New Years Celebrations 2012-2013: New York Cheesecake

This post (and the upcoming one) is a bit overdue, but I loved my New Year's Eve bakes, so I am including them anyway.

For Christmas of 2012, I got given the Cake Boss recipe book and New Year's Eve presented the perfect opportunity for me to try it out! We live in Johannesburg, which is pretty quiet around Christmas and New Years: all Jo'burgers migrate to the coast for fun, sun and sea. So New Year's celebrations being in short supply, we invited some friends over for a braai (or barbeque) to bring in the new year.

This not only gave me an opportunity to make something for dessert, but also to bake a cake! So this entry will be about the dessert I made and I'll write another about my celebration cake.

In the weeks leading up to New Year's Eve I had had a crazy craving for some cheesecake. Conveniently, I also had a few recipes lines up! I decided on a New York baked cheesecake by Michel Roux: the father of beautiful desserts. It's very rich, but delicious.

From Michel Roux desserts:
New York Cheesecake
Base
65g melted butter, plus 20g to grease
250g digestive biscuits

Filling
1kg cream cheese, softened
2tbsp milk
350g caster sugar
35g plain flour
very finely grated zest on 1 lemon
very finely grated zest of 1 orange
5 egg, plus 2 egg yolks
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways

1. Preheat oven to 180⁰C and lightly butter a 22-24cm springform cake tin, 5-6cm deep, and place on a baking sheet.
2. Crush the biscuits in a food processor to crumbs, transfer to a bowl, add the melted butter and mix until thoroughly combined.
3. Tip the biscuit mixture into the cake tin and spread to form a uniform layer, pressing it firmly and evenly.
4. Bake for 12 minutes, until firm. Set aside to cool, still on the baking sheet.
5. Raise the oven setting to 200⁰C.
6. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, milk, sugar, flour and citrus zests together until evenly combined. smooth and lightly creamy.
7. On a low speed, incorporate eggs one at a time, followed by the egg yolks.
8. Finally add the vanilla seeds from the pod. Scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times during mixing to ensure the filling is homogeneous.
9. Pour the filling over the biscuit base in the tin and bake for 12 minutes. Lower the oven to 100⁰C and cook for a further 1 hour.
10. Turn the oven off and leave the cheesecake inside with the door slightly ajar for 1 hour to cool slowly; this helps prevent the surface from cracking.
11. Transfer the cheesecake in its tin to a wire rack to cool completely, then refrigerate for at least six hours before serving.

To serve, I used a combination of gooseberries, raspberries and blackberries.

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