BEA’S CHEESECAKES – A Holiday Tradition – PART I

It’s Turkey Day time again, and that means Brian makes his famous cheesecakes for the Hogan Family Thanksgiving Feast – held annually at sister Terry’s house in San Diego. This year was no exception, as Brian made not one, not two, but THREE cheesecakes for dessert.

Now seemed like the perfect time to post this recipe on the blog. With the holidays continuing for the next month – Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza, Winter Solstice, New Years, etc., you never know when you’ll want to wow your friends/guests with a delicious, decadent dessert – and cheesecake fits that bill.

CAUTION: This is a “mix-intensive” process – so an electric mixing bowl is essential. Your arms would fall off and you would not get the requisite creaminess of the cheesecakes were you to try to hand mix this recipe. If you don’t have an electric mixing bowl, put it on your holiday wish list.
We’ll start with the basic cheesecake, and then move on to the other variations. Brian loosely bases his recipe on that in “A Piece of Cake” by Susan G. Purdy, and he wanted her to get some recognition in this post. [So if you’re reading my blog Ms. Purdy, please don’t sic your lawyers on me for not properly citing you.]

First the crust: For the basic cheesecake, Brian uses Pillsbury refrigerated ready-made piecrust. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees; let the crust dough come to room temperature, spread it out into an 8 inch spring form pan, press the dough firmly against the bottom and especially up the sides of the pan to prevent pull – away during cooking. Bake the crust 8 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove and cool.
While the pie crust is cooking (or “crusts are” if you’re doing multiple cheesecakes), you can get cookin’ on your filling:

You’ll need four (4) - 8 oz packages Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese (he’s tried store brand, and they just aren’t as good). Soften to room temperature, but not too mushy soft. We were golfing the afternoon before Brian made his cheesecakes, so he set them out on the patio table while we golfed. You may use this, or another preferred method of softening.

In an electric mixing bowl, add one package softened cream cheese at a time, creaming until smooth. Then add the next package, cream till blended and smooth; add the next, repeat and so on.
With the mixer still beating the cream cheese, add 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar – continue mixing till sugar is fully incorporated and the mixture is very creamy and soft.
Continue mixing, and add:
¼ teaspoon salt,
½ teaspoon grated zest of lemon,
½ teaspoon vanilla extract,
and beat until smooth and creamy.

(Brian made these while we were visiting his dad in Oceanside. Max couldn’t find a zester, but he did find a wood shaver, which Brian rejected.

Instead, he just shaved the lemon rind off and finely chopped it to make the zest.)

Continue beating the filling, and add 4 eggs – one at a time, mixing in each egg fully ‘till the mixture is smooth before adding the next egg.
Don’t forget to continually scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl throughout the entire process to avoid chunks of ingredients from accumulating.

Pour the filling into the spring pan over the prepared crust.

Your oven should still be heated to 400 from cooking the crust – now, put the spring form with your crust and filling in the oven and turn it up to 500 degrees for 12 minutes. Reduce heat to 200 degrees and continue cooking for one hour, or longer until the cheesecake is no longer liquid when giggled. Basically, if you’ve made jello – and who hasn’t – the cheesecake should giggle gently like a bowl full of jello when slightly giggled once. If the mixture sloshes around like gravy – it needs to continue cooking until that jello-giggle perfection is obtained.

Leave the cheesecake in the oven, turn off the oven and let the cheesecake sit in the oven for another hour minimum. If you’re going out for cocktails, don’t worry about just turning the oven off and letting the cheesecake sit there until you return – JUST MAKE SURE YOU TURN THE OVEN OFF BEFORE YOU GO OUT TO CONSUME COCKTAILS. Other wise, your cheesecake will be grossly over cooked and I have no idea what taste or texture you will experience.

Finally, remove cheesecake from the oven and cool fully. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate in an “odor free” environment until ready to eat. If you have chopped onions or garlic in the fridge – beware your cheesecake may take on an oniony or garlicky flavor – and while I love those flavors in other foods, they are not ideal for cheesecake.

Don’t be like “Bea” and forget this one thing – run a knife, closely held to the pie tin, around the edge of the cheesecake before wrapping. Bea usually forgets this step, but Ms. Purdy suggests it, and the ONE time Brian did it, he said it worked great. Bea recommends making the cake 3 days prior to eating, to allow the flavors and texture to meld in the fridge. AND, if you don’t forget, pick that ripe passion fruit off the vine in your garden and take it to serve over the cheesecake – a truly spectacular taste sensation.

VOILA, now you have made the “classic New York style” cheesecake. Next post, tune in for two variations on the NY classic cheesecake. Hint: Pumpkin and Mocha-Cocoa.