Cheesecake on a Plate or Plated Cheesecake?

While I enjoy baking about as much as I do cooking, I don't really consider myself a baker.  However, I've learned so much in the last week and a half on how to turn a slice of cake on a plate into a plated dessert.  By adding simple garnishes, it's easy to take this:

And turn it into this:

First off, our cheesecake.  While it looks alright in these pictures, it had some serious doctor work done before it made it to this point.  Our group attempted to make a caramel cheesecake with a caramel swirl.  We were given a plain NY style cheesecake recipe to work with and tweek as we wanted.  As most cheesecake recipes go, we creamed the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth and creamy, slowly added the eggs until incorporated, added some vanilla and caramel and heavy cream.  That part was a success.  Where we went wrong was the caramel swirl.  What makes a cheesecake hold together is the protein coagulation of the eggs.  As the custard mixture bakes, the eggs coagulate and stiffen the custard mixture so that it's a sliceable cake rather than a cheesecake-flavored soup.  Well, our group put all of our energy into the excitement and thought of a caramel cheesecake rather than into the science behind the cheesecake.  Therefore, we forgot to add any egg into our caramel swirl.  Once our cheesecake was baked, our beautifully marbeled caramel swirl, looked something like a 7.0 on the richter scale.  Each of our marbeled swirls had turned into a canyon in the oven.  We thought, "Great.  What on earth are we going to do with this when we have to plate it?"

Ah ha moment:  "Let's make it a turtle cheesecake!  We'll cover the top in chocolate, caramel, and almonds."  And honestly, who doesn't want their cheesecake covered in chocolate and caramel.

Newly learned trick: I've only made cheesecake a few times, but one thing I've never done is make it in a cake pan.  I've always used springform, but thanks to Chef Wollenberg, I now know how to neatly remove a cheesecake from a cake pan.

1.) Bake and cool the cheesecake in the pan.

2.) Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and freeze overnight.

3.) Remove the frozen cheesecake from the freezer and allow the sides to warm slightly at room temp (or if you're impatient like me, just rub your hands on the sides of the pan and use the heat of your palms to thaw the sides of the cheesecake.)  The cheesecake should still be frozen at this point!

4.) Run a paring knife around the rim of the cheesecake to free the sides from the pan. 

5.)  This step sounds crazy but just trust me.  Place the cheesecake on an eye of the stove on medium-high heat for a few seconds.  This will soften the butter or oil in the crust so it will easily come off of the bottom of the pan.

6.)  Place a sheet of plastic wrap on the counter and flip the pan over on top of it.  Tap the bottom of the pan with your hand until the cheesecake falls upside down onto the plastic wrap. 

7.)  Place a serving tray or cardboard cake round on top of the crust (which should be facing upward) and wrap the plastic wrap around the plate. 

8.)  Flip the plate over, remove the plastic wrap and voila!

Now for the plating.  The picture above shows my group's sliced cheesecake with a drizzle of caramel sauce on the plate, an almond lace cookie cup, whipped cream and candied almonds.  Almond lace is so versatile and looks awesome on the plate.  It's simple to make and will keep in the freezer for weeks if not a couple of months.

Almond Lace:

3 oz pastry flour (AP will work if you don't have pastry flour on hand)

3 oz granulated sugar

3 oz softened unsalted butter

3 1/2 oz corn syrup

3 oz blanched almonds, sliced and/or crushed

Using a paddle, blend flour, sugar and butter together until well combined.  Add corn syrup.  Blend in nuts.  The more finely crushed the nuts are, the less "lacy" the appearance of the final product.

Roll the dough into logs, 1-inch in diameter, and keep in the freezer until needed for use.  When needed, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, cut off slices of the dough and roll it into balls.  Place the balls several inches apart on either a silpat or a parchment paper lined baking sheet.  The amount of dough used per cookie depends on how big you want the resulting cookies to be.  Bake until completely golden brown.  This batch was baked an additional minute or two after this because the centers were not yet brown enough.

Once they are browned, remove from the oven and allow to cool only slightly.  You want to work with them while they are still pliable.  Shape the warm cookies around the bottoms of ramekins, around rolling pins or even cut out shapes using cookie cutters.

Once the cookies are cooled, the shape will hold and you have beautiful, crunchy garnishes to add to your desserts!  You can even dip the cooled cookies in chocoloate for another added effect. 

Finally, the candied almonds.  I was a little timid when it came to working with sugar before this class because in past experiences, I've either burned it, not cooked it enough, or seeded it on accident so that it stayed lumpy even at high temperatures. 

Sugar syrup production is easy and can be used as the base for a nice homemade caramel sauce.  Heat desired amount of sugar with enough water to cover the sugar in a saucepot over medium heat.  DO NOT STIR.   The sugar will all eventually dissolve, and will caramelize equally.  As sugar mixture boils, the water will evaporate out, and you will notice that the bubbles begin to rise and fall more slowly.  Once the evaporation stops, keep a close watch on the pot because once the water is gone, the sugar will begin to caramelize.  Allow the sugar to cook until a light caramel color is achieved.  The sugar will continue to caramelize for a minute off the heat so don't cook until it's the desired caramel color.  Prepare the almonds, by lightly twisting a toothpick into each almond just until it sticks inside the almond like this:

Place a sturdy cutting board or sheet tray along the edge of the counter and place some parchment or wax paper on the floor below the cutting board.  Dip each almond into the caramelized sugar, allow some to drip back into the pot, and then wedge the toothpick between the cutting board and the counter so that the almond is suspended over the parchment like this:

As the sugar drips off, it will harden creating beautiful candied almond garnishes.  Once the sugar has cooled, simply twist the toothpicks out, and use the garnishes on your next plated dessert.