Friday, April 3, 2009

Project Ramekin - Lemon Cheesecake.

Like before, this is yet another experiment. We wanted to try a cheesecake in a regular baking dish, a ramekin, a cake pan etc. Our springform pan leaks and is flawed. So, A, one night, in one of his usual baking endeavors decided to bake a lemon cheesecake. The next night, I broke my diet regimen of 2 weeks and ate the cheesecake. It was THAT good. I'm not going to talk much now, but will just let the man give you the recipe!

Ingredients:

4 ounces of Neufachtel cheese, at room temperature

4 ounces of Mascarpone cheese, at room temperature

1.5 tbsp butter (room temperature)

1/3 cup sugar cookies, broken into small pieces

1 tsp cocoa powder

1 large egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp lemon juice





1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. In a food process
or, pulse the cookies, cocoa powder and butter to form a coarse powder (like grated Parmesan Cheese).

3. In a 4"X1 2/3 " deep circular ramekin, apply cooking spray generously. Don't worry, none of this will go inside you ;) This is to line the ramekin with a piece of parchment paper, cut j
ust enough to cover the bottom and rise a little above all around to form a little 'cup'.

4. Press the coarse powder to cover the parc
hment paper. Pack thoroughly to form a nice, thick crust.

5. Bake for 12-15 mins. until nice and brown. Remove and let the crust cool to room temperature.

6. Reduce the oven temperature to 350F. Get an oven safe saucepan slightly larger than the ramekin and fill it 1/2 way with water. Place it in the oven 5 mins prior to placing the batter filled ramekin.

7. In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, lemon juice, lemon zest and the sugar at medium speed, for about 2 minutes.

8. Add the egg and beat at high speed for a minute.

9. Pour this on top of the cooled crust.


10. Place the ramekin inside the saucepan in the oven. The water should rise to cover about 1/3-1/2 the level of the ramekin. If not, adjust the amount of water accordingly.

11. Bake until the center is slightly jiggly, about 1 hour. Make sure that the top doesnt have cracks. If so, that means the cheesecake has overcooked. Use a thin knife and run around the edges, taking care not to break the cheesecake.

12. Take it out of the oven and let it cool down to room temperature, about 1 hour. Then refrigerate it overnight or 4-5 hours. Use the same knife to pry the cheesecake apart at several places. Then gently invert it on a plate and invert again to get the sunny side up :)



Trust me, its worth the wait and the effort :) The lemony flavor went very well with the chocolatey crust. The consistency was perfect and as usual, it was gobbled up in no time ;) As evident from the pics, we had ours with some blackberry Coulis(a fancy word for blackberry preserve thinned out with water and warmed a little bit ;) ).

41 comments:

Deepthi Shankar said...

yummm .. I love fresh flavors like this .. I seriously wish I were yr neighbour

Bong Mom said...

Worth breaking any diet

bee said...

i've eaten cheesecake only once - raspberry and white chocolate from cheesecake factory - and it was so sweet, it tuned me off cheesecake. wanna try it again. this sounds very good.

Cham said...

None could resist this cheese cake slice! Great Job A!

Indhu said...

that's it!!! I am moving to Atlanta - next door to you guys... seriously... this cheesecake looks droolicious... I am a HUUUUUUGEE cheesecake addict and I am sooo going to try this one :)

amna said...

I've had the best cheesecake in Cheesecake Factory. Keep trying it anywhere I see it, but the ones in Singapore are sour if it comes with any berry!

This looks yummy, but the first cheese in the list, I don't think I can find it here unless I go to some specialty store :(

Priya Sriram said...

Project looks like a huge success! Congrats guys!! :D

Mahimaa's kitchen said...

cheese looks divine!! absolutely mouthwatering :) wish my hubby could cook up something like this!

SJ said...

Man this looks good!!! Nice way to end your diet! Your pictures are very good :)

suvi said...

looks so yum!!

Donna-FFW said...

Holy lord, holy god, this looks wonderful.. wonderful, blissful, I wish I could try it. Your photo captured such deliciousness.

Soma said...

The picture looked so darn good that i just had to rush to your blog:-)..I do not like cheesecakes & have tried only a few times. a store bought one which i hated, but a homemade one which i did not hate at all, but did not love it. Your lemon flavor is awesome here & will lighten the taste. gives me inspiration to try it again, but only lemon:-)

I cannot diet, only thing i do is cut off carb. for lunch completely for 2 weeks... only salads, & beans & stuffs like that & it works. then i indulge again:-)

Anonymous said...

droooooling....cannot...tear...myself...away from the screen...somebody help me!

Lavanya said...

mouthwatering..looks very nice n moist cake..nice pic too!!

Elyse said...

WOw! You know this is delicious when it causes you to break a two-week diet regimen!! How fabulous. Man, I love lemon cheesecake. I totally need to make this.

Vibaas said...

looks sooo good esp. with the coulis :)

Varsha Vipins said...

Looks awesome..:)..Sounds somewhat like Tiramisu..:)worth breaking any diet..:)

Deepa Hari said...

Lovely...absolutely scrumptious.

veggievixen said...

so good! cheesecake is my favorite.

Unknown said...

looks very very yummy...the base looks bit dufferent...the picture is so tempting

Elle said...

That tang of lemon would cut the richness just a bit and the blackberry coulis is a perfect to accompany the cheesecake.

lubnakarim06 said...

Luscious and delish.....

AnuSriram said...

Who can diet having such a lovely cheesecake on hand? :) Looks tempting! Wish i could have some..

The Caked Crusader said...

Looks a lovely texture. Cheesecake is always a valid reason to break a diet!

Nicole said...

I love lemon cheesecake! It is always too tasty to resist!

Laavanya said...

I'm big on cheesecake too and I have a version on my blog that I made in little muffin cups.. Whatever the size, taste is unbeatable... Your cheesecake looks fluffy and perfect.

♥Rosie♥ said...

Oh my word how good this looks!! I adore cheesecake and with lemon this is such a winner for me!! A perfect looking cheesecake...

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

It looks so scrumptious! OMG, I love cheesecakes!

Cheers,

Rosa

Subhie Arun said...

woww..too superb..really tempting me...thx 4 sharing..u have wonderful site wth wonderful recipes..will follow on ur recipes

Sophie said...

Looks like your experiment turned out very well, what a tasty cheesecake :).

Manju said...

why why..why do you do this to us??!! i soo wanna have a piece of that!!!!!

NKP said...

Oh yum! I love cheesecake, I love cheesecake, I love cheesecake, I love cheesecake! Did I mention that I love cheesecake?

aTxVegn said...

Thanks for your nice comment on my blog! This cheesecake looks absolutely fabulous - so nice for a warm weather dessert.

Sanghi said...

Ooo that's gorgeous delight! Cheese cake yummmmy!

Chitra said...

superb pics,lovely!!

A_and_N said...

@ Deesha: Come on over...whats stopping you...but let us warn you that we might raid your place every now and then :)

@ Sandeepa: Tell me about it!

@ Bee: Its probably the white chocolate. Try plain new york style cheesecake. Its pretty good :)

@ Cham: Thank you...thank you :)

@ Indhu: Anytime! We'd be happy to hahve more friends in Atlanta :)

@ Nags: Neufachtel cheese is a lower fat version of cream cheese you could use just cream cheese or just mascarpone cheese. You could even try to put some ricotta cheese :)

@ Priya Sriram, Mahimaa, SJ, Aquadaze and Donna: Thanks a lot guys :)

@ Soma: Dont like cheesecake...thats blasphemy! Kidding :) Nice to know that we can inspire ppl :)

@ Burp'n'slurp: Try it! Trust me it tastes good :)

@ Laavanya and Vibaas: Thank you so much!

@ Elyse. Do try it :)

@ Varsha: Tiramisu is way more complicated than this ;) and yes its tough to resist this!

@ Deepa Hari and Ramya: Thanks a ton :)

@ Veggievixen: It is one of our favorites too :D

@ Elle: Great observation...very true :)

@ AnuSriram: Thanks :)

@ Caked Crusader and Nicole: Seriously! That is so true!

@ Laavanya, rosie, Rosa: Thanks a lot guys :)

@ Subhie Arun: Thanks for stopping by. Hope you can try this out when you can...trust us...its good :)

@ Sophie: Thanks a lot Sophie :)

@ Superchef: What about US! We're trying to diet here :D

@ Natashya: You sound just like N :)

@ aTxVegn: Thanks a lot :)

@ Sanghi and Chitra: Thank you so much :)

Cakelaw said...

One word - YUM!!!

delhibelle said...

Gosh..that looks divine!

test it comm said...

That cheesecake looks so good!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Yum, I'll take a slice with a generous helping of that yummy coulis, please!
~ingrid

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

That looks so inviting. I can understand your breaking your diet for this! :)