If I could
rewind, I would not have inquiringly flipped the latch on my springform pan
causing the liquid contents to ooze slowly, unstoppably out. Slow as
molasses, equally as messy, and just as painful to watch. If you are one
of those people who chirps about reframing things, you might call this a
teachable moment. I am not that together most of the time.
In fact,
sometimes I land on the side of catastrophizing, so I'm deeming this incident
The Great Cream Cheese Flood of 2012. I stood just staring at the puddle
of cheesecake on my floor for quite a while. Yes, on a Tuesday, at roughly 9
pm, a good deal of wasted dairy threatened to take me down.
After I cleaned
bits of eggy cream cheese from my cabinet doors, floor, and the crevice between
my stove and sink and collected myself, I got to work on round two. Ding
ding ding … The Cheesecake: 1, Emily: 0
I intended to
make dessert for a fourth of July party and it would have been simply
un-American to show up cheesecakeless. We are fighters. We love
Rocky Balboa. We wear tiny cutoff shorts with the pockets showing.
We get red-faced about second Amendment rights. We are a people
that love dessert. And so I went back to the grocery store, and reloaded.
Thus, this is
not a cheesecake for weaklings. There seems to be a good deal of praise
devoted to cheesecakes that are "light" and "airy." This is
all fine and good and could probably be labeled “progressive.” I do not want a
cheesecake like this. I want one that is thick and luscious. One that
will knock me out with her American thighs. And this cheesecake is all of
those things.
A sliver is all
you need to feel wholeheartedly satisfied. The cake is simple and honest
and I love it for sentimental reasons. The base recipe I used comes from
my Great Aunt Rose. It won me over as a favorite dessert at family
holiday gatherings a few years ago. And when I asked her for the recipe she
said, “It’s good. But it’s a pain in the ass.” And then forked it
over. It’s actually not too terribly difficult to make, but you do have to pay
attention to it. And if you open your springform pan prematurely you may find
yourself swearing like a sailor.
I added the
blackberries because I wanted something to cut through its richness. And
though I’m not usually a fan of their big, brutish drupelets, the container I
picked up and sniffed smelled slightly of cassis and this was enough to change
my mind. So with a newly found vision of cold cheesecake topped with a
crown of glossy blackberries, I came back swinging.
And number two,
oh she was a knockout. But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how many
dropped cheesecakes you can take, and keep baking.
Blackberry
Lemon Verbena Cheesecake
Adapted from
Aunt Rose
Ingredients:
For the crust
1 cup all-purpose
flour, sifted
¼ cup sugar
the zest of one
lemon
pinch of salt
pinch of ground
ginger
pinch of ground
coriander
½ cup butter
1 egg yolk
a generous ½
tsp vanilla extract
For the filling
40 ounces cream
cheese (5 packages), softened to room temperature
a generous ½
tsp vanilla extract
the zest of one
lemon
1¾ cup sugar
3 tbsp all
purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
4-5 eggs
(1 liquid cup full), at room temperature
2 egg yolks, at
room temperature
¼ cup heavy
cream
splash of
orange blossom water
For the
blackberry top
about 25 ounces
of blackberries (or roughly 3-4 cups), divided
2-4 tbsp lemon
juice (depending on how sweet the berries are, start off with less)
about 1/3 cup
of sugar (also depends on the sweetness of the berries)
pinch of salt
2 tbsp Crème de
Cassis
3 sprigs of
lemon verbena
Instructions:
For the
cheesecake
Preheat the
oven to 400 degrees. Combine the first six ingredients for the crust in a
medium-sized bowl and then cut in the butter until the mixture is
crumbly. Add in the vanilla and egg yolk; mix until the mixture is fully
moist. (It may help to do this with your hands.) Place a little more than
1/3 of the mixture into the bottom of a nine inch springform pan and bake until
golden brown, about 8-10 minutes. Let cool. (If it's hot in your
kitchen you may want to put the rest of the mixture into the fridge while the
bottom bakes.)
When the bottom
crust has cooled, lock in the sides of the springform pan; butter the sides,
and press the rest of the crust mixture from the bottom up the sides, up to
about one inch in height. (Not all of the cheesecake will be covered with
crust; see a side view of the finished cheesecake here.)
To make the
filling, beat the softened cream cheese until creamy and velvety smooth in a
stand mixer; add the vanilla and lemon zest and then add the sugar, flour, and
salt gradually while the mixer is running on low speed. Then add the eggs
one at a time, while the mixer is still running. Fold in the heavy cream and
orange blossom water. Pour the mixture into your springform pan (it will nearly
fill the pan; don't be alarmed).
Bake at 450
degrees for 10-15 minutes (my instructions say 12) and then turn the oven down
to 300 degrees and bake for 55 minutes more. Place on a wire rack to
cool. After 30 minutes, gently loosen the sides of the pan with a
knife. After 1 hour, remove the sides of the springform pan. Allow
to cool two hours longer before placing in the fridge to chill.
For the
blackberry top
Line the top of
your cheesecake with a layer of fresh berries. You can stagger and stack them a
bit to create some height, but a slightly haphazard little pile is all you
need.
Place a few
handfuls of the berries into a saucepan. Add in the lemon juice, sugar,
and salt and cook on medium heat until the berries start to burst and let their
sauces out and then add the Crème de Cassis. Cook until the mixture starts to
thicken; it should look thick and glossy, but still be spreadable (this will
take about 10-15 minutes). Add a little more lemon juice to the pan to
thin out the sauce, as needed. Once at the desired consistency, drop in
your lemon verbena sprigs and take off the heat to cool slightly, about 5-10
minutes. Strain out the seeds; reserve for another use or discard.
With a pastry
brush, gently brush the strained blackberry syrup-glaze over the top of the
berries. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.
Makes one
cheesecake (should feed about 12-16 people)
Notes:
-I love lemon
verbena in the summer. It’s a good counterpart for the blackberries and a
natural here, playing off the lemon zest and ginger and coriander in the
crust. I might even add it a little sooner to the pan to extract more of
its flavor next time, but I wasn't sure how it would fair and I didn't want
verbena to overpower things.
-You can spread
the strained, sweetened seeds on toast.
-More
about Crème
de Cassis, including tips on how to use it courtesy of Formaggio
Kitchen. You can't go wrong with Kir in the summertime.
