So, I decided to make an Oreo Cheesecake. After work. After a long day at work. I might have screwed it up. A little. Kind of. Hmmm.
I've actually never made a set cheesecake, but I figured "How hard can it be?" Apparently it can be pretty damn difficult when you're tired, misread the recipe and dissolve your gelatine in 5 times more water than you're meant to... Ahem.
However, I discovered that my triage skills are actually pretty good (and I'm now convinced that mascarpone has the power to fix everything and anything). Thankfully, despite my rather colossal slip up, it was nothing that a little extra gelatine powder and whopping great dollop of mascarpone couldn't fix.
In fact, it actually turned out pretty well. I was using a recipe which I'd found in a copy of The Australian Women's Weekly which my mum had lying around the house. It caught my eye thanks to the advertised feature of 'Our Best-ever Cheesecakes', so I felt fairly confident that the recipe should be pretty good. However, I liked the way my would-be mistake turned out, so I've adapted the recipe very slightly to incorporate my weirdly successful quick-fix methods and a couple of edits I made when I realised I happened to not have enough caster sugar...
250g plain chocolate biscuits
130g melted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons of gelatine
1/4 cup (60ml) of water
200g softened cream cheese
150g thickened cream
250g mascarpone
250g good-quality white chocolate
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
50g caster sugar
60g light brown sugar (I did this as I didn't have quite enough caster sugar, but if you do then 110g caster sugar would be fine. However, I thought that the brown sugar ended up adding a nice flavour to the mix and stopped it from being too sweet)
150g cream-filled chocolate biscuits (Oreos), broken into rough pieces
50g melted dark chocolate for decorating
First, grease and line the base and sides of a 22cm springform cake pan, then place the pan in the fridge to chill. I always do this whenever I'm making a cake or tart that has a 'base' (either pastry or biscuit crumb) as I find that keeping your tin chilled helps to make sure that once your tart is finished, it will come out of the tin easily (particularly when you're in a hot, humid country like I am).
Process the plain chocolate biscuits into a fine crumb, then stir in the melted butter until it is evenly mixed through. Press the biscuit mixture evenly over the base of your pre-greased tin, then press it evenly halfway up the side of the tin. Place the tin back into the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.
Sprinkle your gelatine over the water in a small heatproof jug or small saucepan, then place the jug or saucepan over a larger saucepan of simmering water. Stir the mixture until the gelatine fully dissolves, then let it cool for about 5 minutes.
Beat the cream cheese in a bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Then add the cream, mascarpone, vanilla, and sugar until combined. Once everything has been fully incorporated, add the gelatine mixture and continue beating until just combined. Fold in your melted and cooled white chocolate, then gently fold in your biscuits.
Reason Why You Need to Make This #1: The left-over Oreos that you need to eat...
Once the biscuits have been folded into the mixture, pour the filling into the biscuit base in the pan. Place in the refrigerator until set, which should take at least 3 hours.
Just before serving, place your melted dark chocolate into a piping bag and drizzle the chocolate across the top to decorate (or, if you're like me, realise that your piping bag is pretty terrible and settle for odd-looking splodge-swirls...).
Strange splodge-swirls. Like so.
And voila! It's really rather easy (yes, I know I shouldn't say this when I was a total genius and screwed it up really... But it is), and you don't need to worry about baking it in a water-bath or anything. Just bung it in the fridge. And remember, you may find that you're left with extra Oreos, which you will have to eat immediately since you don't have an air-tight container to store them in...and you wouldn't want to waste them. So you should definitely eat them while patiently waiting for your cheesecake to set in the fridge.
I've actually never made a set cheesecake, but I figured "How hard can it be?" Apparently it can be pretty damn difficult when you're tired, misread the recipe and dissolve your gelatine in 5 times more water than you're meant to... Ahem.
However, I discovered that my triage skills are actually pretty good (and I'm now convinced that mascarpone has the power to fix everything and anything). Thankfully, despite my rather colossal slip up, it was nothing that a little extra gelatine powder and whopping great dollop of mascarpone couldn't fix.
In fact, it actually turned out pretty well. I was using a recipe which I'd found in a copy of The Australian Women's Weekly which my mum had lying around the house. It caught my eye thanks to the advertised feature of 'Our Best-ever Cheesecakes', so I felt fairly confident that the recipe should be pretty good. However, I liked the way my would-be mistake turned out, so I've adapted the recipe very slightly to incorporate my weirdly successful quick-fix methods and a couple of edits I made when I realised I happened to not have enough caster sugar...
250g plain chocolate biscuits
130g melted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons of gelatine
1/4 cup (60ml) of water
200g softened cream cheese
150g thickened cream
250g mascarpone
250g good-quality white chocolate
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
50g caster sugar
60g light brown sugar (I did this as I didn't have quite enough caster sugar, but if you do then 110g caster sugar would be fine. However, I thought that the brown sugar ended up adding a nice flavour to the mix and stopped it from being too sweet)
150g cream-filled chocolate biscuits (Oreos), broken into rough pieces
50g melted dark chocolate for decorating
First, grease and line the base and sides of a 22cm springform cake pan, then place the pan in the fridge to chill. I always do this whenever I'm making a cake or tart that has a 'base' (either pastry or biscuit crumb) as I find that keeping your tin chilled helps to make sure that once your tart is finished, it will come out of the tin easily (particularly when you're in a hot, humid country like I am).
Process the plain chocolate biscuits into a fine crumb, then stir in the melted butter until it is evenly mixed through. Press the biscuit mixture evenly over the base of your pre-greased tin, then press it evenly halfway up the side of the tin. Place the tin back into the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.
Sprinkle your gelatine over the water in a small heatproof jug or small saucepan, then place the jug or saucepan over a larger saucepan of simmering water. Stir the mixture until the gelatine fully dissolves, then let it cool for about 5 minutes.
Beat the cream cheese in a bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Then add the cream, mascarpone, vanilla, and sugar until combined. Once everything has been fully incorporated, add the gelatine mixture and continue beating until just combined. Fold in your melted and cooled white chocolate, then gently fold in your biscuits.
Once the biscuits have been folded into the mixture, pour the filling into the biscuit base in the pan. Place in the refrigerator until set, which should take at least 3 hours.
Just before serving, place your melted dark chocolate into a piping bag and drizzle the chocolate across the top to decorate (or, if you're like me, realise that your piping bag is pretty terrible and settle for odd-looking splodge-swirls...).
And voila! It's really rather easy (yes, I know I shouldn't say this when I was a total genius and screwed it up really... But it is), and you don't need to worry about baking it in a water-bath or anything. Just bung it in the fridge. And remember, you may find that you're left with extra Oreos, which you will have to eat immediately since you don't have an air-tight container to store them in...and you wouldn't want to waste them. So you should definitely eat them while patiently waiting for your cheesecake to set in the fridge.
Awesome cake! Tried it myself.
ReplyDeleteThis cake kicked my Secret Recipe White and Dark Chocolate Cheesecake's ass that day, haha.
Well done Alia!