Cooking Misc.: May 2003 Archives

Am I supposed to start screaming and crying when my very first cheesecake does this?

I swore to myself that I wouldn't get upset when (not if) this happened. I even told a coworker that I didn't care if it cracked, as long as it tastes good. But I'm sure the neighbors did hear my shriek when I saw what had happened to the center of the cappuccino cheesecake I made this afternoon.

The thing is, it was already cracked a little when I turned off the oven (15 minutes early, I must add). So I thought that would be it, not too bad. You can still see the small cracks along the sides, even though they're dwarfed in magnitude by the enormous crater in the center. I know I did everything wrong, though, so I'm definitely going to try again: I used a mixer to beat the batter, which incorporated a lot of air that turned to steam in the oven and needed a way to escape (apparently a food processor works better); I didn't use a waterbath (the recipe I had didn't call for one); I think I started it in a too-hot oven (the recipe called for a 450 oven for the first 10 minutes, then down to 200 for an hour, which seemed weird from the beginning, but who am I to question it?); and I overcooked it (there was no jiggly middle when I checked on it 15 minutes before it should be done).

I added some embellishments to try to camouflage the mess for the people I might ask to eat it:

Tomorrow we'll see. It has to chill for at least 8 hours before we can eat it. As long as it tastes good, I won't have to cry.

Am I supposed to start screaming and crying when my very first cheesecake does this?

I swore to myself that I wouldn't get upset when (not if) this happened. I even told a coworker that I didn't care if it cracked, as long as it tastes good. But I'm sure the neighbors did hear my shriek when I saw what had happened to the center of the cappuccino cheesecake I made this afternoon.

The thing is, it was already cracked a little when I turned off the oven (15 minutes early, I must add). So I thought that would be it, not too bad. You can still see the small cracks along the sides, even though they're dwarfed in magnitude by the enormous crater in the center. I know I did everything wrong, though, so I'm definitely going to try again: I used a mixer to beat the batter, which incorporated a lot of air that turned to steam in the oven and needed a way to escape (apparently a food processor works better); I didn't use a waterbath (the recipe I had didn't call for one); I think I started it in a too-hot oven (the recipe called for a 450 oven for the first 10 minutes, then down to 200 for an hour, which seemed weird from the beginning, but who am I to question it?); and I overcooked it (there was no jiggly middle when I checked on it 15 minutes before it should be done).

I added some embellishments to try to camouflage the mess for the people I might ask to eat it:

Tomorrow we'll see. It has to chill for at least 8 hours before we can eat it. As long as it tastes good, I won't have to cry.

My brother graduated from Colorado State on Saturday, so Todd and I flew in to help him celebrate. It gave me the opportunity to prepare a spread for a group of family and friends, which was fun. (My mom is firmly of the "get a six foot hero and a veggie platter from Sam's" camp, so I think I stressed her out by wanting to prepare the sandwiches myself.)

I have this problem with sleeping on vacation. I am not one of those people who go on vacation to sleep: I tend to be up at the crack of dawn (or at least 7:30 EST, which in Colorado translated to 5:30). But it was lovely to be in my mother's kitchen at 5:30, staring the coffee for the sleeping family, popping an apple braid in the oven (from the freezer) and assembling sandwiches and platters. I love cooking in my mom's kitchen (it being quite a bit larger than the standard NYC kitchen I usually have to work with).

My brother graduated from Colorado State on Saturday, so Todd and I flew in to help him celebrate. It gave me the opportunity to prepare a spread for a group of family and friends, which was fun. (My mom is firmly of the "get a six foot hero and a veggie platter from Sam's" camp, so I think I stressed her out by wanting to prepare the sandwiches myself.)

I have this problem with sleeping on vacation. I am not one of those people who go on vacation to sleep: I tend to be up at the crack of dawn (or at least 7:30 EST, which in Colorado translated to 5:30). But it was lovely to be in my mother's kitchen at 5:30, staring the coffee for the sleeping family, popping an apple braid in the oven (from the freezer) and assembling sandwiches and platters. I love cooking in my mom's kitchen (it being quite a bit larger than the standard NYC kitchen I usually have to work with).

A cooking marathon on Sunday, when I made the chicken enchilada casserole and this. The strata is supposed to chill for at least 8 hours or for a day, so I made it on Sunday for dinner last night.

First I sauteed half a diced onion in butter. I bought a bunch of baby spinach and just shredded it by cutting across it without even taking it out of the bundle. Rinsed it well, twice, then nuked it until it was soft and squeezed all the liquid out. Then I mixed it with the onions, plus salt, pepper and nutmeg. (The recipe actually called for frozen chopped, but I was shopping at the vegetable stand, not the grocery store, so I got fresh.) Then I put three of these layers in my casserole: stale bread cubes (about 4 cups total), spinach mixture, shredded parmesan cheese (about 3 tablespoons) and shredded Montery Jack (about 3/4 cup; the recipe called for Guyere, which I'm sure would have been better, but I used what I had--this is, after all, a recipe for leftovers). Chill for 8 hours or overnight.

Let it come to room temperature, about 30 minutes, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes until set. While mine was baking, I could hear the neighbor in the hallway complaining that he could smell gas. Well, yes, the oven does use gas. It made me wonder if he has ever turned his oven on. He finally got the super, who came up and rang my bell to ask about the gas smell (although I had heard the super tell the neighbor that he didn't smell anything; I should have put an end to the whole conversation sooner). By the end it smelled like baking bread and melty cheese.

Todd took a picture of the carnage after we finished eating my berry crumble. It actually looks like an accident scene or something, but it was posted on Lala Land under the Comfort Food theme.

Todd took a picture of the carnage after we finished eating my berry crumble. It actually looks like an accident scene or something, but it was posted on Lala Land under the Comfort Food theme.

My coworker just came by and told me how she makes her healing ginger tea (no amounts, though): chop fresh ginger and simmer it in water for "a long time" (I think it took less than an hour for her to make), then add a Lipton tea bag and steep for a normal amount of time. There weren't any bits of ginger, so I don't know if she strained them out or used cheesecloth while steeping the ginger, but the liquid was cloudy, so I'll probably try the first technique. Add honey and lemon and you're done. I'm sure it'll take a lot of experimentation for me to get it right in my own kitchen, but it's worth it. It's spicy-hot with ginger and you can feel it blooming warmth in your chest as you drink it. Great stuff.

I've been sick with a bad cold lately, so I haven't been cooking much that's interesting. In fact, I practically slept through the last four days. Then when I came into work today, a coworker made a mug of her famous ginger tea for me. The tea's cloudy with what I think must be some form of ginger has some kind of citrus, but it's sweet, with the strongest ginger flavor that clears you right up. If I can get the recipe from her I'll put it up here.

I was stunned when I came to my site and discovered I'm going on a week without writing anything. I really have been very lazy about cooking lately. Here are a couple of things I did make that didn't seem to suffer too much from the shortcuts I took. First there was a quick chicken parm from Martha Stewart's new Everyday Food magazine. I'm finding that I turn to that magazine a lot when it's dinnertime; the recipes are all written so concisely and they're in this cute little booklet so they tend to come across as very accessible. Whether they're good is sort of another matter, but I did like the chicken (Todd and I both gave a curried shrimp recipe the thumbs down, though). We bought cutlets, so it was simply a matter of dredging them in beaten egg then bread crumbs (purchased, yes, so sorry--I was sick) seasoned with a lot of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Panfried for a couple minutes on each side, then slid into a pan with a layer of marinara on the bottom. Topped with fresh mozzarella and put them under the broiler for just shy of 5 minutes. Ate the leftovers today on a roll.

Also had a berry crumble that was just a bag of frozen mixed berries (unsweetened from Trader Joe's) with a crumb topping of oats, brown sugar, walnuts, butter and flour. Todd put his superb skills to use cutting the butter into the mixture (his breakfast specialty is lighter-than-air drop biscuits). Then we spooned the hot berries over vanilla ice cream. I was elated (it may have been the cold medicine, but the crumble was good, too).

I've been sick with a bad cold lately, so I haven't been cooking much that's interesting. In fact, I practically slept through the last four days. Then when I came into work today, a coworker made a mug of her famous ginger tea for me. The tea's cloudy with what I think must be some form of ginger has some kind of citrus, but it's sweet, with the strongest ginger flavor that clears you right up. If I can get the recipe from her I'll put it up here.

I was stunned when I came to my site and discovered I'm going on a week without writing anything. I really have been very lazy about cooking lately. Here are a couple of things I did make that didn't seem to suffer too much from the shortcuts I took. First there was a quick chicken parm from Martha Stewart's new Everyday Food magazine. I'm finding that I turn to that magazine a lot when it's dinnertime; the recipes are all written so concisely and they're in this cute little booklet so they tend to come across as very accessible. Whether they're good is sort of another matter, but I did like the chicken (Todd and I both gave a curried shrimp recipe the thumbs down, though). We bought cutlets, so it was simply a matter of dredging them in beaten egg then bread crumbs (purchased, yes, so sorry--I was sick) seasoned with a lot of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Panfried for a couple minutes on each side, then slid into a pan with a layer of marinara on the bottom. Topped with fresh mozzarella and put them under the broiler for just shy of 5 minutes. Ate the leftovers today on a roll.

Also had a berry crumble that was just a bag of frozen mixed berries (unsweetened from Trader Joe's) with a crumb topping of oats, brown sugar, walnuts, butter and flour. Todd put his superb skills to use cutting the butter into the mixture (his breakfast specialty is lighter-than-air drop biscuits). Then we spooned the hot berries over vanilla ice cream. I was elated (it may have been the cold medicine, but the crumble was good, too).