Back to Blogging and Classic New York Style Cheesecake

Yup! Another very long break for me after almost five months of not updating this blog, but for a good reason.

2013 has been the most eventful year for me, the busiest, and very exciting! If you read my previous post, you will know that I got engaged, was going to get married, was planning to go back to Indonesia for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary and my own wedding, honeymoon, etc. Well, I am back, have been back for about 2.5 months and still couldn't believe that all those really happened.

Our wedding chapel overlooking the Indian ocean

A few months before I went back to Indonesia, it was one of the most stressful time in my life. Planning both my parents' anniversary (thankfully, I got help from my family) and my wedding from the other side of the world, was indeed a challenge. There were so many things, big things, little things, needed to be planned and done, especially when it involved 60 of your family members. Looking back, I don't know how I did it all.

Our wedding venue is on the clifftop overlooking the ocean

I don't even know where to begin now, so many things have happened, but in short, we LOVE our wedding! To be honest, we didn't know what to expect, the venue didn't seem to have many questions or prepared at all, they just winged stuff and I was really worried. Not much communication with them and being a planner, it really worried me. But it turned out great! They had an army of professionals who were always ready with anything we need. We had the best photographers who happened to be my friend who is now living in Indo. I have been a huge fan of her (now with her husband) work and we got the privileged to have our pre-wed and wedding photographed by them. The food was the best wedding food I've ever had, it was 6 course meal and I wish I had bigger stomach to fit them all in. I love the wedding cake, LOVE the venue, it was everything I could hope and wish for.

  We went to France for our honeymoon, and although we didn't love the country as much as we expected, but I absolutely love all the pastries. It was like a pastry heaven for me. I went to Pierre Herme 6x, Laduree 5x, and many many others (though it might not be good for the wallet).

My most frequent breakfast is at Pierre Herme boutique, the infamous Ispahan Croissant. So.. good!

My Sadaharu Aoki breakfast, only 2 minute walk from our hotel

Anyways, back with dessert. I am still baking although I have been much busier with work and home decorating ever since I got back from the trip. I made vanilla bean ice cream and some sorbets, marbled cake, multiple Indonesian cheesecakes, Laduree eclairs, some macarons and many more. Unfortunately, it didn't get photographed as there was no time at all. I want to remake the eclairs though as I think it was really good and I want to make sure I don't make it in a rush like last time (it was for our casual wedding party) and photograph it.

This cheesecake is nothing fancy, not that I try to make it fancy (the hub likes it traditional and plain). I happen to have some cream cheese leftover from a different cake I made previously and the easiest thing to do with it is to make a cheesecake. I don't normally eat cheesecake but the DH is a big fan. He can eat 3 big slices in a day, which would be odd considering his sexy petite figure, but he does. All of the cheesecakes I made for him before were mostly from French chef, which I like better because they are not so dense and lighter. He keeps saying that he likes Sara Lee cheesecake better because it was denser. I decided to make this NY style cheesecake, although it is really not that different than other cheesecake recipe. The only thing different, I would say is the use of sour cream, which coincidentally, I happen to have some leftover of as well.

NY cheesecake is usually tall, but I decided to make it shorter in a cake ring that I rarely used, also because so that I can have a little bit of cream cheese left to make another cheesecake I want to experiment with. I used hazelnut shortbread base to use up the ones I had in the freezer as well and DH likes the flavor of it. He still thinks it wasn't dense enough and I was a little disappointed, until he told me that he ate Sara Lee cheesecake frozen! Well, no matter how dry I cook my cheesecake, it still won't be as dense as frozen cheesecake! Duh! Now I feel better about my cheesecake-making skill :)

Enjoy this for now and I will be back with more posts to come.

Classic New York Style Cheesecake
Adapted from Emeril Lagasse's recipe
Yield: one 9" round cheesecake (with springform pan)

Hazelnut shortbread crust -- refer to this

Cheesecake batter 
2.5lbs cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 lemon, zested
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 Tbs. all purpose flour
5 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup sour cream

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• Combine the cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla extract and mix until light and creamy
• Add the flour, then the eggs and yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
• Add the sour cream and mix until smooth.
• Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for about 1.5hrs in waterbath (or until done)
• Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely
• Refrigerate overnight before serving