We had company tonight, and since it was James' "best buddy" we told him he could pick the dessert, and of course he picked cheesecake. We've only made about two from scratch, ever. Pretty sure both times was in culinary school. And pretty sure both times were a minor fail. It's always easier to buy the boxed kind, but it's never going to taste as luscious or unique as a from-scratch job.
So, we set out to make the cheesecake yesterday. It's always best to do it the day before, that's just logic. That way it had time to cool, and the flavor enhances. It's tough to look at it for 24 whole hours and keep your fingers out of it though...
If there's one important tip, it would be make sure the cream cheese, sour cream and whipping cream is at room temperature, it makes it whip so much smoother and easier, which can make or break a cheesecake. The sign of a "perfectly" done cheesecake is that it doesn't crack in the center when it bakes (because that's an indication that it's going to be dry), and that there's no clumps of "raw" cheesecake inside.
We're just linking to the recipe, we skipped the 'Toppings' portion because we decided to use a mixture of fresh strawberries, and a simple fresh strawberry sauce, and a from scratch caramel sauce (a near fail-proof recipe from culinary school we will not be sharing with you today).
The dinner guest said: "I'm never going to like The Cheesecake Factory again after this." And so this recipe gets a Frankie 5 star.
The recipe:
Perfect Cheesecake
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_cheesecake/
How it looked:
Wow. It's a good thing I don't live closer, because I wouldn't be able to fit through my door. That looks quite delicious, and I'm glad that settling into the new house is going well :)
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