Groceries are unpacked, dishes are put away, counters clean, and my eggs, butter and cream cheese are setting out to soften. That's right, my friends, today I am blogging WHILE I'm baking! I am bringing you into my kitchen to experience this brand new cheesecake recipe with me. So tuck those elbows in (get it...? because we're all cramped in here together...?) and get ready for some excitement!
Today's subject is a Hint of Mint Cheesecake with a Lime and Vanilla Wafer crust, and a Strawberry Limeade syrup to garnish. Very summery, right!? I'm pretty excited about it.
As I believe I've said before, cheesecakes are kind of my niche. I create my own recipes, and I constantly surprise myself with what I am able to pull off. I also never turn down a cheesecake challenge. While I'm too proud or stingy or paranoid to share my recipes with you, I will gladly offer tips along the way, and perhaps even some pictures of the process.
My first tip is this: use parchment paper.
As you can see by the above picture, I have trapped a piece of parchment paper in the springform pan. This will make it WAY easier to remove the cheesecake once it has been refrigerated, and to move it to a cake board. If you are just eating your cake at home, I would still use the parchment as it will protect your pan from knife marks.
I'm going to go ahead and give you another piece of advice before I get started - get a cake tester. In many recipes I've had to use a cake tester to separate the cake from the sides of the pan. Using a cake tester instead of a knife will save your pan a lot of unwanted scratches, but it will also be less likely to shave off pieces of the cake itself.
Okay, on to baking! *music plays*
Alright. The crust is in the oven. I don't like a very thick crust, nor a very heavy one. So I don't use as much butter as many New York Cheesecake recipes will call for, nor do I push it up the sides of my pan. I think my husband likes even less crust than I do. To us, crust is just an accent to the cake.
And so, on to the cake....
*music plays*
When I'm making a new recipe, I tend to kind of wing it. And on some aspects, I don't even measure my ingredients (I'm trying to get better about that). So I have no idea how much of anything I just put in my crust, lol. And I'm roughly estimating how much sugar I put in the cake batter.... And the Strawberry Limeade topping...yeah, don't even ask me.
Another tip: If you're a beginner, don't do that. Most baking is pretty precise and if you "eyeball" an ingredient it could mean the difference between cake and pudding...figuratively speaking.
The cake is ready to pour into the batter! Yay! First, here's a picture of my toasted crust:
Mmm....so far this tastes really good. I'm excited to try the crust, too. I've never used vanilla wafers for a crust. Now, I didn't put this cake in the oven with a
water bath. Using a water bath for your cheesecake really helps ensure that it will cook evenly, and that the sides and top won't be brown while the center is still wiggly. I don't have a large enough/deep enough pan to do a water bath, so I just lower the temperature. My oven cooks hot anyway, though, so I always start my cakes at the minimum amount of time and work my way upwards until it is done. So I'll meet you back here in 30 minutes.
*REALLY long commercial (and dinner) break*
Alright, so it took an etra twenty minutes, but better safe than sorry. So now the cake is out cooling, and in one hour I will remove the sides of the springform pan.
Springform is removed, and cake is continuing to cool for an additional hour, at which point I will put it in the refrigerator overnight. I will update in the morning with how it tastes. :)
Morning: The cheesecake is wonderful. The cake itself is pretty sweet, and the mint is really coming through after sitting all night. The lime in the crust adds a nice little kick to the flavor, and the crust is perfectly light, giving a nice accent to the texture of the cake. The strawberry limeade syrup I made, with the tartness of the lime and sweet of the strawberry, adds a raspberry-like quality to the syrup. This is a really nice contrast to the sweetness of the cake, giving it a really nice balance all around. It's a very light, very summery cake, and I'm very proud to be sharing it with my friends today. :)
