We had a cold front blow in early this morning which I am very thankful for! I am tired of the Texas heat, given, it is not nearly as hot as it is during the summer. But, it would be nice for the weather to actually feel like holiday weather. Yesterday it was almost 80 degrees and now it is in the 40's! Ah, I love it! So, this morning, I did what I do ever Thanksgiving morning, I turned on the Parade! After a bit of morning relaxing, coffee drinking, and parade watching, I got to cooking. I volunteered to cook rosemary biscuits and a pumpkin cheesecake. Now, biscuits...that is not too difficult to mess up but a cheesecake can be dicey. I have never made a cheesecake before. Things were going so very well too but I soon realized 2 very important things. First, never ever make a cheesecake with store brand cream cheese. It will turn out lumpy. Second, never ever ever ever ever take the bottom of the spring form pan off the cheesecake. This is a risky move which will ultimately end up in disaster. As I was flipping the cheesecake (I am sure those of you who are avid cheesecake makers are gasping at that very thought) 1/4 of it fell right off. As I started having a mini melt down and on the verge of tears, Jeff rescued me and I was able to patch it together. But, not the less...the poor little cheesecake looked quite unsightly but...everyone graciously ate it anyway.
The biscuits turned out great! Those are pretty hard to screw up. I did not have shortening so I used butter but it worked great! I cut rosemary from my garden a few days ago and hung it to dry. Oh, I love the smell of rosemary and it is great in biscuits!
2 comments:
I use store-brand cream cheese for cheesecakes all the time.
The trick is to get it at smooth as possible before adding any other ingredients and, after that, never moving the mixer speed above low. Once you add anything else to the cream cheese you will *not* be able to smooth it any more.
Also, don't scrape the sides, just let what is loose pour into the pan. What's left becomes chef's pleasure and you can snack while you wait for it to bake and cool.
Thanks for all the great tips Scraps! I would have never thought to get the cream cheese smooth before adding everything else. I can see now that was certainly part of my problem!
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