Bitter Chocolate Cheesecake

This is the third (or may be fourth) time I made cheesecake. The result is always heavenly decicious and I doubt it very much (I borrow this phrase from my freind, Kate, who always begins her conversation by sayting this) if I'm in love with it. Or I just dont' have a criteria to judge what is a good or a so-so cheesecake (just like when you fall in love with someone that you can always see good side of him/her). I reduced half of sugar from what recipe called for and doubled-up cocoa and espresso so that I would end up having super intense caffee-choco taste. And hey, I got what I'd hoped for.

Verdict: The texture is not as dense as new york cheese cake but firmer than the French one. I love it this way coz it's manageble and that you can sieve cocoa powder or anything on it withour worrying the moist would swallow it down.

The above photo is taken 4 days after I made it. Looks a little rough but it sure tastes even better in later days.

Here is recipe.

Ingredients (everything at room temperature)
700 g Cream chese (soften)
6 eggs
2 c yoghurt
80 g sugar
16 oz bitter sweet choc (melted)
2 shots of espresso
4 tablespoon of cocoa
1 tbsp flour

200 g Oreo or Chocolate biscuits
100 butter (soften)

Prepare the base, add togeter butter and oreo. Squees them to make a dough. Consistency check: if they stick together as a ball, it's ready to go in the tray. If not, add more butter.

Put wax paper on to 9inch base. Press biscuit firmly using back of spoon.

Befor you make filling, put 9x12 inch tray in the oven. Add hot water half way thru.

To make Filling

Sofen cream cheese. I used a big fork and whipped it down for 10 min. I toned up upper arms by the time it was soften. As I warned you, make sure it is warmed down at room temp so that you don't have to work hard stirring it. My kitchen temp is around 30 C. So, if yours are 10'ish, you'd better leave it in slightly warmed oven. Okay, then add sugar, muscle up you biceps once more, stir till well blend.

Then, add egg, one at a time, stir well in each addidtion. Now the texture is yogurt-liked, add yogurt. Stir til just blend. If you are thinking about using a whisk, forget it, coz it'll add excess air in the batter which is not good.

In a separte bowl, add melted chocolate, espresso and cocoal powder.

Pour coffee+chocolate into creamchees mixture, stir until well blended.

Now your baby is ready to go. Pour into 9-inch pan over oreo base. Put on the water-tray , bake for 60 minutes at 170-175 C. Dont' sneak peek, you've got to be decipline. :-0

Once done, let rest in the oven for anohter 60 min. Then, before you go shopping, put it in the fridge for a few hours before cut and serve.

Decoration: Make patterns with cocoa powder or Chocolate leaves. I love to use the real leaves but it was raining outside, so I used maple (plastic) template.

FYI - I left a few pieces in the fridge for a week. It didn't weep and tasted heavenly good. Belive it or not. That's why I call this one "my baby".

David lebovitz's Cookies

The cookies speak for themselves. Yummmmm.

Here is David's recipe.
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2006/11/nick_malgieris.html

A revisit to Green Tea Red bean

This is a revisit to green tea cake…no specific reason. This time I planned to make it nicer than I did last time i.e. with fillings being tubed out of pastry bags, with pattern on top.

I love the sponge, its color and texture was just right. Although I didn’t measure up how much green tea I should add. I guess it just the matter of color so I played it by ears (actually by eyes). I don’t like artificial color with neon-light green kind of thing.

Whipping crème melted down a bit while I was taking photos. It’s summer and the kitchen was warm though not sweaty. Speaking of summer, I have to add a brownie point to winter that… cold weather makes my whipped crème form nicely on cake layer as it should be (despite the fact that I had to wear thick jacket while baking).

My friends reminded me of upcoming scuba diving and I wonder if I could fit in diving suit. Got to shed down on desserts then.