Thursday, May 08, 2008

Baked Lemon Cheese Cake With Passion Fruit Syrup

Call me and my previous cheesecake dense if you must. It was true. I could never figure out why my cheesecakes, although tasting decent and cheesy enough, were always dense, and not "light and fluffy" like the commercial ones. I'm not talking fluffy to the extent of those cotton cheesecakes they sell at Jusco for RM12.99 per block, that's just air with a hint of cheese. But you know, something in between.

Mind you, the preference for cheesecake is as varied as cupsizes amongst female (and some male) bloggers. Some like theirs chilled, some only eat baked ones, some like it dense, some like it not so cheesy, some want it so cheesy, that a C grade movie pales in comparison. And there's the issue of the flavour as well. So, for the greater good of mankind, I guess one has to stick to one own's preference, making it the New International Version, while letting the deviants find their fix elsewhere. Or by special order. There are some who've even asked me, almost to the effect of, "Mista ah, your cheese cake donch put cheese can or notch ah? My great grandfather donch like cheese wor."

So, on those sleepless nights, when one resorts to counting sheep, in whatever position they fancy, one also ponders the great mysteries of life and questions that affect humanity, such as, how do bananas multiply, since they don't have seeds, or better still, how do seedless grapes multiply. Actually, how ah? Amidst this cornucopia of difficult questions, arise the "why is mine so dense"? I've followed the recipe to the T. Even Domestic Goddess just blitzed everything in her food processor, for her chocolate cheesecake. It must have tasted like a reconstituted chocolate and cheese cadbury bar. Mind you, nothing wrong with that.

And then, one rolls over and omits an ominous gust of flatulence, and EUREKA, the answer like that light bulb in a speech bubble appears. WIND!!! or rather, AIR!!! You need to incorporate AIR into the darn thing. Slap forehead at the obvious solution. I think, hmmm, maybe whisking the egg whites separately might do the trick, since it seems to work for just about every other type of cake. But gee, wont the egg white just drown in that sea of viscous cheese? But yes, that inner voice tells me, try the egg white.

AND THEN, I stumble across local chef's cookbook, Alex Goh's Creative Making of Cakes. And lo and behold, like a wayward sinner who had finally seen the light, the confirmation was there before me in writing. He advocates the same thing. Whisking egg whites separately. Sheesh, even Donna Hay, my "guru" and favourite recipe book authoress, didn't teach us that. Such obvious solutions.

So ya, here's my version of Baked Lemon Cheesecake, very easy to make and rather delicious. The pictures don't really do it justice, not because of the photography, but because it was at home, and I couldn't be bothered to smooth out the sides, and use a sharp, hot knife to give it a clean cut. But the ragged bits does give an indication of its texture, ie, its "fluffy" and not dense and the messiness gives it that glorious home made feeling. I want my grandchildren to reminisce about their grandfather's desserts when I'm gone.

Recipe:

1 biscuit base - Go search elsewhere in this blog for that, or email me, I'm too lazy to type it out.

Filling :
500gm cream cheese, which now costs a whopping RM18 or more in the supermarkets.
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons corn flour
400 gm whipping cream
zest of one lemon
1/4 cup of lemon juice or more or less

3 egg whites (from the same eggs from whence the yolks came...so if you were doing this in sequence and threw away the whites before reading on...tough titties...moral of story, always read till the end)
1/4 cup of sugar

Preheat oven to 160C

Cream the cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. (St Lemongrass, James of Ooze, Skinny Cheeks and Age of Innocence, creaming is a baking method)
Add yolks one by one
Chuck in the zest, lemon juice and mix until smooth.
Stir or slowly mix in whipped cream. Batter should resemble a thick viscous pancake batter.

In separate bowl, beat the egg whites and slowly add the sugar bit by bit, (not grain by grain), until soft peaks. Fold the whisked egg whites into the batter.

Pour filling into prepared biscuit base and bake in a water bath for 1½ hours or until set. Don't forget to line your pan (springform or removable base) with aluminium foil before the spa treatment, or water will seep in through the orifices.

After that, switch off oven, leaving cake in there door closed, for ½ an hour. Take out from water bath, and leave to rest in oven for another hour, with door slightly ajar. (oven door that is, not your main house door).

Take out and refrigerate overnight. Use a hot palette knife to cut around the perimeter and release the cake from the pan.

Serve with whipped cream, or passionfruit syrup. (Passionfruit plus some boiled sugar syrup)



Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting


Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Another production by Fatboybakes

53 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooh... yummy-looking. And to think all it needed was an inspiration of flatulence.. or expiration, rather. :P

"Cream the cream cheese"? Too easy, this one is far too easy to even touch... Lol. Your attempt to bring your blog back to a more family-friendly rating is admirable, but just wait till those trio of scandalicious floggers get a load of this... (Did I just say 'load'? Oops.)

sc said...

I'm a fan of anything cheese and this looks absolutely mouth watering! so hungry now :(

fatboybakes said...

kennymah, trio? quartet you mean.

sc, yes, it was rather delish if i may say so myself. ahem. heh heh....some more with a cup of freshly brewed arabica coffee....hmmmm, heaven..

Anonymous said...

Quartet? I meant trio lar. Dunno who this Skinny Cheeks fler is... :P

Anonymous said...

Wahhh.. damn happening wor, your hacienda!!

The good saint has my arrival and departure details. What is a trip back without makan sessions?? That's the whole purpose of returning. Do I get a magimix demo thrown in as well?? :D

Pause.

Oh ya, and for the grandparents to see the grandkids.. :P

Anonymous said...

BTW, how do you prepare bittergourd juice? Using a juicer? And you don't consume the pulp?

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

air..how can 1 not think of it earlier? maybe ur goddesses prefer dense and rich..

anywayz either tickle my fancy..haha

Babe_KL said...

hmm looks fluffy, i can almost taste it here!!!

fatboybakes said...

nipples, your name has been bandied about like DPM in altantuya case, in the comments section of the previous post. tickle your fancy? boy....

kat, i love bittergourd, so i would eat it like that, but in the mornings, its a bit tough, (to eat that), so yeah, its just juice via the juicer, plus carrots, and whatever other fruit. contrary to popular belief, i lead healthy life as far as possible. disgusting oat bran in the morning, and fresh juice, (i make myself, though the stuff is all laid out for me)....
suddenly the hacienda's haunted by very naughty spirits....

kennymah, [angelic look]...dont ask me.

fatboybakes said...

babe_kl, yalar, actually fluffy isnt really the word la, but you know what i mean right.

jamesbluntknife said...

kat: when will you be in malaysia?

fbb: this recipe seems good. i need to have a go at it, hopefully it won't turn out like my brownies...

i was just talking to a friend today about seedless grapes. here is your answer:

"Grape breeders create new seedless plants by placing the pollen of a seedless grape onto the flowers of a grape variety that has seeds. They then cut open and inspect the fruit of every single plant that grows from this match. The breeders are looking for seeds -- some plants will have seeds in their fruit and others won't.

When they find a plant that has no seeds, or maybe just has very tiny traces of seeds that you wouldn't be able to taste, the grape breeders use it to make more seedless plants. One way is to cut off small pieces of the seedless plant's vine and place it in special growing conditions in a greenhouse. Eventually, the pieces of vine will grow roots and become new, individual plants. This technique is called propagation.

Or, the breeders can graft, or attach, a piece of the seedless grape variety onto a healthy vine base, called a rootstock. Think of it like this: When someone cuts their hand, a doctor sews the cut together, and the two pieces heal as one. The grafted vines grow together the same way. And, the grape variety attached to the rootstock keeps producing delicious seedless grapes."


sometimes we can keep it out of the gutter.

oh, and just so you know, my grapes have lots of seeds.

Anonymous said...

Humsap kwais? Best kind of kwais to haunt a place, doncha think?? ;)

james - will be back in june/july.

jamesbluntknife said...

oh cool - i'm going to be in KL (and penang, and singapore...) from the 19th of june to the 5th of july.

we can take over the makan club ;)

Rarebeet said...

Too dense or not too dense

It depends on my mood really but I generally prefer my cheesecakes like this - duffy. Aerated density. Dense cheesecakes make me feel like I might as well squeeze some lemon on cream cheese and ritz cracker and call it cheesecake. Cheh.

Anonymous said...

Take over the makan club?? Ptoooi! --> that's Malaysian spitting for the Oozie. And yes, you must show us Oozie grapes some time. I hope they're not shrivelled.

If genius were created from flatulence, my hubby would be winning the Nobel prize this year.

jamesbluntknife said...

well, if you want, you can taste my aussie grapes when i come over. i'll make sure that they are choc-full of juices, just for you...

Anonymous said...

James Bluntpisau, yes, do squeeze and crush the grapes to a pulp and serve the juice in a wine glass. And please clean off the ants first.

jamesbluntknife said...

juicy lemon, you forget the ants don't like my grape juice. i daresay they would drown in it as well, if i try to store the grape juice up for you..

maybe i can put the grape juice into a wine glass for you, without crushing the grapes? there is a trick to releasing the juices, maybe you just haven't mastered it yet.

Anonymous said...

Little pen knife, all roads lead to Rome. The question is which one gives me the best grape juice.

You also forget that i'm limonsutra. (Page 649)

jamesbluntknife said...

limonsutra?

i thought needed two mouths for THAT one.


on that note, time to change topic...

tacos: soft shell or hard shell?

and this is a SERIOUS topic for once, no innuendo

Anonymous said...

a note to limonsutra (since everyone else is talking over FBB): Did I mention I liked spam?? I keep getting thrown into yours!! :P

Back to FBB, I wonder how cake (cheese/butter) would taste like with (horrors!!) lemon essence?? Watodo, I ain't got no microplane.. :D
I try and let you know..

Anonymous said...

james - a note of advice, must be respectful of the makan club. lest we don't get taken to the best makan-ing places...

*brings out shoe polish*

LL - did I ever tell you your pictures of sashimi are brilliant!

FBB - wahh.. your cakes and pies are simply to die for!! And you are such a healthy eater too..

*grin*

Anonymous said...

james bluntpisau, and the problem of needing two mouths is....? I'll email you my artistic impression. Tacos - the harder the better. (you sure this is a serious topic?)

kat knifesharpener, I got no grapes to lick, woman.

Henry Yeo said...

to fbb: congrats on your eureka moment.

to everyone else: are we turning fbb's blog comments into a forum or what?

jamesbluntknife said...

lyrical lemongrass: sorry, i thought you were referring to page 181 (69 X 2)

i was being serious about the tacos - i'm having a few girls over next weekend for a taco night.

fatboybakes said...

oozie jamesie, wow, taco night with girls. they must be brave girls, or were you planning on sitting in a hot tub and providing a spa/jacuzzi with the after effects of them tacos? hard tacos for me thanks. didnt know they had soft ones.

henry, ya, ... hmm, again, a bathtub with bubbles springs to mind with eureka.

lyrical, i thought all women had two mouths...i dont think JOO needs any graphics...oh, hangon, my bad, that's two lips. as in, pairs.

kat, since old ma teresa there has the dates of both your and JOO's visit, and hopefully nickhkl can cum back from the republic too, maybe i can host a simple something, and you can sample them cakes and pies, since you've been such a supportive reader. as for lemon essence, eugh. hallo, you dont need a microplane la, any normal RM2 grater can do oso la.

paprika, hahah, yalar, that sounds like chilled cheesecakes. nothing wrong with slapping cream cheese on a cracker though. yummy.

and james, thank you for the discourse on the seedless grapes. i would direct the kids here for an educational tour, but........

as for bringing his grapes for all and sundry to try, i am sure the just heavenly boys would be QUITE excited to know this. where are they?

rokh said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
msiagirl said...

You know I just dropped by to compliment you on damn tasty cheesecake and look what I get, an earful of cheesy comments! I did enjoy getting enlightened about grapes.

Also want to ask you - G&B Baking choc or normal 85% choc - well actually i got you a bit of both, izzat ok in a few weeks?? Anything else you desperately cannot live without bakingwise? other stuff I prob can't help you with. ;)

A non-hard taco is not a taco. It's a corn burrito and would be a little limp dontcha think, James? Especially if you promised the girls a bona fide taco. I do a mean salsa if you want the recipe.

jamesbluntknife said...

msiagirl: yes, i'd like to get the recipe for your salsa - i'm ok with guacamole, but haven't tried to make salsa just yet.

i prefer the hard tacos as well, for the same reasons - the soft ones feel like i'm being cheated out of the experience of eating them.

by the way, did you know the KFC sells tacos in Vietnam? they have chicken ones, and fish tacos as well.

fbb: i am thinking of doing el cerdo on the 24th of june if you (and anyone else) are interested. it'll be my birthday ;)

i hope nic can make it on a tuesday, but otherwise hooters is still calling out to me...

Min said...

Congrats for finally getting the technique right ! I myself am not a cheesecake expert.

boo_licious said...

hee hee...the cheesecake looks wickedly good. Wish I could lick a slice now.

Anonymous said...

FBB: Out of curiousity, do you add anything to the bittergourds when you juice them? A touch of lemon? Celery? I can't quite figure out the commercial stuff I get at all these HK eateries and juice bars... Kim Gary's version adds yoghurt if I'm not mistaken.

Msiagirl: Ooh, do share your salsa recipe with us too! I'm all about the cooking these days... and any one-pot dish ideas you may have. The rest of you too, kalau ade idea?

Lemongrass Lady: You may not have grapes to lick, but them melons are ripe for ... uhm, what's the rating on this blog again, FBB? :P

fatboybakes said...

boolicious, heh heh, thanks, but honestly, its nothing you cant whip up in the bat of an eyelid. unlike some other dramatic floggers who's baking adventures are like the cyclone nargis.

min, its not so much a right technique, as i said, some ppl actually like that dense texture, (i think that's why chilled cheese cakes have a massive following)..just a different technique la that i've been wondering about. how's the wonderful sugarpaste modelling coming along? bila lagi?

james, we must bring you for our soft tacos, they're called popiah. well, have definitely blocked out 24th then.

msiagirl, awww, thanks...actually dont bother with the 85% coz 99% ppl find that too bitter, and it'll be a waste. though i personally lurve dark bitter chocolate.

fatboybakes said...

kennymah, yup, i add carrot, celery and whatever other fruit that's on hand...but so far no grapes, or melons...(sniggering at the remark directed at LL)

HairyBerry said...

awesome bosom!yay, thanks for the invite, fbb! i do cum back quite regularly...stressful mah..working in the republic, i mean. :D weekends will be awesome!

james, i'm sure them gals prefer the hard ones...prepare lotsa sour cream too! they like 'em smooth as well.

weekdays in kl are out for me, but no problem on hooters, i suppose.

Anonymous said...

Nic (KHKL): "Awesome bosom"? You're talking about our St. Limongrass and her bountiful, er, bounty ar?

James: Hard tacos and sour cream. You sure this was a serious question? Doesn't seem that way any more leh... :P

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

when did this become a chat room ar?? and hey unbuttoning to take a shower, whats so unholey about that? me no cum to bangkok hot and sweaty u knw..

STEFFI said...

OMG!! you're so good at this!! =P

fatboybakes said...

steffi, you are too kind. err...good at what?

nipples, isnt life one big chat room anyway? was that me no cum TO bangkok or IN?

kennymah, yeah, hard tacos and sour cream...so much for family friendly blogs.

nickhkl, yup yup, oridi planning.

jamesbluntknife said...

the thing i most love about this comment page is that metaphors like "hard taco with sour cream" is dirty, but then no one comments about the fish tacos i'm having next weekend... :P

Anonymous said...

Jamesbluntpisau, fish tacos or fishy tacos?

jamesbluntknife said...

depends on how strong the sauce is, of course...

ok, now this is an attempt to make this clean.

msiagirl: wanna share your salsa recipe? ;)

msiagirl said...

Sorry Fbb - hope you don't mind we all havin' a party in your comments.

James: It's waaaaaay too late to make this clean. You know you have to practice your lip technique on fish tacos or it all just falls apart.

This is for all you agak cooks out there.

Msiagirl's Hot Salsa Recipe

2 tins chopped tomato
half a red onion (or any onion)
Big bunch coriander/cilantro/chow bee chai in hokkien - whateverya callit
Juice from whole lemon
cumin powder - about a tsp
2 hot green chillies or lots of jalapeno (red chillies if you wanna sneak up on someone with this and whack em in the mouth)
salt and pepper to taste (generous)

get big bowl, add it all in
stir and leave to sit in fridge for half and hour.

Voila! Serve with tacos, nachos, burritos, cold sliced beef, huevos rancheros. hmmm have to go make some for myself now.

Chillies are an aphrodisiac y'know.

STEFFI said...

FBB, u're good at food... baking, and enjoying them. nice! =)

fatboybakes said...

jackson, what to do, some people so celebrity these days, invite for dinner party oso never come....

james, i cant see how fish tacos can be anything but fish tacos....unless you're referring to a smell.

msiagirl, you must demonstrate the correct way to eat fish tacos when you come...now i'm morbidly fascinated. the salsa recipe looks divine.

steffi, thank you, you are too kind. (at first i thought you meant i was good at writing naughty things)

Argus Lou said...

Lovely, lovely! You sure love passionfruit, hor?

I'm the kind who only likes light baked cheesecake - like quark cake, with berries or apple baked into it.

P.S. I'm no biologist/physicist, but can peak meh if soft? *confused*

jamesbluntknife said...

soft peak just means that it will rise, and then falls back into mixture.

hard peaks means does not fall back into mixture ;)

jamesbluntknife said...

see msiagirl, nice, safe conversation.

food conversation :P

Argus Lou said...

Ah... so. So clever one, this Mr Tak-TajamKnife. Must help to be Down Under -- more blood goes to head.

msiagirl said...

Yah. I'm just talking 'bout food. Yah I am.

jamesbluntknife said...

that reminds me, i see no comments about dark lemon's peaks...

Tummythoz said...

Sure is good reading for working hours.
Same goes for your post, of coz.

ai wei said...

hiope my family will enjoy this when i made one during my free time.
how many inches of the cake mould are u using?!