April 27, 2009

Cheesecake: The Sequel (or a tasty sauce hides a world of sins)

A year ago we conquered cheesecake for children. With this month's Daring Baker challenge, we showcase a more grown-up cheesecake, in many cases all dressed up and headed to the prom. Or the Oscars. For those with baking skills.

For someone with my (lack of) talent with cheesecake, we're headed for the homeowner's association planning meeting. Whee!

But I digress...

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. But she's given us a LOT of leeway in the execution. She challenged thousands of us to play with it. Make it unique. Make a showstopper of a dessert. Add flavor, sauces, decorations – dress it up and show it off.

Um... sure. You realize you're pushing buttons here Jenny. I thought I'd proved in December that I'm cheesecake impaired? You want me to get CREATIVE?!?!

So I took a couple of deep, cleansing zen-like breaths, rolled up my sleeves, grabbed an apron, said a silent prayer to Martha, Peabody, Shuna, Tartlett and a host of my other baking gods and goddesses... and made some minor modifications to the base recipe.

I went with a meyer lemon theme, paying homage to the fruit I played softball with in the back yard as a kid, never guessing I'd one day be spending $1.25 a piece for them.

I zested the lemon before I juiced it, and tossed the zest in with a combination of graham crackers and almond meal to form the crust.

I added a bit of limoncello to the batter.

And when the cake came out of the oven with a couple of crevasses (see... I TOLD you cheesecake impaired), I took a tip from Alton brown and decorated it with a sauce make of sour cream, lemon marmalade and candied meyer lemons.

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8 comments:

Unknown said...

Cheesecake-impaired? Hmm, looks pretty good to me. Guess you'll just keep being assigned it until you feel comfortable. Like me with caramel, my nemesis. Thanks for being a part of the April Daring Baker's Challenge!

Jenny of JennyBakes

JMom said...

Lemon is one of my favorite cheesecake flavor. I bet your meyer lemon was delicious! It certainly looked great :)

Madam Chow said...

I tell you, looks good to me! I love Meyer lemon, and would not pass up a slice of this!

Debyi said...

Your cheesecake looks amazing! It sounds very refreshing as well, great job.

Jenny said...

That sounds fabulous to me, so I have no idea what you are talking about, hiding sins! Who cares if the cheesecake cracks! It still tastes good.

bibliochef said...

I love meyer lemons and the idea of adding limoncello to anything

Jamie said...

Cheesecake impaired?! LOL! I think we all feel this way about one dish or another and seeing others combat these handicaps and succeed is so encouraging! And your cheesecake looks a success to me!

Unknown said...

This is OT, but I wanted to let you know that the 2009 One Local Summer challenge begins on June 1. I hope you will join us again this year at farmtophilly.com!