I-love-you-berry-much cheesecake swirl
My first post.
If we know each other IRL (or if you’ve read the about section), you know the story behind this blog and the origin of the spite filling hiding inside the sugary sweet frosting. TL;DR I only started baking so regularly to prove a point to my husband that I’d actually use the hand mixer I purchased.
Well, here’s an unexpected plot twist that happened just before I embarked on this first entry. I have been baking so much and my husband has so thoroughly enjoyed the products of my spiteful baking that the other night he came home with this incredibly thoughtful surprise!
That’s right, baby! He went out and bought me the ultimate device every wannabe baker wants in their kitchen: a KitchenAid stand mixer. Can you imagine? The man who was skeptical of my little baby hand mixer, thinking I’d use it once and it would go on collecting dust just fully upgraded me to the Lambo of home kitchen devices. I think I won the long game here, and we’ve got it in writing, blogged to prove it!
Alright. Gloating done. Back to baking…
I thought I’d christen my gorgeous new mixer with a dessert to show the hubby that I love him berry, berry much. So here’s my attempt at a strawberry cheesecake.
Actually, I made 1.5 cheesecakes. As I was searching recipes to make a strawberry cheesecake swirl, I came across some small batch baking recipes. In the end, I think I ended up sort of combining a few normal sized recipes to piece together a strawberry cheesecake and then added 50% of everything to make a smaller cake in a loaf pan. Probably a little overambitious, but I think I tend to do that as well when jumping into new hobbies. Anyway, here it goes!
First, I started with some homemade jam. Another thing I’ve never done before, and who knew making jam was so easy! I ended up using an entire 16 oz (1 lb.) carton of strawberries. Definitely enough for my 1.5 cheesecakes with some extra for topping or for my toast tomorrow morning. No such thing as too much jam.
Next, I went for the crust. Now here’s where I think I probably should’ve stuck to one set of instruction and differentiated my bake times for the small and big cake. My “big” cake was done in a 9 inch spring form pan, and my small cake was done in a 9x5” loaf pan. Both recipes I found for the crust were so similar, but the bake times and methods were so drastically different. One seemed so easy, so in all honesty, that’s the one I went with. It only called for 8 minutes of pre-baking the crust, or until it was golden brown. By 10 minutes, both crusts actually looked golden brown, so I figured they were both done. That might have been true, but I think the next few steps to bake and chill the filling may have altered the end result of the crusts. More on that later. But if you want to avoid my mistake, I’ve included the directions for the full-sized cheesecake crust below that should really be followed.
The filling was actually so easy to make. But that may be due to my brand spanking new stand mixer! I’ve included the recipe below for the full-sized cheesecake, and if you’d like to make another mini one simultaneously as I did, just add another half serving of each.
Once you’re done making the filling, pour it into the pans and over the cooled crusts. Now the fun part - designing the swirl! Dollop spoonfuls of the jam on top of the cheesecake filling, and use a knife to swirl the jam around the top. I included full chunks of strawberries in mine, but I think it you want neater swirls, strain the chunks out and just use the jam sauce. Save the chunks to top the cheesecake later when serving.
And now for the bake. I baked the small cheesecake for about 50 minutes and the big one for about 60. Essentially, you’ll need to bake each until a toothpick comes out just about clean. After baking, cool on some cooling racks. Once they’re cooled, place your cheesecakes in the fridge to set. I left both of mine in over night, but recipes say they should be refrigerated for at least 6 hours and up to 1 day. I like my cheesecake no matter what temperature, but baker’s choice of serving straight from the fridge or take them out and allow to come down to room temperature before serving.
Et voilà!
