2008 Chinese New Year Test Kitchen – Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake

My MIL requested for a tart cheesecake for the coming cny. I thought that since I needed to finish the cranberry sauce, I decided to use it in the cheesecake for her. I used the cranberry swirl cheesecake recipe in the Epicurious website. I made a few modifications since I didn't make the cranberry sauce myself, but used the one from Crabtree & Evelyn. The cranberry sauce with orange by Crabtree & Evelyn was delicious on its own. It's packed with fruit.

Back to the cheesecake.... I'm extremly pleased with the results - there were no cracks, cake was firm, yet texture was smooth. My hubby terms it as "swishingly soft". However, I can't find the cranberries nor a distinct cranberry flavour, after dumping in at least 2/3 of the 16oz bottle into the batter! Very light swirls and virtually all cranberry sauce sank to the bottom.... I think I will add the entire 16oz bottle into a small bit of batter in my next bake....



In any case, I think I will be using this recipe as my base for all cheesecakes.... You should try it, it's really a yummy cheesecake, despite the negligible cranberry flavour.

Calla's notes on the recipes:

• I used oreo cookies for the crust, which is a good combination.
• I used 3 250g-packets of cream cheese.
• As I used a commercially-made sauce, I reduced the sugar to 170g.
• I used a 200g-packet of sour cream, with no apparent adverse results.
• I used 60g of whipping cream.
• I added zest of 1 orange - cranberry & orange go well together!
• I originally wanted to swirl the sauce into the cheesecake. However I noted that the sauce sank to the bottom! In a bid to save, I added the sauce to some of the cheesecake batter. But I think I added too little sauce and the marbling was not apparent. To experiment on the proportions again....
• I baked in a water bath at 160 deg C. But from my oven thermometer, I noted that it hardly climbed above 100 deg C. As such, I thought I better baked it longer. In all, I baked it about 2 hours, instead of the stipulated 1h 15min.

I made some observations while preparing the cheesecake:

• I first beat the cream cheese at medium speed till it flicks off easily from the spatula/beater. Scraping down the sides and from the bottom is important, as there are bits of unprocessed cream cheese stuck at the sides and bottom.
• I then add in the sugar and beat it at medium speed till drops easily from the spatula/beater.
  
• After that, I beat in, by hand, the sour cream, whipping cream, orange zest and vanilla essence. I also tried to eliminate, as much as possible, any lumps in the sour cream and whipping cream.
• The eggs went in next, one by one, incorporating into the batter (again by hand) before adding the next one.
• I also cleaned my spatula and sides of the mixing bowl, esp after adding the sugar, regularly to get rid of unprocessed cream cheese
  

Bogged Down with Cranberry Sauce....

During the festive season, I received a bottle of Crabtree and Evelyn Cranberry Sauce with Orange. Well, I'm not a "cooking" person, i.e. I don't really like to fry, steam, poach, etc.; but I like to bake! Strange huh....

As the sauce approaches its use-by date, I'm hard-pressed to find ways to use it in baking. Hence, I trawled the internet to look for ideas and found the following ideas/had the following inspiration:

• Use it in muffins. I came across some recipes that use cranberry sauce in muffins. Here are some examples: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/11/morningafter_cranberry_sauce_muffins.html; http://www.canadianliving.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=570; http://morninmuffin.blogspot.com/2007/11/still-baking.html. But I think this is pretty interesting and unusual: Cranberry Upside-down Muffins – an adaptation from the upside-down cake.
  
• Use it in cupcakes. Perhaps, the Nutella Cupcakes that took the blogging world by storm can be varied to swirl the cranberry sauce instead. Otherwise, fill the patty tin half way with batter, place a teaspoon of sauce, then top with batter, for a cranberry surprise cupcake. Maybe, a marble cranberry loaf cake....
  
• Use it in cheesecakes – a Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake
  

I'm inclined to try the Cranberry Upside-down Muffins, any of the cupcake ideas and the Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake. I may even mix in the cranberry sauce into my muffin/cupcake batter and correspondingly reduce other liquids. Once done, I will share with you the results.

If you wish to have ideas on using cranberry sauce other than in baking, you may check out this site: http://www.musicbizadvice.com/15_ways_to_use_leftover_homemade_cranberry_sauce.htm. You could also check out Ocean Spray's recipe database for more ideas.

Do you have other ideas?? Please feel free to suggest....