It is a little known fact that one of my favorite movies is Gone in Sixty Seconds. I’m about as feminine as they come, but there’s something about Angelina Jolie & Nick Cage driving stick-shift, muscle cars that gets me… well… distracted.

 

Not only is the movie hot to watch, but I completely empathize with Nick Cage’s character, Memphis, when he speaks wistfully of ‘Eleanor’, a 1967 Shelby GT500 that he has never been able to successfully steal. He loves this car, craves this car, all the while it has caused him the most frustration and heartache.

 

This may be a sad excuse for an analogy, but I feel the same way about cheesecake. Making a perfect cheesecake that never cracks is a long-standing and frustrating goal of mine. The problem is the instability and delicacy of the ingredients of a truly noteworthy cheesecake. Most commercial cheesecakes are made with some sort of binder, usually flour, that gives it a bit more stability in the baking process. My cheesecake, and the ones that you probably remember as being the creamiest and dreamiest, are only made with dairy, eggs, vanilla, and sugar.

 

The first difficulty is getting the interior of that dense cheesecake hot enough without scorching the exterior or over-cooking the interior; the second difficulty is keeping the cheesecake from cracking while it’s cooling in the oven. The latter is where I fall apart every time and find myself simultaneously loathing and loving my freshly-baked cheesecake.

 

One day I will best this elusive and evasive goal, but in the mean time, I will continue to bake deliciously flawed cheesecakes like the one below.

 

Click here for a printed version of the recipe

Caramel Toffee Cheesecake

Adapted from Raspberry Cheesecake in Barefoot Contessa Family Style

 

Cheesecake is a great canvas for painting any style dessert you want to make. This cake itself is an adaptation of a Barefoot Contessa recipe, but I wanted something a little warmer and sweeter than the raspberry lemon version in the cookbook. I added cinnamon to the crust, omitted the lemon, and made a caramel toffee topping, instead of the recommended raspberries, and it was a slightly imperfect winter dessert.

 

Ingredients:

 

For the Crust:

 

1 ½ Cups Graham Cracker Crumbs (about 10 crackers), pulverized in the food processor

1 Tlbs. Raw Sugar

6 Tbls Unsalted Butter, melted

¼ Tsp. Cinnamon

 

For the Filling:

 

2 ½ lbs. Cream Cheese, at room temperature

1 ½ Cups Sugar

5 Whole Eggs, at room temperature

2 Egg Yolks, at room temperature

¼ Cup Crème Fraiche or Sour Cream

1 ½ Tsp. Good Quality Vanilla

 

For the Caramel Toffee Topping:

4 Tbls. Butter

1 Cup Sugar

¼ Cup Whole Milk or Cream

 

Preparation:

 

Preheat the oven to 350°.

 

To make the crust, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, and butter until moist and crumbly. Press the mixture firmly and evenly into a 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 8 minutes; remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature.

 

 

Raise the temperature of the oven to 450°.

 

To make the filling, cream the cream cheese and sugar with a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed for 5 minutes. The mixture should have the consistency of ‘whipped cream cheese’ and be fluffy.

 

Set the mixer’s speed to medium and add the whole eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, allowing each egg to be thoroughly incorporated. You may need to scrape down the bowl from time to time. The mixing is much, much easier if you have allowed all ingredients to come to room temperature; on a few occasions, I’ve rushed in before the ingredients were warm enough, and the mixing was very stiff for the first few minutes.

 

 

Set the mixer’s speed to low, add the crème fraiche or sour cream and vanilla. Once thoroughly incorporated, pour the mixture onto the cooled crust.

 

 

Bake the cake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven’s temperature to 210° and open the door for 10-15 seconds, in order to rapidly cool the oven down and not risk letting the cheesecake’s internal temperature exceed 150° (the point at which it will begin to crack).

 

Bake the cake at 210° for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

 

Turn the oven off, remove the cake, and run your knife along the edge, in order to separate the cake from the springform pan. Return the cake to the oven for 30 minutes, leaving the oven off and the oven door wide open. This will allow the cake to cool slowly and evenly, reducing the risk of it cracking.

 

Remove the cake from the oven and allow to rest for 2-3 hours.

 
Cover the cake with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 6+ hours or overnight to fully set.

 

Just before you’re ready to serve the cake, make the caramel toffee topping.

 

In a small sauce pan, heat the sugar and butter over medium-high heat until the sugar has melted and caramelized, 8-10 minutes.

 

Remove from the heat and add the milk or cream. It will bubble up dramatically; once the bubbling subsides, return the sauce pan to the heat and stir vigorously. You will have some instant lumps of toffee, but stirring will allow the rest of the sauce to remain smoothe.

 

After 3 minutes of stirring, remove from the heat, and pour the sauce over the cooled cheesecake. The sauce will harden over the cheesecake quickly. Cracking the caramel toffee can be challenging, but the taste will more than make up for the uneven aesthetic.

 

Enjoy!