Tyler Florence’s The Ultimate Cheesecake

Heather — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:32:14 +0000

I made Tyler Florence’s cheesecake with just some minor changes. Anytime I do a cheesecake with the intention of serving it with cherries, I add almond extract. He included a warm blueberry topping, I made my own topping from frozen sweet dark cherries. His crust called for regular graham crackers and cinnamon. I used cinnamon graham crackers and added more cinnamon and a smidge of sugar. I will take a photo later. Right now I am too tired. Well, it *is* 5:20 am and I have not slept yet. Below is his recipe with my notes in purple.

The Ultimate Cheesecake

Ingredients

Crust:

2 cups finely ground graham crackers (about 30 squares) (I used Keebler Cinnamon Grahams)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 stick unsalted butter, melted (I used salted)

Filling:

1 pound cream cheese, 2 (8-ounce) blocks, softened
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 pint sour cream
1 lemon, zested (I subbed in a bit of almond extract and added a dash of salt)
1 dash vanilla extract
Warm Lemon Blueberry Topping, recipe follows (I made my own dark cherry topping to be spooned over individual slices)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, combine the ingredients with a fork until evenly moistened. Lightly coat the bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform pan with non-stick cooking spray. (I lined the pan with foil, did not oil it. Be sure your foil goes all the way up the edges of the pan and has no holes. This is the best way I have found to keep water out so far.)

Pour the crumbs into the pan and, using the bottom of a measuring cup or the smooth bottom of a glass, press the crumbs down into the base and 1-inch up the sides. Refrigerate for 5 minutes. (I refrigerated until I finished the filling…longer than 5 mins)

For the Filling:

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese on low speed for 1 minute until smooth and free of any lumps. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and continue to beat slowly until combined. Gradually add sugar and beat until creamy, for 1 to 2 minutes.

Add sour cream, lemon zest (almond extract), and vanilla. Periodically scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters. The batter should be well-mixed but not overbeaten. Pour the filling into the crust-lined pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Set the cheesecake pan on a large piece of aluminum foil and fold up the sides around it. (Foil on the outside of the pan is not necessary if you lined the pan.) Place the cake pan in a large roasting pan. Pour boiling water into the roasting pan until the water is about halfway up the sides of the cheesecake pan; the foil will keep the water from seeping into the cheesecake. Bake for 45 minutes. (I let mine cook about 15 mins longer. It was just starting to get a light golden in places and the center still jiggled.) The cheesecake should still jiggle (it will firm up after chilling), so be careful not to overcook. Let cool in pan for 30 minutes. Chill in the refrigerator, loosely covered, for at least 4 hours. Loosen the cheesecake from the sides of the pan by running a thin metal spatula around the inside rim. Unmold and transfer to a cake plate. Using a spatula spread a layer of Warm Lemon Blueberry topping over the surface.

Slice the cheesecake with a thin, non-serrated knife that has been dipped in hot water. Wipe dry after each cut.

Warm Lemon Blueberries:

1 pint blueberries
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 tablespoons sugar

In a small saucepan add all the ingredients and simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes or so until the fruit begins to break down slightly. Leave to cool before spreading on cheesecake.

Yield: 6 servings

Chicken in Cream Sauce

Heather — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:25:46 +0000

I actually made this on Tuesday, but due to the amount of time it takes for domain registration to go through…it is just now getting posted. I went to Publix and had no clue what I was going to fix. I decided it would depend on what was on sale. They ended up having boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale. I went all through the store looking for inspiration on what to do with them and what to have with them I ended up spotting a wild rice blend that sounded good, so then I decided to use my dutch oven and do some sort of sauce using the chicken stock I opened the night before. In the frozen veggie section they had steam containers of yellow & green beans, carrots and cranberries in herb butter. So I got that as well.

This is picture intensive and my camera is kind of sucky and I am not used to taking photos as I do things. Hopefully I get better over time. I think this will give a good bit of insight into my cooking process though. Start with a general idea of something and wing it from there.

First I put just enough Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the dutch oven to cover the bottom. Sorry for the bulb glare etc. This is a 6.5 qt pot btw. I put it over medium heat to let it start warming while I dealt with the chicken.

Salt and pepper the chicken on both sides. You can trim up the fat as well.

I dumped some All Purpose flour into a gallon ziplock and then dumped a generous amount of garlic & herb no salt blend by McCormick in with it. I never know how much flour mixture to make but I rather err on the side of having too much.

Next came black pepper….yes it is a lot. I like black pepper

Next came salt. Now seal the bag and mix all this stuff up well.

Here are my 3 chicken breasts in the bag. I shook the bag around really well and made sure they were well coated.

One by one lift the chicken from the flour, shaking the excess flour off.

By now your oil should be getting pretty hot. Add a little bit of crushed red pepper flakes. Or a lot if you like things really hot.

Carefully add your chicken. Now let it do its thing until it gets golden on the underside

Like this. Once again let it get golden brown.

It’s beginning to look and smell yummy.

Add stock (I used Swanson’s cooking stock)about halfway up the breasts. I added some more of the no salt seasoning. Scrape up any stuck bits. Cover and let simmer for a while.

Flip it again, once again scraping up any stuck bits.

Remove chicken from the pan.

Put a spoon of cornstarch in a cup.

Add some cold or room temp broth and stir well. Yes I know, it looks yucky in the photo. That was before I stirred it. Lumps in this slurry mixture equals lumps in your sauce. Avoid that!

While making the slurry the stock cooked down a bit. Do not add all the slurry!!! Add a little bit, whisk it in and see how thick it is. The picture above came out awful but that was right after I added some slurry, but hadn’t whisked it. I don’t know what the blue dots are…they weren’t actually in the food …

Taste the sauce. I decided to add some cream.

Then I decided I was in the mood for a little tanginess, so I added a dollop of sour cream. Taste again, adjust seasoning. Add your chicken back to the pan and heat through. (For a more refined presentation, remove the chicken once more and serve the sauce to the side and spoon it over the chicken).

We had this rice to go with it. I followed the directions except for I added some of the nosalt blend. In retrospect I should have added a handful of dried cranberries.

And these were the beans to go with it.

I forgot to take the final photo with the chicken in the sauce, but I was bouncing between the kitchen and checking on a sick dog.

It made a really good meal. Some things I likely would have changed…if I had pounded the breasts to a uniform thickness first I think they would have been slightly more tender. As I said above I think the rice would have been even better if I had cooked a handful of dried cranberries in it.

375 Degrees