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Sunday, July 24, 2011

HCB: No Bake Whipped Cream Cheesecake


I must not be in the right mind on Friday when I went grocery shopping. The reason why I said that is because this morning, when I look at recipe and what I had bought, I realized I forgot both the creme fraiche and the graham crackers.

Not wanting to make a trip to the store and lose an hour just for those 2 items, I decided to use sour cream to replace the creme fraiche and make my own graham crackers.

I didn't know how to make graham crackers from scratch, but a quick search on the internet lead me to a recipe on Smitten Kitchen's website. It looks fabulous and easy. Yes it might actually takes longer than the amount of time it would take me to run to the store to get the crackers, but it would be more fun. At least that's what my brain is telling me.

So I started making 1/3 recipe of crackers by mixing the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and brown sugar)  together. Add in the butter and mix by hand until the butter is the size of peas. This reminds me of making pie dough.


Next, mix milk, honey, and vanilla. Add it to the flour and mix by hand until combined.


After a few minutes, we have a nice and brown dough.


The dough is then refrigerated for 30 minutes. Then roll it out and cut into squares.


I used the narrower end of a chopstick to poke the little holes.


They baked for 20 minutes and came out smelling so good. Crispy and yummy!


Back to the cheesecake. In between chilling the cracker dough, I made the custard filling. There are a lot of steps in this one (and a lot of dishes) but they were not hard.


The custard cooled pretty quickly and so I made the Italian meringue and folded the custard filling in.

By this time, the crackers were done and cooled, so I made the crust. This turned out longer than expected and made me frustrated, because I couldn't get the dang crust to be even and to be as high as the 1 1/2 inches up the sides of the pan as Rose said. I ended up having to grind more crust and melt more butter.


The crust is done, I poured the cheesecake mixture in and placed it in the fridge to cool.

Meanwhile, I made the cherry coulis. For the 1/2 recipe of cheesecake, it calls for 140 grams of cherries. That was like 15 cherries, which seemed too little to me. So I ended up using 200 grams of it.


After the 4 hour mark, I started making the whipped cream for the cheesecake's decoration. I had a vision of what the final cheesecake will look like and was determined to get that for the photos.

Then I un-mold the cheesecake. It took several tries rubbing the sides of the pan with a hot towel until it un-mold. I was happy to see that it un-mold well, no dents!


Then topped with whipped cream and the cherries from the coulis.


Slicing the cheesecake turned out to be a challenge. I followed Rose's suggestion and dip my sharpest knife into a glass of hot water, wiped it dry, and cut the cake. But it seems like even after 4 hours refrigeration, the middle part of the cheesecake has not set. So what was supposed to be a beautifully sliced cake turned out to be a puddle of mess.


Tasting impressions:
A yummy puddle nevertheless. It's so good! Creamy, slightly salty. It goes well with the sweet cherries. So good I even licked the knife.

16 comments:

  1. A yummy puddle, indeed! I tried slicing mine the first day and the pink top layer slid off. It was much firmer, and stayed together, the next morning.

    I love your vision for this cake; it's beautifully intriguing.

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  2. What a lovely and delicious cheesecake!

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  3. . . . and you made your own graham crackers!!! Heavenly Cake bakers are amazing!

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  4. Wow, Chica, your own crackers... that is dedication or major laziness, since unlike you I would have run to the store to buy them... not MAKE THEM! And oh, they look so good.

    So does the end product.. your cherries, looks perfect, I wanted to pluck one from the screen. Now off to work I got with that memory in my head - me thinks I need to stop at the market and get me soe cherries!

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  5. Kudos to you for making graham crackers! This is one beautiful cheesecake. I remember the top slid off mine when I made this! But oh so delicious!

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  6. Lois, I'm kinda glad to hear that the puddle mess happened to others too. Last night I had thought that maybe it's something I'm doing wrong!

    Monica, homemade graham crackers is so good! I think I'm swearing off the store bought version. I want to make s'mores now. And happen to have marshmallow at home too.

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  7. Beautiful recipe indeed :) and such lovely photos!

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  8. As usual, the pictures are great. But I don't think it was your head that was telling you to make your own graham crackers! It may have been your heart--or some other part of your body--but definitely not your brain!

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  9. Mary and Sasha, thanks for stopping by!

    Marie, you're so funny! Whatever it is, brain/head/heart/limbs, I'm glad I made the crackers :).

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  10. ב''ה

    Oh my gosh! That looks so fantastic. It might take a few more days for me to pull this one off.

    Way to go making the graham crackers!

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  11. Mmm, that looks delicious! Love the cherries and the graham crackers look great! I love making my own - they smell amazing in the oven :D

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  12. You made your own graham crackers! That is so hardcore!!

    I love it--your little rosettes with a dainty cherry perched on top looks so pretty. I'd buy this cake at a bakery!

    I used the torch to warm up the sides of the pan and it unmolded pretty quickly. (And was fun! Love the torch.)

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  13. OMG, your graham crackers are so adorable! I love their little fluted edges. I'm definitely going to have to try those some time.

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  14. Jenn, I absolutely love that you made your own Graham Crackers!! The recipe seems pretty simple too. I have it bookmarked!
    Your no-bake cake looks delicious, creamy and super fancy. I love how you carefully placed the cherries on top of each rosette. Perfection!
    Instead of the no-bake cheesecake, I wanted to make a flourless from RHC so I could offer a gluten-free option at the bake sale today. I will try to post it tonight! It was a huge hit!!!
    (sorry for being MIA… it’s been crazy at work and it’s not over yet… but I’m back… for now… I think) :o)

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  15. Hi there,

    Never mind the look, it's the taste that counts... Cheers

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  16. Beautiful, with the whipped cream swirls and cherrie, even if it did become spoon-food when cut. And I've eyed those Smitten Kitchen graham crackers myself-- yours turned out great!

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