The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. You can find the recipe here on her blog.
I think April is the cheesecake month. You might remember last year’s April challenge (cheesecake pops), which was my first time making cheesecake. Here’s my second time making cheesecake, one year later!
Insprired by the mint growing in my apartment,
3 kinds of mint!
I decided to make a mint cheesecake.
I basically only modified the recipe in a few small ways (all allowed!) Firstly, graham crackers in Korea…. haha yeah. Not available as far as I know. So I used a dry biscuit called Lotus original caramelized biscuit that I figured would be close enough. The other way I modified the recipe was to cut the amount it would make.. I made 2/3rds of a recipe instead of a full one. Finally, I modified things to add the mint flavour. I added mint by plucking some mint leaves, adding them to the cream that the recipe called for, and warming it up on the stove until I could smell the mint. Then I let it steep in there for a while, and after a handful of minutes, took the mint leaves out, wrung the cream out of them, and then used the cream as the recipe called for.
I baked these in muffin cups, as I didn’t have a large springform plan, and also because I wanted to be able to share easily and not make a mess trying to get the cheesecake out of the pan I baked it in (I don’t have a large springform pan here). Oh, and also because a couple of my awesome co-workers got me some cute muffin cups with hearts on them as a “congratulations on getting an oven!” present (Ovens are not so common here). ^^
cheesecupcakes lookin' cute
I topped them with chocolate, because.. well, does chocolate need an excuse? I thought it would go nicely with the mint. ^^
Of course I’m not the neatest baker, and I was in a rush cause I was doing it in the morning before going to work (it was a co-worker’s birthday). I need to stop trying to do things when I don’t have the time! Please pretend the chocolatey mess is not there. Thanks.
With chocolate
With a mint leaf for added cuteness ^^
These came out really well, but when I first tasted them, I couldn’t taste the mint, even though it tasted pretty minty in batter format. I don’t know why.. and the chocolate didn’t help, because it has a strong enough flavour that it was hiding the mint flavour! But the next day, I tried it again and DID notice the minty taste, though next time I still think I’ll make it stronger. In any case, it all tasted quite good, and there’s none left. It’s been gobbled up by coworkers and me. Actually, I lied, I gave a cupcake to one coworker who still has most of hers in the fridge cause she’s saving it to eat little by little.
I’ll call that a success.
Yummmmmm!
Don’t forget to check out the daring bakers’ new site here! Unfortunately, as the blogroll is in the middle of being updated, I’m not sure what the easiest way is to drool over other people’s (probably prettier and tastier) cheesecakes. But I’m sure if you’re creative enough you will find a way.
