The cheesecake is smooth and moist, and not cloying dense, with the right intensity of richness. It has nary a crack! Here are some simple tips. When you bake a cheesecake, try baking it with a shallow dish of water under the rack. It keeps the air moist, so your cake won't be so inclined to crack. Also, don't remove the cake immediately from the oven. The drastic change in temperature and any incoming drafts will cause the cake to cool too quickly, forming cracks. When the time is up, open the oven door slightly and wait for half an hour or so before moving it to your countertop.
For people who love cheesecake crusts, this digestives crust is crumbly and crunchy, complementing the silky, smooth texture of the cheese. The earthy taste of wheat also balances out the rich sweetness of the cheesecake.
In order to achieve perfect, clean slices, it is best to wipe your knife after every single cut. I followed this tip of using dental floss to cut through the cake. Don't. Firstly, it's quite tough to get the floss to cut through the centre of the cake. Secondly, the floss cannot cut through the crust. So just use a knife.
The recipe is unconventional, calling for condensed milk and lime juice. However, you can barely discern the taste of its individual components. The usually annoyingly sweet condensed milk is tempered by the tartness of the limes, forming a well-balanced combination of ingredients; everything blends together to form a heavenly alchemy of sinful decadence that will surely leave you wanting more.
Here's the recipe, with a couple of modifications for our metric-based populace:
2 cups crushed digestives biscuits
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
554g cream cheese, softened
1 can (338ml) condensed milk (I like Alaska Condensada because it doesn’t leave a “milky” aftertaste)
3 eggs
juice of 2 limes or 2 tsps. lemon juice (if available)
Preheat oven to 350ºF(176ºC). Combine crumbs, sugar and margarine; press firmly on bottom of 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Set aside.
With mixer, beat cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually beat in condensed milk until smooth. Add eggs and calamansi or lemon juice. Mix well.
Pour into prepared pan — it doesn’t matter if crust is still warm. Lower oven temperature to 300ºF(148ºC) Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until center is slightly jiggly but perimeter is set. Cool 1 hour. Chill at least 4 hours to let flavors develop. Will keep in refrigerator for two weeks
I personally baked the cheesecake at 140ºC for 55 minutes. Black pans absorb heat better, and my oven only has temperatures in multiples of ten. Since cheesecakes are such delicate foods, it's wiser to cook them at a lower temperature for a longer period of time, than at a higher temperature for a shorter period of time. You don't want your cheesecake burnt at the edges and undercooked in the centre!
But that's all really common sense; you don't need me to tell you to get acquainted with your oven. ;)
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I just read Dida's blog and from the looks of things, her ex-boyfriend (whom she refers to as Monkey) had cheated on her. If you care to read her April posts, especially this one, you see how she reviews her relationship with him, and how she realised that everything he did was just one giant lie meant to hoodwink her into submission. Everything he did was in the name of manipulation and deception. And it's scary. Writing on this blog; people will know what buttons to push. People will know exactly what tickles me, what turns me on, what ticks me off.
In short, I am extremely susceptible to manipulation. I may already have been, I do not know. If I was manipulated well enough, I wouldn't even know I was manipulated. I feel sorry for her, though pity from a stranger less than two-thirds her age is probably something she would scornfully dismiss. Yet, I am somewhat glad that she has written about her experience. No, my gladness is not one of sadistic gloating, but more of a thankful appreciation that she is sharing her encounter with a deceitful Casanova and I, still relatively blinkered from the evils of society, gets to include this in my list of things to be wary about. I feel really bad for her, I sincerely do. Still, it makes me wonder if I am human enough to ever feel hurt of such an insurmountable degree she is acutely experiencing. Nah, I am. I am just trying to pretend that I am infallible.
Damn, do people suck, or what? Thank goodness I am prematurely alerted to the awful things that could happen. I might be able to fend them off. But the very nature of such lies is that once you're riding the wave of ignorant bliss, you don't want to stop...


7 comments:
Cheesecake! It seems yummy. I'm drooling. Haha. x)
chinghui: Want to come to my house to bake again? ;)
hey just wanna say you're really good at baking..it is a great talent.
and i think I saw you about 2 months ago at the Esplanade
alltheway: Thank you! I have decided that if I cannot get a well-paying job, I shall market myself as a domestic goddess who can cook, bake, and sew (but not clean). Heh.
You did? I must've been in uniform with my friend. I can't really remember, I was there quite a few times then.
yeah u were in Uniform. By the way, who is this Dida? How did u come across her blog?
alltheway: Dida... clicked around from donaq.blogspot.com.
of course! :D Μy exams ends at 9th May. Maybe after that? (:
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