Cheese cakes
I have never been a great fan of cheese cake except for one my dad used to make which he topped with a black current compote. The problem for me was that most cheese cakes I tried were too sweet and were claggy in the mouth. I don't know if claggy is a word, but it's what we say when we want to describe somthing that clings and clogs things up at the same time. T, of course, loves cheese cake and has been begging me to make one for quite a while.
My first attempt was an unmitigated disaster. I accidentally picked up light cream cheese and the finished cake looked more like a leathery pancake than anything else. I decided to try again and made a rum and raisin cheese cake from The Williams and Sonoma Book of Baking. Oh my! It's not too sweet, the rum soaked raisins make it quite adult tasting, and the two scientists (my dearly beloved and his former Ph.d student who is staying with us), explained the science behind what I thought was an odd instruction: putting the cake straight from the oven into the fridge for fifteen minutes, then topping it with sour cream, mixed with sugar and vanilla before returning it to the oven at a much higher temperature than it was previously cooked at for ten more minutes.
We ate it while watching The Godfather, Part Two, and sipping a very nice sauterne.
My first attempt was an unmitigated disaster. I accidentally picked up light cream cheese and the finished cake looked more like a leathery pancake than anything else. I decided to try again and made a rum and raisin cheese cake from The Williams and Sonoma Book of Baking. Oh my! It's not too sweet, the rum soaked raisins make it quite adult tasting, and the two scientists (my dearly beloved and his former Ph.d student who is staying with us), explained the science behind what I thought was an odd instruction: putting the cake straight from the oven into the fridge for fifteen minutes, then topping it with sour cream, mixed with sugar and vanilla before returning it to the oven at a much higher temperature than it was previously cooked at for ten more minutes.
We ate it while watching The Godfather, Part Two, and sipping a very nice sauterne.