“I hope this doesn’t blow up, I hope this doesn’t blow up …” It’s what I kept telling myself while I was trying to turn on the oven to bake the cheesecake I had just prepared. (Conversely, I think the opposite when I walk to the SAC.)
This week, in the spirit of Valentine’s, I decided to go where I had not dared venture before. That’s right: I tried to use my oven.
I’ve had access to an oven since last year, when I lived in Lovernich. However, I never dared to use it. I always found it so intimidating, perhaps because of its size and the heat that it’s packing. In my head there’s a really big difference between a flame I can put out with the twist of a nob and a decent sized, squared-shaped metal heater.
Since I had already successfully made dinner in the previous weeks, I thought I’d try dessert this time around and set some of you up with the perfect Valentine’s dinner for your significant other (not your boyfriend or girlfriend, but the one that you’re trying to have a “define the relationship” moment with).
Naturally, the first thing I did when I decided to make this cheesecake was call my mother and ask her for a recipe and more money. “Well, are you going to make the pie crust from scratch?” — Obviously not. Isn’t it enough that I have to deal with the oven?!
I opted for the easy way out and settled on one of those premade pie crusts. I waddled down the grocery aisle looking for the ingredients that I needed to prepare the cheesecake.
Three eggs, one bar of fat-free cream cheese (it was cheaper than the regular one) and one piecrust later, I encountered the same dilemma that I had come across in the previous edition of Culinary Corner. See, I had heard of cheesecake being made with regular milk and sugar. However, in Mexico we have a little something called Lechera, which is sweetened condensed milk. (Lechera is a specific brand.) This thick, canned piece of heaven often replaces sugar and milk in other desert recipes. In Latin America, Lechera has reached such a level of familiarity that the brand and the product have become synonymous.
I became a bit nervous at the idea of repeating last week’s incident and having to replace what I would consider a staple household product for something unfamiliar. As I journeyed down the baking materials aisle of the local grocery store, I saw her, the logo of the milkmaid carrying a jar of milk on her head. Crisis adverted. I got a can — also fat free because I couldn’t find the not-fat free one, (I swear) and headed to the fruit section. I got some strawberries and some blueberries, since I thought that they would make for good toppings. Although I have mostly seen cheesecakes as topping-less dessert, I thought I’d spice things up a bit. After all, we want this “DTR” to finally be one in our favor, right?
As I headed home I realized that I had forgotten to get some lemons. Feeling extremely lazy I decided that the next best thing to going back to the grocery store to buy the lemons was to beg for them. A couple of text messages and one Facebook status later, and I was in luck. No, I didn’t get lemons. But I did get the next best thing: limes. (Thank you, neighbor).
The actual process of making a cheesecake is actually quite simple. See, there’s this jar-like thing in which you can throw a lot of different things and they’re all swirled together and sliced up by these blades at the bottom of it, which will cut you if you’re not careful when washing it. Also, you want to make sure your blender is clean; we wouldn’t want your cheesecake to taste like margaritas.
Before throwing everything into the blender I preheated the oven. After pressing several buttons and hearing quite a few different sounds, I finally got the oven to start heating.
I then proceeded to throw everything into the blender. The three eggs (without shells, preferably), the can of sweetened condensed milk and the bar of cream cheese. I then followed that up by zesting some of the lime skin into the blender and then squeezing a quarter cup of lime juice into it as well. Allegedly, the peel of a lime and lemon bring out the flavor in things.
I mixed it all up for a good 30 seconds and then poured it into the piecrust. Out of fear of burning all of Drescher down to the ground I started with the oven at 225 degrees. I put the liquid cheesecake in the oven and set the timer for 20 minutes.
After a rather alarming sound from the oven 20 minutes later, I checked on cheesecake. As it still looked liquidy, I decided to add 20 minutes more. Once those 20 were up, I added 20 more. After those 20, I added 15. Frustrated with how long the process was taking, I decided to raise the temperature up to 350. Confident that this was the right decision, I set the timer for 20 more minutes. Those 20 minutes were cut short when I could smell the cheesecake.
I left the cheesecake in the oven until it cooled down under (my mother’s suggestion). Apparently, if you take it out too fast and put it in the fridge the cheesecake will crack because of the temperature change.
Afterwards, I placed some sliced strawberries and some blueberries on top in no real particular order. Then, I fed the cheesecake to the entire newsroom. “This is some great key lime pie,” somebody exclaimed. Check back next week to see if everyone survived!
