Dessert of the Month

Hi. I'm just going to come right out and tell y'all I had planned on sharing some fantastic "Dessert of the Month" review post today.

I was going to make this mouth-watering cheesecake over the weekend (because today is National Cheesecake Day!) but life had other plans. Like the oven not working. The broiler worked. The stove top worked. But no oven. Funny thing though, it worked seven hours ago when I made this fantastic Cheddar-Apple Brunch Tart for my jewelry party earlier that Saturday.

My graham cracker crust was ready to go in and I was about to mix the cream cheese until delightfully smooth when I realized the oven should have preheated already. NOPE. Nada. "Nuttin'!" (<---Yukon Cornelius, anyone?)

Not awesome. Not okay. By gosh, I wanted cheesecake! It's bad enough cheesecake is already a two-day process with a working oven. Remember when this happened to me last year? Why does the oven go out when I'm ready to make a planned-weeks-in-advance-delicious dessert for family???

"Because our oven is 21 years old," Mr. B tells me.

It's of drinking age, and apparently this weekend it had one too many.

Alas, I covered the unbeaten cream cheese, and the not-yet-golden crust, and put everything back in the fridge with sweet dreams of waking up to an oven preheated to 350 degrees. Hey, it worked before. Not this time. Sunday found Mr. B and I shopping for a new stove. It's currently on back order and will not arrive until August 9th. No oven. No grill. Makes for one raw summer.

But, I couldn't get over not enjoying my belated birthday cheesecake. It was lemon, too, my favorite. I needed to finish it, and I was not waiting two weeks. This led to a surprise visit to the in-laws to use the oven and enjoy an unexpected dinner with promises of providing cheesecake for dessert...but not until tomorrow (because it's a two-day process kind of dessert, you know. Ugh). So now we had to wait until Monday.

I should have known starting with a broken oven was a bad sign and should have abandoned the entire dessert. Settled for a creamy frappuccino or a big cone of ice cream. But no, I was determined to make this cheesecake. Apparently, I was so worried/paranoid about my in-laws oven possibly not working, I pulled the cheesecake out at the said time, gave it a jiggle, decided there was a little too much wiggle, and put it back in. (Only then realizing the recipe mentioned a 13" pan and I was using a 9"pan. I need to compensate for the height, so more time shouldn't hurt.) I'm pretty sure I over-compensated. And while fretting over whether or not it was baked enough in the middle, while transporting it to a cooling rack I burnt.the.heck.out.of.my.arms. OUCH.

My burns three days later...

"At least it's uniform," Mr. B tells me.

Ai yi yi. Then the cake fell in the middle when I gently spooned on the Greek yogurt topping (instead of sour cream). Finally, I took my sad little cheesecake home to finish the glaze on our stove top because, yes, that was working.

It was a disaster from the start. Hopefully, a night in the fridge would bring it back to life.

Guess what I had Monday morning for breakfast?

Lemon cheesecake. It was more like a lemon cheesecake trying its hardest to be a lemon cheesecake, yet it had all the angst of the oven dilemma in it. Instead of love, of course. You know, the it's so good because it's made with love saying? Yeah, well mine was made with over-worked patience and burnt arms. And, to me, it tasted like it. Over-cooked, not enough pucker in the cheesecake, and (believe it or not) not enough sugar in the not-as-yellow-as-the-photo glaze.

My worst cheesecake-making experience ever.

I guess there's a reason I only make this once a year. And now that I'm trying to enjoy it, I don't really think I like cheesecake as much as I used to. I'm definitely retracting it as my favorite dessert. Yes, I'm positive ice cream is my favorite.

BUT. Let me tell you about this crust. The recipe called for butter, but I used coconut oil instead and cut the sugar in half. Ohhhh.Emmmm.Geeeee. I will make my cheesecake crust no other way from now on I promise you. And I'm not a crust person, so this is saying a lot. Actually, I just want to eat the entire crust while I pretend to eat the cheesecake.

Of course, a second opinion is always needed. Later that Monday, the in-laws were stopping by for some of their promised dessert, and as I walked out the door I hastily told Mr. B to send the entire cheesecake with them if they liked it. After work, while driving home I thought about trying the cheesecake again just to see if I still felt the same way. And if I did, well there was always the crust. It seems Mr. B was actually listening when spoken to this morning, and sent the entire cheesecake home with them. Just a tad bummed, I settled for a deli sandwich before bed instead.

However, my in-laws seemed to enjoy the cheesecake, saying it was very delicious. Yesterday morning even, I received a text from my step father-in-law (Happy Father-in-Law Day, by the way) saying it was even better the next day.

I guess it wasn't too much of a disaster. To each his own....

Cheers to National Cheesecake Day. Yum.

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi