strawberry cheesecake

hey all..

it's been a while since my last post. well it's really because i don't cook much lately.. i have tons of assignment and some other private matters. hoho. but starting from 22nd of March, i'm back to the kitchen again. on 23rd, i cooked Rib Eye Steak, no photo included because it's for my anniversary brunch and i just didn't have time to take pictures of them before i swallowed them.

on 28th, my mom's birthday.. i made strawberry cheesecake for her. hey, you know, this is another pretty success baked cheesecake. i made them from new york cheesecake recipe and topped them with glazed strawberries. 

the unsuccessful part was the decoration. not because of the taste, not because the recipe of course, but because of the assembling process i did. i put the strawberries before releasing the cake from it's springform pan. haha. so when the next morning i tried to release the cake, they became wobbly and the strawberries surely will easily fall down. i kept going and decorated them with italian meringue and burnt them with a blowtorch.

another new experience for me, using blowtorch. blame me for not knowing how to use it properly. haha. i can't make it blow it's torch continuously, whenever i try to light it, it just light in a very short time and vanished. i just knew that i should push the orange button this morning after reading Mbak Rina's blog. :)

that's ok, practice makes perfect. i can guarantee that i'll be better next day..

New York Cheesecake
adapted from 35 Variasi Resep-Resep Cheesecake, YasaBoga

base:
120 gr digestive biscuits / crackers, crushed
75 gr unsalted butter

filling:
375 gr cream cheese, at room temperature
100 gr sour cream
125 gr caster sugar
15 gr all purpose flour
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 tsp grated lemon zest

direction:

1. prepare one 18 cm springform pan and a larger pan for au bain marie. preheat the oven to 175 degree C.
2. in a medium sized bowl, combine the biscuit crumbs with butter until evenly incorporated. press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and about 1cm up the sides of the springform pan. cover and refrigerate while you make the filling.
3. for the filling: beat in the cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer on low speed until the sugar dissolve, add flour, beat well. add the eggs, one at a time, and add the additional egg yolk, continue beating until mixed thoroughly. add in the lemon zest and sour cream, beat evenly. pour into the prepared crumbs based springform pan.
4. bake for about 60 minutes with the au bain marie method. turn off the oven when all the edges of the cake looks firm but the center (about 5cm in diameters) still looks wet or wobbly. cool slightly in the oven and then refrigerate with the pan overnight.

Strawberry Glaze
from cookthink.com

ingredients:
2 cups strawberries, washed and hulled
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold water
1 dash salt
1.5 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp unsalted butter

directions:

1. pick over the berries and choose a cupful of the prettiest ones. set aside.
2. crush the remaining berries and place in a saucepan with sugar, water, salt, and cornstarch. bring to a boil. reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes. stirring constantly. stir in the butter, cool slightly.
3. arrange the uncooked berries on top of the cake. spoon the glaze over all. chill for several hours.

that's all for today.. thanks for reading and happy baking! :)