Lemon Cheesecake

Assalamualaikum!

When I am at home, I have to keep my desserts simple because my mom would eat them after lunch and dinner, while my dad would savour them during the night when he is focusing on his work. My parents grew up with kuih lapis, kasui and akok so fancy and hard-to-pronounce desserts have to wait.However, one thing for sure is that my parents LOVE cheesecakes. LOVE LOVE LOVE them. Don't we all? So I made lemon cheesecake the other day…and it tasted heavenly! I am the kind of person who would stick to a recipe that I love, but I’ll certainly modify it to my liking! I used my Classic New York Cheesecake Recipe (here) and then add some lemon elements here and there to make this lovely lemon goodness. 

I love lemon cheesecake! Cheesecakes are of course rich and indulgent but having a hint of citrus definitely brings the creaminess down a couple notches. I've always seen a lot of cheesecakes with high crusts…meh..why not give it a shot?

Lemon Cheesecake

1 ¼  cup of finely crushed graham crackers** (2 ½ ±cup for high crust)

¼   cup of melted butter** (1/2 ±cup for high crust)

1 cup sugar

1 kg of cream cheese (4 packages)

½  cup sour cream

½ lemon juice 

3 tablespoon of lemon rind (About 2-3 lemons)

1 tablespoon vanilla

4 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 325 degree Fahrenheit (300 degrees if using a dark nonstick spring form)
2. Spray the insides of a 9-inch springform. Set aside
3. In a bowl, mix the crushed graham crackers and melted butter together. Press firmly on the bottom and the sides of spring form.
4. Bake for 10 minutes and set aside.
5. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar together until well combined.
6. Add in the sour cream, lemon rind, lemon juice and vanilla, continue mixing.
7. Add in the eggs into the mixture. One at a time.
8. Pour the mixture on to the baked crust and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour.
9. Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake rest in the oven for another hour with the oven door slightly ajar.
10. Refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Tips:

1. This cheesecake would not be fully set. The sides would be firmer but the middle part would still be slightly jiggly. It will fully set once you put it in the fridge.So once the sides starts to firm up turn off the heat.
2. The reason why you don't take the cheesecake out straight away is to avoid the cheescake from cracking. There would be instances where it will crack, but then again..you could always cover it with candied lemons or lemon curd.
3. When making a high crusted cheesecake, keep in mind that sometimes you may need more graham crackers and butter. Don’t be scared to add more butter if the crust seems a bit dry. Make sure you have extra on the side!To be honest, I rarely follow the measurements to make the crust..some people like a lot of it some don't. So adjust the thickness and amount of crust to your liking. 
4. Mix the ingredenits for the sake of mixing. DON'T OVER MIX the batter. Like other kinds of cakes, there are serious concequences to overbeating the batter. CHeesecakes are not meant to rise! Overbeating the batter would trap too much air in the cheesecake. Thus, causing the cheesecake to overflow when you bake it as the trapped air make its way out.SO once the ingredients are well blended.Stop.
5. Be creative. Compare this recipe with my Classic New York Cheesecake recipe. Not much difference really.So don't be scared to modify a recipe. Add some blueberries to make a blueberry cheesecake blueberry lemon cheesecake. Swirl in some Nutella, strawberry puree..Go crazy!

I should make some coffee cheesecake for mommy soon. I know she’ll love it.She is definitely blaming me for any weight gain and I should blame her as well….thanks ma for the rendang, laksa, singgang dan lain-lain.*sigh*

Till then, Wasalam.

Love,

Sofhan Hasni

Brûléed Cheesecake

Assalamualaikum.

The day before I left Montréal for good, the girls and I had our last lunch together at Lola Rosa on Milton. I ordered this scrumptious Ginger and Basil Crème Brûlée and DIED. Went to dessert heaven and came back. While I was enjoying my dessert, my friend was us telling about the Crème Brûlée cheesecake that her colleague made for her. What? Wait What? Crème Brûlée? Cheesecake? Creme Brûlée Cheesecake? WHAT?!!!!!!How in the world did I not know about its existence?! WHAT?!

Anyways, I did some research…turns out..Creme Brûlée Cheesecake is a brûléed cheesecake (I could be completely wrong but after looking at a couple of recipes, this was what I concluded). Basically you bake a cheesecake of any kind and let the baby cool. Once your delicious cheesecake has cooled, sprinkle some sugar on it and broil it under the broiler for a couple of minutes or use a blow torch to melt the sugar into a layer of sugar wonderland on your cheesecake. Serve immediately to have that “crunchy” effect.

Mind you it takes a split second for the sugar to burn. So broil the cheesecake in 350 degree celcius for only a couple of minutes (2-4 minutes).

Here I used my trusted New York Cheesecake recipe.

Hamna,hamna…come to mama…

Till then, Wasalam.

Love,

Sofhan Hasni

Baking Lessons: Back To Square One

Assalamualaikum

One thing that hit me hard when I started baking again here in Malaysua is that how I’ve been taking a lot of the recipes for granted all these time. Most recipes that I follow came from Australian or American/Canadian chefs/websites and most of the ingredients can be easily found in the grocery stores back in Montreal.

If you know me well enough, you’ll know that I have my go-to chocolate cake recipe that I ALWAYS use. Imagine how shocked I was when my fool proof chocolate cake looked like…well…let’s just say borderline inedible. The texture was so porous and…plastic-y. When you use the word plastic to describe a cake..you know how bad it was! So I was trying to understand what went wrong. After some observations…here are some lessons that I have learned so far.

First lesson: Chocolate Powder. In Malaysia, the cocoa powder and chocolate powder are two different things. It is something about being the cocoa being either Dutch processed or Broma processed. I am still learning about the two. Anyways, since there is a difference, it may be slightly tricky to guess which one to use in some recipes. I was lucky enough to join a class in Dough and Batter and the teacher was extremely helpful! I was told that the cocoa powder sold in most grocery stores like Van Houten is pure cocoa powder. Chocolate powder on the other hand is already mixed with some other additional ingredients including sugar. Using cocoa powder can make a cake dry and quite bitter. So for cakes, I would recommend you use chocolate powder. Chocolate powder can be found in stores that sells baking supplies. You can use cocoa powder to make chocolate crust or cookies I assume. I am also assuming that you can use cocoa powder in brownies or fudges, but then again, I can’t be 100% sure. I haven’t tried any recipes using cocoa powder just yet! I know I should…(read: chocolate crusted cheesecake)

Second lesson : Buttermilk. When you are making homemade buttermilk, use FRESH PASTUERIZED MILK instead of the usual UHT (Ultra High Temperature) milk. I have never seen UHT milk in grocery stores in Montreal before. Both kinds of milk are processed at different temperatures and duration. Thus the composition of the milk is different. Buttermilk contains acid. So there are different ways to make a buttermilk substitute at home. One of my favorite methods is to add acid based ingredients (lemon juice or vinegar) into milk. Pardon me for my lack of knowledge in food science but acids as such would coagulate fresh milk but it wouldn’t work the same in UHT milk. I’m assuming the lack of certain bacteria in UHT milk prevents the milk from coagulating. Another thing that frustrates me is how easy fresh milk turns sour in our hot weather.Sheesh, I need my own cow. =(

Third lesson: Eggs. Pay attention to the size of your eggs! In Malaysia, there is Grade A, B and C and there are also large, extra large etc. However, if you look closely…these sizes are not standardized. When I sued Grade A in my cake, it is still somewhat not big enough. So I have to look for extra large ones…or I could add more eggs in my batter. Not having enough eggs in the batter makes the cupcakes puff up real big and crack in the middle which is OKAY if you are planning to cover it with icing. Mind you the ‘puffing up” could be from random directions giving you odd looking cupcakes….oh well..They still taste good.

Fourth lesson: Butter Part 1. Now let’s talk about butter. Me being naïve and all believed that everything with the word butter on it is ACTUALLY butter. Nope. This may sound stupid but look on the packaging. Most of them are called “butterblend”. Which is usually a blend of both vegetable and milk fat. The price would be significantly different as well. These butterblends are usually about RM3-ish while pure butter can range from RM 6.00 to RM 10 per 250g or 1 cup of butter. Of course you can use butterblends in making pastries, cookies or even cakes, but don’t try using them to making frosting. ERK. Nope. Just No. Stick to butter. They are slightly more expensive, but still WAY yummier.

Fifth lesson: Butter Part 2. Since we touched a bit about butter and frosting… let’s talk about frosting. Whenever I make buttercream frosting, I’ll beat the butter using an electric mixer for a good couple of minutes to make it smooth before adding in the sugar. That’s not the case here in Malaysia. Outside temperature is too hot that beating the butter can just melt it into one gooey mess. Keep in mind that the idea behind beating the butter beforehand is to trap air into it. In Malaysia because the weather is hot, the air that is incorporated is also warm/hot. So the same method used in Canada could not be used here in Malaysia. Beating them too much would leave you with a runny frosting that is simply un-pipe-able (I can create new words can I?). I was told that I shouldn’t beat the butter more than 5 minutes. To be honest, you can simply use your trusted spatula to incorporate the sugar into the butter and chuck your electric mixer aside. It’s definitely the time for me to try other kinds of frosting. Yeay! I may need to rely on cream cheese frosting from now on.

Sixth lesson: Extracts. This may sound stupid but I just learned that rose extract does not taste like rose water. ERK! Thank goodness my parents found this Middle Eastern grocery store that sells rosewater. Phew. Also, if you are overseas and wanted to use pandan extract, smell and taste it first. I tried the Star Brand extract and the taste is so vile, I can’t even. Made my Kuih Bakar taste like medicine. A bad one that is.

Okay. Enough rambling for today. If you are new to baking or still learning like I am, I hope you are able to benefit from this post! If there are things that I have missed, do let me know!Happy baking!

Till then, Wasalam.

Love,

Sofhan Hasni

Failed Experiment: Maltsers Tofu Cheesecake

Assalamualaikum!

I recently moved back in with my parents back in Malaysia. Although I do get to eat mom’s delicious cooking, I have to adapt to having two little munchkins tugging on my hair and feet while I work on my laptop or making phone calls while one of the munchkins are wailing in the background. I am having my fair share of practicing with nappy changes and putting the little ones to sleep for God knows when. *breathe* I have a couple of months break before I start working in October. *breathe* Just after I type this a little boy comes to my side with a balloon wanting to play. This morning my little nephew tugs on my hair with anger after I wiped his booger. That is AFTER he wiped his nose on my hair. Oh the glamorous life of an auntie.

I still take time now and then to put my music on in the kitchen while I try different things. One of the things that I have been DYING to try making is the Tofu Cheesecake. Tofu is cheap here…so why not? As I was browsing through some recipes I stumbled upon a Maltsers cheesecake. Again why not?So I decided to combine both recipes and make Maltsers Tofu Cheesecake. The verdict? I don’t think it is one of my decisions that I have ever made.

It’s not a surprise that it is not as creamy as normal cheesecakes and there is indeed a hint taste of tofu, which I don’t really mind. The texture however is silky just like other no bake cheesecakes. Personally I think a tofu cheesecake is better if it is fruit or chocolate flavored. Some of you might ask errmmm why TOFU?! By using tofu you cut down the calories. You use half the cream cheese that you would usually use. So, personally if you really love cheesecakes and you don’t want to feel guilty about eating it, make a chocolate version, or fruit version.

If you were wondering… only my mum had the guts to try this cheesecake. My brother, brother in law, sister and father did not even TRY…

Why do I call this a failed experiment? I put cut up pieces of Maltsers in my cheesecake thinking that it would taste divine (I LOVE MALTSERS),but I was clearly wrong. The thing about cut Maltsers is that the malt on
the inside melts but not the chocolate coating; leaving weird hollowed half chocolate balls throughout the cheesecake. EEKK! Another thing about making Maltsers cheesecakes is that you add a little bit of malt powder…and that also did not turn out well…

So I don’t think it’s the tofu that needs to be chucked out the window. I think it’s the Maltsers..or the combination of both. I would certainly try a different version of a tofu cheesecake in the future…but Malstsers…ergh..

If it’s not too late, may I wish you Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

Till then,Wasalam.

Love,

Sofhan Hasni