What flavor is your cheesecake?
Snow is predicted yet again tonight. Bummer. I really need something to smile about. Cheesecake makes me smile every time. It makes me smile when I make it, eat it, read recipes for it. Take me to The Cheesecake Factory and I'm a babbling, giddy idiot just standing in front of the refrigerated case beholding all those creamy, cheesy cakey-thingys. Even the little papers dividing the slices are so cute. How can I be expected to choose just one? I don't, I won't, I can't possibly.
Does cheesecake make you happy? Pumpkin with gingersnap crust topped with praline pecans, cappucino chocolate chunk, eggnog with amaretti crust, white chocolate with red raspberry swirls or classic New York style - simple, straight-forward, always luscious. I've made them all and eaten them all and then some...
What is your favorite cheesecake flavor? Do you bake them, buy them or restrict yourself to the occasional dessert out? Want to share a recipe? Anyway, keep smiling!
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26 Comments:
Not a big sweets person, but when I'm in the mood, cheesecake is awesome. One slice is like a meal for me, and that's usually how I eat it -- dessert in lieu of dinner, anyone?
I like it with fruit, but mostly, I just love a nice traditional Italian-style recipe.
Do you make it, frederika? If you do, will you mail me a piece? Pretty please?
LoCo at 11:35PM on 02/25/08
I never liked flavored cheesecake until I made one with passionfruit. About 1/2 cup of puree added to the Cook's Illustrated recipe for a New York Style cheesecake. And one extra egg yolk to offset the extra liquid. Chocolate cookie crust. It was unbelievably good!
kjgibson at 11:39PM on 02/25/08
plain vanilla for me. i love the tang of the cheese and the sour cream topping and don't like to mask them with other flavors. i made a cheesecake to celebrate my birthday last year. it was only by a supreme act of will that i managed to share it.
cybercita at 12:23AM on 02/26/08
i'm not a really big fan of cheesecake, but I make it for my husband, who is. If i were a cheesecake fan, my choice would be marble with raspberry sauce
beth1 at 12:25AM on 02/26/08
Snow is probably going to prevent me from enjoying some Cheesecake Factory cheesecake tomorrow as it appears my out of town-3 hour round trip-doctor's appt/day of fun in Columbus, won't be happening and I'm soooo not happy with the weather! I'm also going to miss Sur La Table, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Crate and Barrel, and Penzey's spices. Humbug!
Anywho, cheesecake has been my lifelong favorite dessert, made by mom every b'day. Then my sister and I found some awesome recipes and we're the cheesecake bakers now. She prefers Chantal's NY Cheesecake recipe from allrecipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chantals-New-York-Cheesecake/Detail.aspx
I prefer the Cooks Illustrated NY style recipe with sour cream topping. How can you go wrong with 5 packages of cream cheese you know!? I am a bit of a purist though, Cheesecake Factory does have some pretty good blends, but I'll take NY Style anyday.
bobcatsteph3 at 12:28AM on 02/26/08
My boyfriend makes excellent desserts. . .my absolute favorite being his Green Tea Cheesecake! He uses ginger snaps for the crust and it comes out of the oven a lovely shade of avocado. In addition to cream cheese he also uses Queso Blanco. It's divine!
We have weekly dinners at my brother's house. . .he took this cheesecake as a nice gesture. If they didn't already like him. . .they certainly love him now!
flame at 2:34AM on 02/26/08
in this one aspect of life I'm a tradisionalist, a good Italian Cheesecake is the best thing in the world, Plain only. Maybe other types need the help of fancy flavors, but a real cheesecake has enough contrasting flavors to keep me happy! Who's baking?
huney_bumper at 7:51AM on 02/26/08
The weather outside is frightful, but a cheesecake inside would be delightful! (If you can just imagine that to music...hummmm) Anyway, the snow is stacking up, with no end in sight. Blick.
For many years, I worked in an office with 10 females and 3 males. So at least 13 times a year, we had a big, fat cake or dessert of some kind. If the Bday person was a cheesecake lover, I was nominated to bake. That was no problem because I could get creative with the recipes and they were always well received, plus I could get my cheesecake fix without having to dispense with the whole cake myself. Well, I've moved from there and I don't really know anyone in my new area to share cheesecake with. Here's the big question - has anyone tried to halve a cheesecake recipe to make one in a tart pan? I was thinking that could be the perfect answer for me!
frederika at 10:09AM on 02/26/08
I love a little (or a lot of) lemon, myself. But folks get the most excited over my Oreo cheesecake.
lemons at 10:12AM on 02/26/08
I don't really like cheesecake, but I LOVE to make it. I make one that's like an Almond Joy, it's really fun -- chocolate-almond crust, coconut cheesecake, coconut-ganache glaze, topped with toasted sliced almonds and toasted coconut.
frederika - I haven't halved and made in a tart pan, but I have made mini cheesecakes in my muffin tin. Line the cups with paper, drop a vanilla wafer or gingersnap in the bottom, pour in the batter and bake -- you don't even need a waterbath!
CookiePie at 10:15AM on 02/26/08
pumpkin ftw! gingersnap pecan crust with cinnamon whipped cream and praline pecans. i'm not a fan of overly sweet, the cheesecake itself is mildly sweet and the praline adds a little more. i know what i'm making this weekend!
has anyone tried making cheesecake with mascarpone? success?
protest at 10:41AM on 02/26/08
Cheesecake. Mmmmmmmmm. New York style. Miss Grimble's. Plain. An old friend used to make her version of a tuxedo cake - chocolate wafer crumb crust, ny cheese cake bottom 2/3rds, top 1/3 chocolate mouse top, covered in a chocolate ganache. It was the most awesome sweet I've ever eaten. Much better than any other version I've ever had of Tuxedo Cake.
chisai at 10:57AM on 02/26/08
I love lemon cheesecake, the kind that's so dense, you have to lick it off the fork. I really want to make rhubarb-Stilton cheesecake sometime, though - it's a dessert course and cheese course rolled into one!
thebasilqueen at 11:13AM on 02/26/08
CookiePie beat me to it... make cheesecake tarts in muffin tins. Or take a couple of slices of a whole cheesecake for yourself, and send the remaining slices to work with hubby. His colleagues can eat it while they look out the office windows at the bison herd. ;-p
@protest, I don't make cheesecake, but I've had it made with mascarpone and it was SO delish...
LoCo at 11:27AM on 02/26/08
Not a big sweet eater, but I make at least 6-8 cheesecakes for the company Christmas party every year...always throw in one or two new ones but they Have to have: Cherry Cordial, Lemon Curd and Ginger, Carmel Toffee, & Kahlua Raspberry. Banana Split was fun...
You can give me a Ham & Cheese-Cake, please...as an appetizer with crostini!
Cary at 1:20PM on 02/26/08
@ CookiePie - your cheesecake sounds really delicious!
I don't bake them (mostly, because I would have to eat a whole cheesecake all by myself then, and I don't think I'm up for it:-)), but I do, occasionally, indulge in a slice. My favourites would be white chocolate with raspberries and lemon curd. I also prefer all my cakes, including cheesecakes, light and mousse-y.
For whatever reason, I can't stand chocolate cheesecake. I love chocolate and I love cheesecake, but chocolate cheesecake just doesn't work for me. Sometimes two things that are good on their own just don't necessarily become another good thing when combined...
brooke29 at 1:49PM on 02/26/08
Mmmm NY style cheesecakes, plain. (yes, I leave the crust/bottom behind) It's so dense and rich. Odd thing is that as much as I love it, I only eat 2-3 slices/year when the craving hits.
That reminds me of how lucky we were (past tense *sigh*) at work to have someone who loved to bake any and all things. Every few weeks, he would bring in a cake, pie, pastries, etc. that he'd make from scratch. He would bake 2-3 huuuge cheesecakes every few months, with his wife helping him bring them in for the ten of us to eat. Fortunately, other co-workers outside the section would wander by and help us eat them. o.O
Cassaendra at 1:49PM on 02/26/08
Friends episode with the cheesecake, anyone? I love every kind of cheesecake. The best I've had is at a local Italian place - a vanilla bean cheesecake, holy yum!!! The best I've made was pumpkin, caramel apple, and a few of my own little creations.
alyssazor at 2:06PM on 02/26/08
I'm partial to NY style and just a sour cream topping is delicious. I have also enjoyed it with a chocolate crust and raspberries and sauce. My sister made an Oreo cheesecake that was maybe my favorite ever, and I don't care much for the middle of Oreos. Bailey's is great. Pumpkin? I'd rather have it in pie or ice cream. Same with chocolate. I'm more of a cheesecake purist at heart. Junior's anyone?
PerkyMac at 2:15PM on 02/26/08
Cheesecake is my specialty so I don't particularly care for the cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory because it's way too whipped for me. A cheesecake should have enough weight so if it falls on your foot, it will break a toe.
I do Nutella cheesecake, Key Lime, Mocha, Mango. Lemon, Strawberry, Bailey's...and Salmon. (You bake the salmon cheesecake with a bread crumb crust and salmon roe garnish with chives...then make a big divot in the edge and smear it on a cracker so people will know what to do).
Perhaps my most favorite cheesecake experience was the Wedding Cheesecake I made while I lived in Colorado. I made it for a chef (but no pressure...) and his very granola wife. I had to assemble the whole thing at a campsite. I brought just about every piece of cake garnishing equipment I owned. Hopefully the link will take you to the cake. From top left: Key Lime with Coconut Crust; Mango with Vanilla Wafer Crust; Mocha with Chocolate Wafer Crust; Orange/Grand Marnier with Coconut Crust; Chocolate/Raspberry with Chocolate Wafer Crust and the big honkin' cake at the bottom right was Plain with Graham Cracker Crust.
chiff0nade at 3:17PM on 02/26/08
Cheesecake is my all-time favorite dessert...especially on my birthday. I'm partial to very dense, most any-flavor, crustless & soo cold it's almost frozen...served on a chilled plate.
JEP at 4:37PM on 02/26/08
Thank you sooo much SE readers! I'm just grinning from ear to ear just reading about all your beautiful cheesecakes!!!
@ protest - A gal I worked with got so jazzed about making a cheesecake that she tried a chocolate mascarpone one when she was having guests. Her very first one. I don't know what she did but it never set up and just kind of splooped there on the plate. She 911'ed me and I ran over to her house to help. We ended up pouring ganache all over it to make it servable. It was edible but I wouldn't say totally successful. I've never used mascarpone myself, but I really would have no hesitation about trying it.
@chiff - Tell me about the Nutella one! Do you just use that instead of pb?
I've had some wildly successful cakes but I must say my own personal fav was the cappucino and toffee chunk (Heath bar) w/ Kahlua whipped cream.
I forgot about the Friends episode! Who was on the floor in the hall with Rachel scarfing down the cake????
frederika at 10:19PM on 02/26/08
Ohhhh, Flame- please post the recipe for your boyfriend's green tea cheesecake. It sounds divine! My favorite is chocolate raspberry cheesecake.
sbelle at 11:21PM on 02/26/08
I like my cheesecake plain, for the most part.
However, when I lived in Chicago, the Eli's Cheesecake factory was near where I lived. I'd go there to buy seconds. Mostly it was stuff like a little crack in the top, or some uneven browning. And I adored their almond cheesecake. It wasn't strongly flavored, just a hint of almond, and then some sliced almonds around the sides.
They also had a pumpkin cheesecake during the holidays that was pretty darned good. It wasn't really strongly flavored, which is probably why I liked it.
Oddly enough, I dislike chocolate cheesecake, even though I like chocolate.
Oh, gee, now I'm craving cheesecake.
dbcurrie at 1:22AM on 02/27/08
I haven't been to Cheesecake Factory in years, but I remember the last cheesecake I had there: the Jamocha. It had so much caffeine and sugar that half a slice (who can eat the whole thing?) had me bouncing off the walls for hours. I had the remaining half for breakfast the next day, no coffee required that morning!
I love a plain "NYStyle" Cheesecake with a few fresh strwberries. I forget how good cheesecake is until I have a bite then I wonder why I don't order it more often.
Hmm, I have a ton of cream cheese left from a yen for pecan tassies...maybe it's time for cheesecake.
wookie at 2:52AM on 02/27/08
@wookie - isn't it always time for cheesecake?!?!
frederika at 10:03AM on 02/27/08