Tuesdays With Dorie: Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

Well, I did it. (Scroll down two posts to find out why I didn’t think I would.)

I don’t really like cheesecake, but I made it, and I think it’s going to be very good. I made a hybrid of two of the variations: marbled coconut cheesecake. I added toasted coconut to the crust, toasted coconut and toasted almond meal to the main body of the cake, and bittersweet chocolate to about a third of the batter. (Both the inspired ideas of #1 Son.) The batter, both kinds, was delicious.

It sure does look pretty. I’ll check in tomorrow and let you know how it tastes!

UPDATE: The cheesecake was a hit. We finally ate it very late Thursday night, at our friends’ house in Virginia.

I don’t like cheesecake, as a rule. (I don’t like cream cheese, either, or sour cream. So you can see the problem.)

I liked this, though. I wouldn’t rush to make it again, just for myself, but I ate a whole piece, and it was good. I used three-quarters cream to one-quarter sour cream, so the tanginess was dialed down, and the contrast between the vanilla and chocolate parts was excellent. And toasted coconut makes everything better.

Our friends liked it too. One said the chocolate was like French restaurant chocolate; it had the perfect consistency. She loved the surprise of the coconut in the crust: “It’s crunchy — you can really taste it.” The other one praised the coconut, “which adds significantly to the uncheesiness of it.” Their 2-year-old daughter made her objections known, loudly and vociferously, when her mother tried to take the cheesecake away from her. (Their 7-year-old son was less enthralled — he threw his away.)

And as for my amateur critics:

Husband: The chocolate is mousse-like. I find many cheesecakes far too sweet, but this is not at all. This is just the right hint of sweetness. There’s almost a savoriness to the vanilla part, and the coconut was a really cool surprise.

#1 Son: Tasty. It had a good texture and flavor; it was absolutely beautiful. It seemed like it got soft very easily, so it would probably be best served directly from the fridge instead of letting it sit out on the counter for a while like we did. Maybe some more almond extract would have been good, would have brought out the flavor a bit more.

#2 Son: I liked it, but it was overall too sweet for me. I liked the coconut crust stuff; it was really good. I liked the chocolate better than the vanilla bit. But all combined, it was just too sweet. I would eat it again.

UPDATE#2: #2 Son has changed his opinion: “My previous opinion came after I’d just had some ice cream. Now I’ve had the cake by itself. The chocolate seems a lot richer now, the vanilla is still kind of eh, and the crust is very good. I still like the crust very much.”

Check out what all the other TWD bakers did with the cheesecake. And if you want to try it yourself, Anne will have the recipe for you over at Anne Strawberry.

Please scroll down and check out #1 Son’s gingerbread inn. He worked very hard on it!