Savory Herb Cheesecake 1.1
Tomorrow we are grilling salmon for the 4th and I thought that my cheesecake would pair wonderfully with that (I also wanted to show my newest creation off to my family). Rather than doing minis I decided to do the full size deal. I also realized that the 11oz package of goat cheese I bought was $11 something instead of $1 something and the price sticker had been torn. So I went with the 5oz package instead. Why is the small package not half the size of the large is my question?

So I used the same 24oz of cream cheese and 8oz of sour cream, just changed to 5oz of goat cheese. I used 4 eggs, and about the same amount of herbs (probably closer to a full cup, though not packed, of chopped herbs). I did increase the balsamic to about a quarter cup, perhaps a little more. The batter had a rich cream color rather than white.

Baked it for an hour in a water bath (no spring form pan here, I use a 3" deep 9" cake pan lined with parchment on the bottoms and sides, i'll flip it upside down onto a flat plate and then flip it again onto the serving plate, spring forms leak if you cook in a water bath but water baths are the only way to ensure that the cake doesn't crack, though the flour helps) up to the edge of the batter level in the pan. Let it cool in the oven for 15 minutes with the door cracked. Now it is cooling overnight in the fridge before I remove it from the pan.

The surface of the cake looks beautiful, much better than the minis do, they always get wrinkly. Looks aren't everything but they are something.

Tomorrow we shall see how it worked out with the modifications!
- posted by Nick @ 7/04/2008 01:09:00 AM | 0 comments

 

- posted by Nick @ 6/30/2008 03:34:00 AM | 1 comments

 
My latest cooking adventures
...for the dinner tomorrow night at the church.

I decided to make mini cheesecakes, but rather than just doing sweet ones I decided to try some savory ones as well. I searched around and found a few recipes but in the end I modified a basic cheesecake recipe.

I used cream cheese, but left a quarter of it out--replacing it with sour cream and goat cheese to give it some bite. I gathered some basil, oregano and mint from my pots outside and chopped them up fine, mixing them into the cheese along with some black pepper and some balsamic vinegar.

The crust, which is a little too crumbly to be eaten neatly so it is good that this is a dinner and not just a snack event, I made with Triscuit crumbs, butter, a touch of sugar (about a third of what would go into a sweet cheesecake crust) and chopped up rosemary (again, from my pots). I blind baked the crust, but with less sugar coupled with the fact that triscuit crumbs aren't as absorbent the crusts didn't get hard. I'll have to experiment, either with bread crumbs or just abandoning the crumb crust and going with a pastry crust next time.

**update: After cooling for a couple of hours in the fridge the crust is a lot more solid and less messy.**

Other than the crust they turned out great, and the crust is tasty, just too messy.

I ended up adding some cocoa powder and chocolate chips to half of the sweet mix.

Mini Savory Herb Cheesecakes

Yield: 2 dozen 2.75" muffin sized cheesecakes

Crust:

• 1 1/3 cups Triscuit crumbs
  
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
  
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  
• 4 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
  

Cake:

• 24oz cream cheese, softened (3 packages)
  
• 8oz sour cream
  
• 11oz goat cheese, softened
  
• 4 large eggs
  
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1/3 cup fresh herbs, chopped (I used basil, oregano, and mint)
  
• Fresh ground black pepper
  
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (I might try 2 next time)
  
• 3 tablespoons AP flour
  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325f. Combine crust ingredients and mix well. Place muffin papers in tin, spoon mixture into liners (1 heaping teaspoon per cup) and press down. Blind bake 10 minutes. (Blind baking is the act of baking a crust sans filling.)

Mix cream cheese, sour cream, goat cheese, flour and eggs until smooth and fluffy. Fold in remaining ingredients. Spoon mixture into prepared muffin papers with baked crusts, a heaping tablespoon should fill the cups, fill to the top. Bake at 425f for 20 minutes, remove from oven and cool overnight.


Mini Cheesecakes

Yield: 6 2.75" muffin sized cheesecakes
(This the other recipe could obviously be scaled back, but as it is it uses standard sized packages of sour cream and goat cheese)

Crust:

• 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
  
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
  
• 1 tablespoons sugar
  

Cake:

• 8oz cream cheese, softened (1 packages)
  
• 1 large egg
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
  
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
  
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325f. Combine crust ingredients and mix well. Place muffin papers in tin, spoon mixture into liners (1 heaping teaspoon per cup) and press down. Blind bake 5 minutes. (Note the time difference between the first recipe, these crusts will burn if you leave them in much longer than 5 minutes!)

Mix remaining ingredients together until smooth. Spoon mixture into prepared muffin papers with baked crusts, a heaping tablespoon should fill the cups, fill to the top. Bake at 425f for 20 minutes, remove from oven and cool overnight.


I forgot until just now that I usually add fresh grated nutmeg to this recipe, sad. A teaspoon should be fine in the above recipe. I added about a quarter cup of cocoa powder and some chocolate chips to a double recipe of the above. Could probably have added a little more cocoa powder. If I were planning ahead I would have used chocolate graham crackers for the crusts to do chocolate cheesecakes with.
- posted by Nick @ 6/29/2008 12:20:00 AM | 0 comments