Creation of a Cheesecake - Part II

As you may recall, I had a culinary catastrophe last week, and my cheesecake turned out to be a lumpy pudding...the kids tried to cheer me up, but I suffered a serious blow to my cooking ego.

Fast forward to Sunday (yesterday).  As I slowly wandered the aisles at No Frills - one of my favourite things to do (I know, I need to get a life) - I stopped at the cheese fridges, and stared down a 250g block of light cream cheese, debating whether I was ready to try my hand at Bubbie Lou's cheesecake recipe again.  Not one to back down to a challenge, I picked up the cream cheese, and bought another tub of cottage cheese to boot.

I came home and started cooking.  As I made dish after successful dish, I built up my resolve and decided there was no time like the present.  I pulled out my old, battered cheesecake spring form pan and all the ingredients needed to make the cheesecake. 

Out of the oven...so far so good

The only differences between my first attempt and this one were:

• I reduced the recipe by 50%
• I increased the baking time by 20 minutes
• I left the cheesecake to chill for 24 hours before attempting to remove it from the pan

And today I crept to the cantina, pulled the cheesecake from the fridge and returned to the kitchen to survey my handiwork.  I slowly opened the latch and gingerly raised the pan through the mold...SUCCESS! 

It's holding!  At this point, my daughters' faces are frozen in shock & amazement LOL!

After they got over their initial shock that I CAN MAKE A CHEESECAKE, my kids cheered for me and eagerly stood by as I cut them each a piece for their after school snack. 

The finished product...yumm!

So...the moral of the Creation of a Cheesecake story is twofold:

• If at first you don't succeed - try, try again; and
• I CAN make cheesecake!
  
  

Now I am off to have a piece myself...wishing you a wonderful evening, filled with fun, friends and fantastic food!  B'Tayavon and Buon Appetito!

Bubbie Lou's Cheesecake


Crust Ingredients:

• 1¼C graham cracker crumbs
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¼C melted butter

Filling Ingredients:

• 1C cottage cheese (small curds)
• 1C cream cheese
• 1C granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp cream

Method: 

Preheat oven to 375˚.  Combine the crust ingredients and press down to bottom of spring form pan.  Using the mix master, blend all filling ingredients and pour into spring form, on top of the crust.  Bake for 40 minutes.  Remove and let cool and set (for a few hours!) before removing the spring form.