not cut nice.  The oreo piece snag on the knife... it's a mess.  I probably could have done a better job of it though.  But it was good!  You can see the texture, it was perfect.  I am eating some now!!!  Nom nom nom...

Woops...

Ok, so... this was supposed to be white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.  I have made it before, and it came out fine.  But to be perfectly honest I don't remember exactly how I made it last time.  I pulled my recipe from two others, and put my own spin on it.  Basically what happened was I ended up with enough filling for two normal sized cheesecakes.  However I don't think that cutting my recipe in half would be the way to remedy this.

I started with a chocolate crust, made from one cup of chocolate graham cracker crumbs, and 1/4 cup of butter.  Crust was a little thicker than I like... 3/4 cup of crumbs next time.  Then I covered the crust with an entire 16 ounce bag of frozen raspberries.  Normally I use fresh, but thats a little hard to come by in February, in Kentucky.  I had let the raspberries sit out for about an hour to thaw before I put them in the pan so that they would at least be separated from each other.

That part came out just fine, it was the filling I messed up...  I mixed together 3 bars of cream cheese and half a cup of sugar.  This is why I can't jsut cut the entire recipe in half, the cheesecake needs to have 3 bars of cream cheese and 1/2 cup of sugar as a base or it just won't be cheesecake.

Then, one at a time, I added in 3 whole eggs, and 3 egg yolks.  When the eggs were well mixed in I added 1tsp. of vanilla and 2tbsp. of flour.

While I was doing this I had a 12 ounce bag of white chocolate chips melting in my chocolate pot.  When that was good and smooth I mixed it with 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream that I had warmed in the microwave for 30 seconds.  I mixed this until it was smooth and added it to the filling.

This was where I noticed just how much there was in my mixer bowl.  It was pretty full.  So was my springform pan!

I have never had a cheesecake come up this high in the pan.  I didn't have room to wrap the foil over the edges, and was barely able to get it out of the oven.  When I did I was not surprised by what I found.

The top of the cake was browned, and when I ran an knife around the edge to separate it from the pan I pulled out cheesecake flavored pudding.  The bottom half of the cake ended up soggy.  Among other changes I am most definitely going to use less of the chocolate and cream mixture, maybe just nix the cream altogether.    We'll see!

Why do they call it -key- lime anyway?

Ok, so, the Key Lime is a type of lime named after the Florida keys, and thats where the name of the dessert comes from.  Yay Wikipedia!  Persian Limes are most likely what I used though.  Next time I am looking for real Key Limes, they sound a little bit better for these purposes.  I suppose thats why the dessert got named after them!  Anyway, on with the cheesecake!

Back to my good friend allrecipes.com.  I used the Philadelphia Key Lime Cheesecake recipe again, but this time I followed it properly.  No Jello.  It should go without saying, I used the generic of everything listed here.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups HONEY MAID Graham Cracker Crumbs
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 3 (250 g) packages PHILADELPHIA Light Brick Cream Cheese Spread, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 limes, zested and juiced
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup thawed COOL WHIP Light Whipped Topping

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix graham crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 9 inch springform pan.
2. Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add lime peel and juice; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust.
3. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until centre is almost set. Run knife or metal spatula around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving. Top with whipped topping just before serving. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

I basically followed these directions to the letter, with only minor deviations.  

When I pulled my box of graham crackers crumbs out of the pantry I didn't quite have enough.  The recipe called for 1 1/4 cup, I had about 1 cup.  I still used 1/4 cup of butter though.  I didn't notice I was low on the crumbs until after the butter was melted.  So I just used what I had.  The mixture only just covered the bottom of my pan.  It was a much thinner crust that I am used to, and I thought it was a lot better that way.  Sometimes it seems like there is just too much graham cracker, and it takes away from the rest of the flavor.


After I had my crust ready, I decided I should take care of the limes, since I had never zested a lime before, and I didn't know how it would go.

It sucked.  I didn't realize quit how hard I would have to push the lime into the grater, and I was worried I would grate my fingers!  I didn't though, somehow.  Once I had finished both limes, I popped them into the juicer on my food processor and set all that aside to make the filling.  


The filling in this recipe is really smooth.  I think I like it better with a little bit of flour, but I didn't do that here. I tossed in the zest and lime juice, and got that all mixed in well.  There were tiny green flecks all it in.  I had never had key lime anything before, so I wasn't really sure what to expect.  I guess tiny green flecks are what to expect!  

It looked really pretty when I pulled it out of the oven.  The top was really smooth.

It didn't last though.  The edges pulled apart really easily.  I read somewhere to lightly grease the inside of the pan so this doesn't happen.  I will try that next time.  


This was really good.  I didn't like the texture though, it wasn't what you expect from cheesecake.  I think it's safe to say now that I do not like the Philadelphia recipes.  I'll be trying something a little more fun next week.

Jello flavored cheesecake, take 1!

So I got this idea while I was grocery shopping last week, that maybe I could use a Jello packet to flavor a cheesecake.  I think the reason I came  up with the idea was because I just don't have the tools and knowledge yet to make a lemon cheesecake, and it sounded SO good at the time.  So, after looking in what seemed like every aisle at Wal-Mart, I found a package of lemon Jello.  Fifty cents sounded pretty good!  I was afraid the Jello might do something really awful to the texture.  I didn't want a chewy cheesecake, but you'll never know unless you try it!  I took the Philadelphia Key Lime Cheesecake recipe from allrecipes.com and replaced the lime zest and juice with a packet of lemon Jello.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups HONEY MAID Graham Cracker Crumbs  ( can you say generic? )
• 1/4 cup butter, melted  
• 3 (250 g) packages PHILADELPHIA Light Brick Cream Cheese Spread, softened  ( I totally used Great Value cream cheese )
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 packet lemon Jello
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup thawed COOL WHIP Light Whipped Topping  ( Once again, Wal-Mart brand is fine! )

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix graham crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 9 inch springform pan.
2. Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add Jello powder; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust.
3. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until centre is almost set. Run knife or metal spatula around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving. Top with whipped topping just before serving. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

I followed this exactly, only substituting the lemon Jello for the lime zest and juice.  It was good.  The texture wasn't what you normally expect from cheesecake, but it wasn't rubbery either.  It lacked the creamy smooth texture you want from a cheesecake, but it was still pretty good.  It's not perfect though.  Next time I make this I am going to add 2 egg yolks and 2 tablespoons of flour.  One thing to be said though is, this didn't last well.  We finished it 4 or 5 days after I made it, and it had gotten a little rubbery.  If I can't get it right with Jello though, I think I am going to try pudding!  We'll see. ^_^

This is right after I pulled it out of the oven.  You can see in the picture that the firmer texture cased the edges to break up a little bit as I cut around it.

Topped with cool whip after being allowed to chill in the fridge for a few hours.  I noticed that this cheesecake didn't have to set overnight, we cut it about 3 hours after it came out of the oven, so it only chilled for about 2 hours.  It looks better here, but I would certainly have to trim up the outside of it if I was going to serve it to anyone else.