This recipe combines two dessert classics - cheesecake and tiramisu. It's cooked just like a cheesecake, but using classic tiramisu ingredients like mascarpone cheese, lady fingers, and espresso.
Ingredients:
7 oz ladyfingers
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 1/2 lbs of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla exctract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350⁰. Wrap the outside of a 9 inch spring form pan with foil. This will prevent the sides of the cheesecake from burning.
2. Use a food processor to grind the lady fingers into fine crumbs. Mix with melted butter and espresso power. Transfer the crumb mixture to the prepared pan and press evenly along the bottom and sides of the pan. Often, I do not even bother putting crust along the sides. It's just as attractive and delicious without it and you will save yourself some time. In that case, it's very important to make sure you cover the sides with foil because the delicate cheesecake filling can burn very easily and you will end up with with burnt edges.
3. Bake cheesecake crust for 10 minutes and set aside; lower oven temperature to 300⁰.
4. Using a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese until fluffy, about two minutes. Gradually beat in the sugar until smooth. Then, beat in the mascarpone, vanilla, and salt. Add the eggs one at a time. Stir in 1/2 a cup of chocolate chips.
5. Bake until the center in set but still slightly jiggly. Honestly, the baking time can vary significantly, and I have never seen a recipe that got it right. An unbaked cheesecake has the consistency of kefir, and once it thickens and tightens up like a cooked cheesecake should look, you will know it's done. The edges will puff up at first, and when you shake the pan slightly and see that middle is almost tight - it's done. Don't wait until it's completely immovable when shaken, because cheesecakes do continue cooking once out of the oven. An over-cooked cheesecake will be grainy.
6. Once the center is set but still jiggly, I like to take my cheesecake out of the oven and top it off with a sour cream topping. It's an idea I got from one of the cheesecake recipes from my favorite Williams-Sonoma cookbook, and now I do this for every cheesecake I make. Whisk a little over a cup of sour cream with 1/4 cup of sugar and pour over cheesecake. Bake until set for another 10 minutes. This is optional, so I didn't include this in the ingredients list. I like this trick because my cheesecakes always crack and the sour cream topping is not only delicious, but it gives me a smooth finish and masks a huge crack in the middle (hehe). I know that to prevent a cheesecake from cracking you must bake it halfway and then turn off the oven and let it sit for another hour or so, allowing it to cook and cool gradually. However, it's much too time consuming and I haven't yet mastered the timing with that method. I am always nervous the cheesecake will overcook if I leave it in for too long, or crack anyway if I take it out too fast. Maybe cheesecake master Oksana can post a fool-proof method to prevent cracking cheesecakes.
7. Let cheesecake cool to room temperature. After it cools, I like to wrap my cheesecakes in foil, place it it a couple of plastic bags to prevent possible freezer burn (better safe than sorry!) and freeze. Once it's rock solid, it's much easier to remove from the spring form pan. In fact, I think it's pretty much impossible to remove unto a serving plate neatly if the cheesecake is at room temperature, or even refrigerated. I have done it once before and it was a huge fail.
8. Once it's standing on the cake stand or serving plate, you can melt the remaining chocolate chips, place melted chocolate in resealable plastic bag, snip a corner off the bag, and drizzle chocolate in a decorative pattern all over the cheesecake.
Wow, those directions turned out longer than I thought. And I still haven't said everything I wanted to say about cheesecakes. There will be many more cheesecake posts (cheesecakes are our favorite desserts) and plenty of opportunities to discuss all my cheesecake tricks and ideas.
Recipe by Every Day with Rachel Ray
- Yana
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