The other day, the Mild Wife and I decided to make a cheesecake for a family gathering. Neither of us has ever made a cheesecake before, but both of us happen to enjoy eating cheesecake, so we figured we'd give it a go. As she often likes to point out, we should know how to make the things we like to eat (why wait on other people if you can help it?).
So, we (read: she) found a recipe online. This particular recipe was from Better Homes & Gardens, which is not a publication that I read very often. Still, necessity makes for strange bedfellows, so there I was, happily reading the online version of that magazine.
It's worth noting that the reason the Mild Wife chose this particular recipe was that it had less cream cheese than some of the others that she'd seen. You see, she'd joked many moons ago that if I ever saw what actually went into a cheesecake, I'd change my mind about eating it. I don't like tons of butter in my food, and I don't have a particularly strong sweet tooth, so she figured that seeing the raw ingredients (hint: there is a lot of cream cheese) was bound to be a shock to me. So, she figured if we found a recipe that didn't require mountains of cream cheese, we'd both appreciate it a bit more. Don't get me wrong, it was still surprising to me how many blocks we needed, but it wasn't enough to feed a family for winter.
Regardless, we went through all of the steps, trying our best to adhere to the original directions while still maintaining a sense of "would we like this if we ate it?" For example, we didn't use the full amount of sugar that it suggested; we used one cup instead of one and a quarter. Again, neither of us has a big enough sweet tooth where we want it to taste like straight up sugar. So, with our best effort in hand, we popped it in the oven and prayed that it came out okay.
The thing about most cheesecake recipes is that you're supposed to refrigerate it for a while after you cook it. The times are usually measured in hours, not minutes. So, even after all that, we basically just had to wait and hope for the best. All we had to go on was a brief taste test during the batter making process, so it was a bit of a Hail Mary.
Fortunately, when we brought it to the family gathering, it was a hit. People liked how it tasted, and we even got compliments from a couple of the little kids. Little kids are generally pretty earnest, and they don't mess around about their sweets, so that seemed like a pretty solid endorsement. I mean, the adults said some kind words, too, but I was more compelled by the kid who gave me a thumbs up.
The funniest part, however, happened because we had told the others that it was home-made and it was our first attempt just in case it wasn't exactly super awesome. Well, a few of the guests decided that this had to be a lie. I mean, it tasted pretty good, and it's not like I was known for being a baker. Even the Mild Wife's skill wasn't going to elevate someone of my ability to the dessert they were happily chomping down on. So, they asked where I'd bought it. It was all in jest, but I remember one person asking, "seriously, where'd you buy the cheesecake?"
I figure that's got to be the adult equivalent of the little kid thumbs up. We're going to have to keep this particular recipe in mind.
So, we (read: she) found a recipe online. This particular recipe was from Better Homes & Gardens, which is not a publication that I read very often. Still, necessity makes for strange bedfellows, so there I was, happily reading the online version of that magazine.
It's worth noting that the reason the Mild Wife chose this particular recipe was that it had less cream cheese than some of the others that she'd seen. You see, she'd joked many moons ago that if I ever saw what actually went into a cheesecake, I'd change my mind about eating it. I don't like tons of butter in my food, and I don't have a particularly strong sweet tooth, so she figured that seeing the raw ingredients (hint: there is a lot of cream cheese) was bound to be a shock to me. So, she figured if we found a recipe that didn't require mountains of cream cheese, we'd both appreciate it a bit more. Don't get me wrong, it was still surprising to me how many blocks we needed, but it wasn't enough to feed a family for winter.
Regardless, we went through all of the steps, trying our best to adhere to the original directions while still maintaining a sense of "would we like this if we ate it?" For example, we didn't use the full amount of sugar that it suggested; we used one cup instead of one and a quarter. Again, neither of us has a big enough sweet tooth where we want it to taste like straight up sugar. So, with our best effort in hand, we popped it in the oven and prayed that it came out okay.
The thing about most cheesecake recipes is that you're supposed to refrigerate it for a while after you cook it. The times are usually measured in hours, not minutes. So, even after all that, we basically just had to wait and hope for the best. All we had to go on was a brief taste test during the batter making process, so it was a bit of a Hail Mary.
Fortunately, when we brought it to the family gathering, it was a hit. People liked how it tasted, and we even got compliments from a couple of the little kids. Little kids are generally pretty earnest, and they don't mess around about their sweets, so that seemed like a pretty solid endorsement. I mean, the adults said some kind words, too, but I was more compelled by the kid who gave me a thumbs up.
The funniest part, however, happened because we had told the others that it was home-made and it was our first attempt just in case it wasn't exactly super awesome. Well, a few of the guests decided that this had to be a lie. I mean, it tasted pretty good, and it's not like I was known for being a baker. Even the Mild Wife's skill wasn't going to elevate someone of my ability to the dessert they were happily chomping down on. So, they asked where I'd bought it. It was all in jest, but I remember one person asking, "seriously, where'd you buy the cheesecake?"
I figure that's got to be the adult equivalent of the little kid thumbs up. We're going to have to keep this particular recipe in mind.
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