Recipe #1: “Family Style” Raspberry Cheesecake

I have to preface this by saying that the verdict on this recipe will have to wait until tomorrow or even Tuesday.  Having too much to do on Saturday, I went to the grocery store this morning to get all of my goods for this tasty looking first recipe….and then realized that once it’s cooked, it has to not only sit for 2 hours but refrigerate over night.  Boo.  Anyway, the recipe calls for a 9” springform pan, which I do not have, but I decided against purchasing for 2 reasons: 1) I can put it on my newly created “Budding Contessa Wishlist” and 2) I’m going to need to tote this to work for some coworker tastings.   

Crust contemplation: For some reason, I was nervous about making a graham cracker crust from scratch (even though there were only 3 ingredients with extremely simple directions….but still).  When it asked for 1 ½ cups of graham cracker crumbs, I thought, “how big do graham cracker crumbs need to be”?  What if they are too big?  What if they are too small?  I had a moment, but I just crushed them in my hands and went with it.  Needless to say, the crust mixture pressed into the pan just fine and the kitchen smelled like a buttery cookie even after the 8 minutes it required to bake/brown.

Filling feelings:  So my Kitchenaid stand mixer is currently residing in our laundry room, waiting for some free counter space.  I need to take a moment here and say that I LOVE my Kitchenaid mixer (once again, thanks mom!).  It is an oh-so-cute buttery yellow color and it makes everything easier….not to mention the fact that I feel way more like a creative Contessa when I use it.  BUT, since it was downstairs, I figured why not just mix the filling with my hand mixer instead of lugging by buttercream baby up to the kitchen?  My advice to you: lug.  I started mixing the cream cheese and sugar to “light and fluffy”, and realized that it would have taken me way longer than 5 minutes to do it.  Into the mixer it went, and of course, it was whipped up in no time.  I added in all of the other necessary ingredients (side note: I would zest the lemon directly into the mixing bowl as opposed to packing it into a measuring spoon like I did…it will distribute more evenly once mixing commences), taste tested (strictly for quality assurance purposes) and started to pour it over the cooled crust.  Well I don’t know what happened, but I filled that baby to the tippy top, and still had left over filling.  I scooped some out just to be safe, and popped it in the oven.

Baking uncertainties:  After the first 15 minutes, the cake rose to epic proportions, and I was sure this blog would be entitled “Raspberry Cheesecake, and How to Properly Clean an Oven”.  I definitely thought that the top was going to topple over, so instead of placing a pan under the cake to catch any spillage, I just reduced the heat like it told me to and hurried back downstairs, half afraid to look and half leaving it all up to fate.  Thankfully, the cake came out beautifully.  The only downside?  Ina (yes, we are on a first-name basis now…and by “we” I mean me) said that this is the only cheesecake recipe that she has found doesn’t crack, but mine did (play sad Charlie Brown music).  I am almost positive this is a result of me living and baking in the mile-high city as opposed to the sea-level Hamptons.

This brings me to a new addition of my 2-day old blog…. Things I Must Research to Obtain Contessa Status.  This week’s edition includes the following:

-What is the big deal about bringing eggs to room temperature?
-How do I get my cheesecake not to crack at altitude?

More on those items, as well as the tasting verdicts, in a few days….until then, dreams of sweets!