Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake with Dainty Pastry's Lemon Curd Filling

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

My musings for this challenge ran from a cheesecake with a port and rhubarb compote – pretty in pink, or the tart, fresh (as in spring) lemon curd. The lemon won out! I couldn’t have been happier with this cheesecake. It was delicious and pretty, which made it worth the few extra steps I took in creating it. The ban marie (which can be tricky for my spring form pan) worked nicely and created a smooth, creamy cheesecake without any cracks on the top, which is important because the marbling of this cheesecake is meant to be seen and appreciated and not covered with a topping.

Note: * Indicates adjustments to recipe for flavor. ** Indicates adjustments to recipe for technique.

Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake (With Dainty Pastry’s Lemon Curd Filling)

Lemon Curd Ingredients:

1 tsp. fresh lemon zest, finely grated
½ Cup fresh lemon juice
½ Cup sugar
3 large eggs
¼ Cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small chunks

Crust Ingredients:

2 Cups graham cracker crumbs
1 stick melted butter
2 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Filling Ingredients (*as called for in original recipe with adjustments for flavoring)

3 packages cream cheese, 8 oz. ea.
1 Cup sugar
3 large eggs
*1 Cup heavy cream – I substituted 1 Cup sour cream for melding the cream cheese flavor to my lemon curd.
1 Tbs. vanilla
*1 Tbs. lemon juice – I omitted so as to not overpower my cake with lemon.
*1Tbsp liqueur – I omitted as lemon curd would replace this flavor

Directions:

Lemon Curd
Whisk together zest, juice, sugar, and eggs in a 2 quart, heavy saucepan. Place over low heat and add butter. Whisk frequently for about 5 – 6 minutes. Curd will show whisk marks and bubbles will just begin to show when curd is finished.

Force lemon curd through a sieve (to remove any materials which would keep curd from being perfectly smooth) into a small bowl. Cover the surface of the curd with plastic wrap or waxed paper, to keep a skin from forming, and place in the refrigerator to cool. As curd is cooling, stir it occasionally, and re-cover.

Note: Curd can be made up to 1 week ahead, chilled and covered as noted above.

Crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack placed in middle position.

Mix together crust ingredients and press into preferred pan, if using a spring form pan, press crust up sides 1”. Notes on using spring form pan: Because this recipe for cheesecake is baked in a ban marie, it is necessary to prevent water from seeping into the spring form pan. Remove the pan bottom and wrap in lengthy sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil with the loose ends on the exposed bottom of the spring form pan. Set the bottom in place and tighten the ring. Then pull the loose ends of the aluminum foil up the exterior sides of the pan, thereby creating a water tight spring form pan. Not all spring form pans are created equal!

**Place spring form pan in a shallow baking pan and bake 10 minutes, then cool crust completely in the spring form pan on a rack. Crust (without filling) can be made up to 1 day in advance and stored, covered at room temp.

Filling:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Beat together cream cheese and sugar in bowl of electric mixer, cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each, before adding another. Scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add *sour cream and vanilla, blend until smooth.

I add an additional layer of wide aluminum foil to cover the exterior of the pan, beyond where the hot water of the ban marie will be, so as to prevent any water from seeping into the spring form pan.

Pour 2/3’s of the batter into prepared crust, and then spoon half of the lemon curd over the filling and swirl curd into filling with a small knife. Avoid touching crust with knife to prevent crumbs getting into your filling. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Repeat with remaining filling and curd. Swirl next layer with knife.

Place filled pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan.

Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done. Center of cake will appear very loose, but will continue to set as it cools. Center should tremble when the pan is gently shaken – the center of the cake will continue to set as it cools.

Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of the water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. **I like to run an offset spatula around the cheesecake before covering and refrigerating.

Just prior to serving, pipe whipping cream around perimeter of cheesecake and garnish with small slices of lemon. I added a pretty, white ribbon to the circumference of my cheesecake – the perfect finishing touch.