sour cream cheesecake

I have a confession.

I may be a little bit obsessed with finding the perfect cheesecake recipe. A little bit.

I'm not sure what it is. My perfectionist tendencies? Perhaps. An obsession with cream cheese? Definitely. The desire to know for certain that it is possible to eat a delicious cheesecake outside of the realm of the Cheesecake Factory?

Let's be real: I don't have $7 to spend on a slice of cheesecake whenever the craving strikes. So, yeah, that's probably it.

Not that the Cheesecake Factory isn't delicious; I one day hope to make a cheesecake even half as beautiful and exquisite. One so decadent that you won't be able to finish an entire slice. The possibilities are endless.

Unfortunately, my free time is not. So rather than being able to bake a devil's food cake layered with marbled cheesecake slices topped with a bittersweet chocolate ganache, I settled for a simple sour cream cheesecake.

My last attempt at cheesecake, I tried ricotta. And it was divine. This one's pretty delightful as well, though I'm thinking I'm more of a ricotta fan than a sour cream fan, when it comes to cheesecakes. The recipe comes from Alton Brown, and I topped it off with a simple sour cream layer [mainly for the aesthetic effect]. Also served it with some pureed strawberries that I needed to get rid of, with a hint of balsamic vinegar whisked in. Both the sour cream topping and the strawberry compote are totally optional, and can be substituted [sour cream bourbon topping? blueberry compote? chocolate glaze?] or omitted.

Sour Cream Cheesecake
Adapted from Alton Brown

For the crust, you'll need:

• 9-inch graham cracker, shortbread, or Oreo crust, prebaked 10 minutes

For the filling, you'll need:

• 20 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 3 yolks
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

For the topping, you'll need:

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla

If fresh out of the oven, allow cheesecake crust to cool while preparing the filling. Lower [or preheat] oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

To prepare the filling, beat sour cream for 30 seconds on medium speed with the paddle attachment. Add in cream cheese and beat until smooth. Add in sugar and vanilla and cream for 3 minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, yolks, and heavy cream. Slowly pour egg mixture into cheesecake batter and mix until fully incorporated.

Pour cheesecake filling into cooled crust. Bake for 60 minutes, or until the cheesecake is pulling away from the sides of the pan slightly. The center should still be jiggly. Turn off oven and open door for one minute. Close and let cheesecake cool in the oven for another 60 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare sour cream topping by thoroughly mixing sour cream, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and blended. Pour sour cream topping on top of cooled cheesecake, leveling with a spatula. Without removing the sides of the pan, cover the top of the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

Serve with berry or chocolate sauce, or enjoy plain.

It is a pretty cake, not gonna lie. And it sets very well. I made it low-carb by using an almond flour/walnut/pecan crust and substituting the sugar with equal quantities of erythritol and baking Splenda. As always, can't tell it's low-carb. At all. The natural sugars in the strawberries work alongside the low-carb cake really well.

So much baking lately. I'm not sure what's gotten into me.

Probably a complete lack of motivation to do anything legitimately productive. Though I suppose it's better to exhaust my desire to bake before finals start, right?

dark chocolate pudding

I love sleeping in on Sundays, waking up to a bright sun streaming in through the blinds and lighting up the room. I love walking into the kitchen and not having to turn on any lamps, because the natural sunlight is enough to give the apartment a warm glow. I love opening the door to a fresh, cool breeze and knowing that spring is just inches away.

Not to mention that turning on the telly and finding out that it's abc's Harry Potter weekend is also a lovely surprise.

Though I suppose, in retrospect, this is probably the worst weekend for something as enticing as a Harry Potter movie marathon to be going on. It just diminishes my already lacking motivation to write start this paper I have due tomorrow.

Then again, since I will be referencing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in aforementioned paper, perhaps it's warm-up before I start. A sort of mental prep, if you will.

Dark Chocolate Pudding
Adapted from The Shoebox Kitchen

You'll need:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup half & half
• 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup sugar [substitute with erythritol for a low-carb variation]
• pinch of salt
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 heaping tbsp cornstarch
• 2 oz unsweetened chocolate

In a medium saucepan over medium flame, heat heavy cream and half and half. Whisk in sugar, vanilla, salt, and cocoa powder until blended and most of the clumps are gone.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks and cornstarch until smooth. Once chocolate cream mixture is warm, ladle a spoonful of the cream into the eggs and whisk continuously, to temper the eggs. Pour the now-warm egg mixture into the saucepan and whisk. Continue to whisk until the custard starts to bubble slightly. Remove saucepan from the heat and add in the unsweetened chocolate, whisking until melted.

Pour the custard into a food processor and blend for 60 to 90 seconds. This will eliminate any remaining clumps in the custard. Distribute the custard among glass bowls or ramekins. Cover the tops of the custards with plastic wrap and refrigerate until set, 2-3 hours.

Serve with sweetened whipped cream, if desired.

Still, it would probably be in my best interest to start that paper at some point today...

...well, maybe once this movie's over.

{low-carb} chocolate mocha cheesecake

A weekend spent in DC is quite a weekend indeed. I was at Chelsea's for the past few days, along with Matt. DC itself was tons of fun [Courage the Cowardly Dog marathons, Slug Wars, seeing Liz and Olivia, delicious food], but life itself has been a littttttle hectic these days. Car troubles, class scheduling, job and internship hunting, and study abroad planning have got me a bit stressed, to say the least.

Luckily, being in DC was not only good to calm down a bit, but stress therapy via baking with Chelsea was one of the best things I could have done this weekend. Specifically, low carb chocolate mocha cheesecake. The biggest downside about this was that I didn't have my DSLR with me, so photos are courtesy of my phone camera.

LC Chocolate Mocha Cheesecake
Recipe adapted from Your Lighter Side

For the crust, you'll need:

• 1/2 cup crushed pecans
• 1/2 cup crushed walnuts
• 1/2 cup crushed almonds
• 2 tbsp erythritol
• 4 tbsp butter, melted

For the ganache layer, you'll need:

• 2 oz Lindt 85% dark chocolate [approximately half the bar, or 4.5 squares]
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp heavy cream
• 1 tbsp erythritol

For the filling, you'll need:

• 4 8-oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• scant 1/2 cup erythritol
• 3/4 cup xylitol or baking Splenda
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3.5 oz Lindt 85% dark chocolate [standard bar size]
• 4 tbsp cream
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp coffee extract
• 2 tbsp brewed coffee

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9-inch springform pan.

To prepare crust, combine crushed nuts in a bowl. Mix in erythritol. Pour melted butter over nuts and mix until incorporated. Pour nuts into the bottom of the springform pan and spread evenly. Set aside.

To prepare ganache layer, in a medium saucepan melt butter and chocolate. Once smooth, slowly pour in heavy cream and mix until there are no lumps yet. Sprinkle erythritol and cocoa powder over top and stir until smooth. Remove pan from heat and let chocolate cool, about 5 minutes. Once cooled, pour ganache on top of crust and spread evenly.

To prepare filling, beat cream cheese with erythritol and xylitol/Splenda on medium speed until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until incorporated. Add in sour cream and vanilla and beat until just combined. Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan, melt butter and chocolate. Slowly pour in heavy cream, coffee extract, and brewed coffee. Mix until smooth. Let cool, 3-4 minutes, before slowly pouring chocolate mixture into the cream cheese mixture, while beating on medium-low speed. Beat until chocolate is fully incorporated into the batter. Pour cheesecake filling into saucepan slowly, as not to disturb the ganache layer. Bake for 75-90 minutes. Let cheesecake cool to room temperature, then, while still in the springform pan, refrigerate for at least 4 hours before unhinging sides and serving.

Total carbs per slice [1/8 of cheesecake]: approximately 6 net carbs.

The original crust recipe calls for macadamia nuts,which we didn't have on hand. So we kind of arbitrarily picked a combination of nuts we felt would taste good. Really, it's up to you what kind of nuts you'd like for the crust, as long as the ratios stay the same. Also, I'm sure the crust would be just as delicious with real sugar in place of the artificial, if LC isn't your thing. Just pour whatever favorite cheesecake filling you want on top, and voila.

The ganache layer is totally optional in this cheesecake; Chelsea and I added it on a whim, more or less. Plus, it was adding hardly any more carbs to the overall cake. [And it was damn good]. Not to mention the dark little 'fudge' ribbon on top of the crust looked very pretty when the cake was cut.

The filling itself is exquisite. It hardly tastes low carb at all, since the artificial sugar leaves virtually no aftertaste. That was always the problem I had with low carb desserts; the absolutely terrible Splenda aftertaste. I think the answer is the erythritol, which is much milder on the palate than Splenda alone. Or maybe it's the combination of the two? Either way, this works. Another note on the filling: eliminating the chocolate addition [so, filling recipe minus heavy cream, butter, chocolate, and coffee] is the perfect low-carb, traditional cheesecake filling. I think Mrs. Sparta actually preferred the filling pre-mocha flavor.

I was afraid this dessert would fail in comparison to Mrs. Sparta's fantastic LC baking, but it was actually extremely delicious. To all of our surprises, I think. What's even better is that none of us missed the sugar.

I would take a slice of full-carb cheesecake over LC any day, mind you, but for the time being, this is more than acceptable.