Oblivion Chocolate Truffle Torte

Oh Chocolate. Oblivion Chocolate Truffle Torte is the wrong name for this torte, it should probably be called punch in the mouth chocolate torte. This torte is for the chocolate lover, you really taste chocolate once it begins to melt in your mouth, with this torte you skip the step of letting it melt and are hit with intense flavor.

Ingredients:

• 16 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate (bitter sweet will work too if you want dark chocolate)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 6 large eggs

1. In a double boiler (glass bowl set over boiling water) combine the chocolate and butter. It's really important that the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water or else the chocolate is more likely to burn. Burnt chocolate makes for a sad day.
2. While the chocolate is melting in another double boiled (in this case the water should just be simmer) beat the eggs until warm to the touch. It is important that you are constantly stirring or else the eggs will curdle.
   
3. Remove from the heat and beat until triple in volume and soft peaks form when the beater is raised (about 5 minutes)
   
4. Using the a large wire whisk fold 1/3 of the eggs into the chocolate (always eggs into chocolate never other way around) until there are no streaks. Continue with the rest until there are no streaks.
5. Pour into a prepared spring form pan and place in a water bath.
6. Bake at 425 degrees for five minutes, then loosely cover with a buttered foil and bake for 10 minutes.
   
7. Let cool for 45 minutes on a rack and then cover with plastic and refrigerate until very firm for about 3 hours.

Before serving allow to come back to room temperature and enjoy, if served chilled the texture is like a dense fudge so either way it's delicious.

Lemon Cheesecake

It is the week of cheesecakes for me!

Every Friday night I have family dinner with my mom, her husband John, and my dear brother Snorlax (and our wonderful kitten Louis of course, who supervises my baking). This week I've decided to make Lemon Cheesecake for dear brother Snorlax.

Following the same recipe forNew York Cheesecake that I made for my dad this past week. I added a lemon curd to the top.

For the Lemon Curd:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Lemon grated zest
• 1/3 cup of lemon juice
• 5 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Combine lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a sauce and bring to a simmer.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg until light.
   
3. Beat some of the hot lemon mixture into the eggs. -It is really important to do this slowly and to constantly beat the egg or else the egg will cook because of the heat and you'll have scrambled eggs. Which is not yummy in cheesecake.
4. Add the egg mixture back into the saucepan and strain.
   
5. Stir in the vanilla and cool to room temperature.

You would add this to the top of the normal cheesecake (therefore making it not a new york style). Adding this to cheesecake I made the mistake of stirring it too much, the egg in the curd caused air bubbles which led to my first cheesecake cracking. Disappointing but still delicious, and in the end when it is for loved ones as long as it's delicious the way it looks doesn't really matter.

It still looks pretty yummy.

New York Style Cheesecake

Oh Cheesecake. I don't know what it is about this dessert that makes it a complete and total mystery but it's a recipe that usually has me doing more research than any other recipe. Honestly, the variations on this recipe I've seen is mind boggling. Anyways, let's get on with it.

My father's side of the family is from New York and so he is very particular about his cheesecake. As far as I can tell what makes New York Cheesecake New York Cheesecake is the cream cheese to sour cream ratio. Also (according to my father and other new yorkers) it cannot have any sort of topping. Once you put topping on it it is no longer considered New York Cheesecake.

I finally found a recipe that I like and that really seems to come out perfectly everytime I use it. It is from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum, the boyfriend's mother gave it to me and it is by far one of my favorite cook books. What I really love about it is that Rose uses some scientific explanations and I can also read through the book the way you would any other.

For the Graham Cracker crust I used a different recipe as Beranbuam suggests just pressing graham cracker crumbs into the cake afterwards and quite frankly I'm not that talented.

So then for the crust:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs (about 9 cookies in total)
• 4 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1. Stir together in a small bowl. Really make sure that all of it is incorporated and there are no dry pockets.
2. Press into the bottom of a springform and up the sides. I have found that it is really easy if you start from the middle and work your way out allowing the crust to push itself up the sides.

You'll get a lovely crust to put off to the side until your batter is ready.

Okay now onto the batter. Cheesecake is another one of those recipes that Os really can't handle but I've been having fun using Alton for this little project.

Ingredients:

• 16 ounces of cream cheese (2 packages)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups sour cream

1. Beat cream cheese and sugar until creamy and smooth (about 3 minutes).
   
2. Beat in eggs one at a time, the best results come from waiting until each egg is thoroughly incorporated before adding the next. Also, remember to scrape down the edges.
3. Add the Lemon juice, vanilla, and salt and beat until incorporated.
4. Beat in the sour cream just until blended. -as an aside I find that adding the sour cream 1 cup at a time until thoroughly incorporated works well.
5. Pour batter into your prepared pan. Wrap the pan in 3 layers of tin foil to prevent water from seeping in. Place the pan in a water bath (put about an inch of water in another pan and then place the cheesecake in the center)
6. Bake for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes turn off the heat and do not open the oven door. Let the cheesecake cool for one hour in the oven then take out and let cool for one hour. Cover with plastic wrap and let refrigerate overnight.

As a side note do not do not do not open the oven door while the cheesecake is baking. Cheesecake is so fussy that opening the over door can lead to cracks.

Ta da! Cheesecake!