TWD - Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

I told myself that I'd start posting on a regular basis.  And, here I am!  Of course, I barely made it in time.  Still, it's Tuesday for the next few minutes.

I'm doing last week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection.  I looked for pears for this week's and was unable to find some ... not even in cans.  So, I elected to go with something yummy.  I'll find some sweet mangoes and make this week's on Thursday.

The fact that I love cheesecake almost as much as I love pizza had no effect on my decision.  None.  Really.  Honest!

Dorie's Tall and Creamy Cheesecake was chosen by Anne of Anne Strawberry.

Procedure

I preheated the oven to 350F (175C).  And, I put on a large pot of water to boil.

Then, I took some graham cracker crumbs.  They're not simply for sale where I live ... so, I let the graham crackers have a few thousand turns in my food processor.

Got a little melted butter.

Stirred the melted butter and a little sugar.  Dorie mentions in her book that she likes to use her fingers to to mix these up.  I, of course, wanted to do as Dorie suggested.  Those who try this should remember: wait until the melted butter is a reasonable temperature.  When it comes out of your microwave, it's hot.  Hot butter will burn you ruining your day and probably your manicure.

So, for the sake of your nails, wait until the butter has cooled some.  Or, do what I did, just use a fork.

Here's a close-up of the finished crumb-butter-sugar mixture.  It seems deceptively dry.  Just lightly buttered crumbs.  Don't be discouraged, this is how it is supposed to look.

I wrapped the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with a couple layers of aluminum foil.  Made sure I was careful.  I knew the cheesecake was going to spend 90 minutes in water in the oven.  Didn't want my yummy cheesecake to get destroyed before I had the opportunity to eat it.

Take your skin-burning crust mixture and put it into the bottom of your pan.  Press a relatively even layer across the bottom.  And, make it go about half-way up the side, too.

Ooh, look at the lovely yellow lighting.  I mentioned that I was working on my photography skills.  Here, I failed.  Eek.  Sorry!

Here's my mixer doing its job.  I have the side-scraping blade in that I purchased.  Notice how it does a good job of scraping the sides and incorporating all of the material.  Definitely worth the money I paid!

This cheesecake isn't heavy like a New York style cheesecake (my favorite, by the way).  It gets a lot of mixing.  Lots of air gets into the filling.

The filling ... finally done.  Everything incorporated.

Poured into the springform pan.  Oh, looks almost good enough to eat already!

I put the springform pan into a large roasting pan.  Then, I filled the roasting pan halfway up the side of my springform pan with the boiling water.

OK, here's the pan in the oven. 

Ahh, the finished cheesecake.  It came out of the oven and the top was very wobbly.  I was worried about this.  I thought maybe it was undercooked.

Still, I trusted the recipe.  I let the cheesecake sit on the cooling rack for an hour.  Then, transferred it to the fridge for cooling overnight.

Waiting overnight for a cheesecake ... not a good thing.

To Be Continued

Tomorrow we'll have the test results.  I'm still a little concerned about the texture.  We'll see.

Mmmm, cheesecake for breakfast ...