EDU v. lemon cheesecake

[drew]

This is probably my favorite summertime desert, it goes great with fresh berries ( raspberries and strawberries especially )

The prep work takes about 45 minutes, factor in cooling and whatnot, and you're looking at a multi-hour project. I usually make this the night before and let the cake chill overnight.


Okay, first off gather up your ingredients;



Cookie-Crumb Crust
5 ounces Nabisco Barnum's Animal Crackers or Social Tea Biscuits
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and kept warm

Filling
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (8 3/4 ounces)
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese , (three 8-ounce packages), cut into rough 1-inch chunks and left to stand at room temperature 30 to 45 minutes
4 large eggs , room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup heavy cream

Lemon Curd
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 1/2-inch cubes and chilled
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch table salt


preheat your oven to 325 with the rack low/mid. cut your creme cheese into 1 inch cubes, and start melting your butter





put your animal crackers into a food processer WARNING, ANIMAL LOVERS / PETA MEMBERS: THE NEXT FEW PICTURES MADE BE HARD TO LOOK AT.



pulse those ****ers into dust



add your sugar and butter to the crumbs and pulse until it's kind of a clumpy sand texture



pour that **** into a springform pan and pat it down. bake it for about 15 minutes until it's golden brown and your kitchen smells like heaven



now let that **** cool for a while

get your lemon and zest it



toss that **** into the food processer with about half your sugar, until it looks like yellow sugar



mix with remaining sugar



put your creme cheese into a stand mixer and beat it like it owes you money



add your sugar, and mix for a couple of minutes until it's smooth. then add your eggs two at a time



mix until for about 30 seconds, add vanilla, salt, lemon juice, and creme. mix just until incorporated.



yum.

alright, now take your springform pan and line it with foil, make sure you do a good job, don't have ass it. put your springform pan intl a bath of water ( i use a roasting pan ) filled halfway up. pour your heaven goop into the pan



pop that bitch in the oven for about an hour, until it reaches 150 degrees. when it's done, prop the door open slightly and let it cool in the oven for another hour, then transfer the springform pan sans foil/waterbath to a cooling rack for another 2 hours.



now i hope you didn't think we were done bitch. while that **** was cooking, you got your lemon curd ready, right? WHAT? you slacking son of a bitch.. okay here's what you do


heat up your lemon juice, get it hot but not boiling



in a small bowl beat your eggs and sugar, when the lemon juice is hot SLOWLY add the juice to the egg/sugar mixture. DO NOT JUST DUMP IT ALL IN. once incorporated, transfer back into the pan you heated the lemon juice in. start stiring that **** CONSTANTLY don't look away, don't walk away, just stand there and stir it.



after a few minutes it will quickly thicken up. it takes some practice to get right, but you basically want to remove it from heat as soon as it starts coating your spoon and when rubbing across the bottom the trail of curd rolls back in like this



that happens at about 170 degrees.

once it reaches this tempature, quickly remove from heat and add your cold butter. stir until all butter is melted and mixed up, then add your creme, vanilla, and salt. pour this through cheesecloth or a mesh strainer to get out any cooked bits of egg incase you ****ED UP AND DIDN'T LISTEN WHEN I SAID TAKE IT OFF HEAT WHEN IT HITS 170.

alright, now that your curd is completed put it into a bowl and cover it with saran wrap, dont just cover the bowl though, put the saran wrap ON the curd so that it doesn't develop a layer of film while chilling. put that **** into the fridge.

once your cake AND curd is cool, go ahead and pour the curd ontop, spread, cover with coil, and refridgerate for at least 4hours. i let mine sit overnight, here's how it looked in the morning



oh **** yeah.



mm yeah baby.

[MotorED]

Since I'm a baker/pastry chef, I figured I'd throw in my 2 cents. Good Recipe overall.
Just a few suggestions to the novice chefs out there.

1. When zesting your lemons, you want the yellow stuff. The white stuff is yucky.
2. When your done beating the hell out of the cream cheese, and you begin to add the eggs, I would pause every couple seconds to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Don't have a fancy shmancy food processor? That's okay...put those animal crackers in a zip lock bag, and take out some frustrations with something hard. (ex. rolling pin, pot/pan)
4. I think the step where you process the sugar and zest can be skipped. Not really necessary.

And if everyone already knows this....then please disregard this post!
Enjoy!

[drew]

Originally Posted by MotorED

Since I'm a baker/pastry chef, I figured I'd throw in my 2 cents. Good Recipe overall.
Just a few suggestions to the novice chefs out there.

1. When zesting your lemons, you want the yellow stuff. The white stuff is yucky.
2. When your done beating the hell out of the cream cheese, and you begin to add the eggs, I would pause every couple seconds to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Don't have a fancy shmancy food processor? That's okay...put those animal crackers in a zip lock bag, and take out some frustrations with something hard. (ex. rolling pin, pot/pan)
4. I think the step where you process the sugar and zest can be skipped. Not really necessary.

And if everyone already knows this....then please disregard this post!
Enjoy!

good tips

however in my case

1.) i only zested over once, so all I had was the yellow rind ( the white is so bitter )
2.) i used a KA-TH paddle with silicone fins that scrape for you
3.) not an issue for me
4.) only thing i disagree with you on, for me cheesecake should be silky smooth, I like to toss the zest with sugar into the processer because it gets it super-super fine so you dont have any threads of zest