Jalapeno Cheesecake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.  Be sure to check out the Daring Baker’s Blogroll and see all the wonderful cheesecakes these ladies made, you will be amazed.

This months Daring Bakers Challenge, is obviously cheesecake, but the real challenge is to create a unique cheesecake, play with the flavors, crusts, decorating, etc.  So I thought long and hard, and hard and long about this cheesecake.  Then it hit me; make a Jalapeno Cheesecake with Frito’s! Why did that hit me, you ask?  Well last summer we had an enormous jalapeno crop and more jalapenos then I knew what to do with, so I made lots of pickled jalapenos and jalapeno jelly.  I was down to my last half jar of jalapeno jelly, and our favorite way to eat it is poured over cream cheese with crackers.  The sweet and savory and slightly spicy jalapenos were excellent together.  So all these thoughts go swimming in my head and I came out with the excellent, if I say so myself Jalapeno Cheesecake!

Ingredients: Crust: 2 Cups Frito’s (crumbs), 4 T butter Cheesecake:3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each room temperature, 1/4 cup sugar, 3 large eggs, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/2 cup water, 2 cubes chicken bouillon, 1 tbsp. taco sauce, 1 T Lime Juice, 1 T tequila, 1 T pickled Jalapeno juice, 4 oz pickled Jalapenos, chopped and Frito’s for serving

Put a large pot of water to boil for the water bath.

Then start crumbling 2 cups of Frito’s in food processor.

Melt 4 T butter and add to crushed fritos.

Press into 2 8 inch foil pie pans, optional bake at 350 for 10 minutes, I didn’t do this initially but I think it would have made the crust firm up better.

Next mix together 3 sticks cream cheese and 1/4 cup sugar.

Once creamed together slowly incorporate each egg, be sure to scrap the sides down in between eggs

Then in a 1 cup measure 1/2 cup water and 2 bouillon cubes, crush them until dissolved, then add 1/2 cup heavy cream

Pour into mixer, along with 1 T lime juice

I T taco sauce, like Cholula, and 1 T tequila

Then add a splash of the pickled jalapeno juice

Then add batter to the pie pans- place pie pan on large baking sheet with sides to hold the water bath.

Chop and drain about 4 oz pickled jalapenos, and place them into the batter, slightly pressing them in

Pour boiling hot water into baking dish, about 1/2 way up the sides

Bake for 20- 25 minutes at 350 until center is slightly jiggly, then cut off oven and let sit in the oven for another hour to cool then chill in refridgerator overnight

Once the cheese cake has chilled, you can easily remove the foil sides, and then slide it off the bottom onto your tray

Pour on a thin layer of Jalapeno jelly  and serve with frito chips.

Enjoy!!

This recipe is listed at Eat At Home “Ingredient Spotlight”

 

Print This Recipe

Jalapeno Cheesecake

Crust:

2 Cups Frito’s (crumbs)

4 T butter

Cheesecake:

3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature

1/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup water

2 cubes chicken bouillon

1 tbsp. taco sauce

1 T lime juice

1 T tequila

2 T pickled Jalapeno juice

4 oz pickled Jalapenos, chopped

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too – baker’s choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, water, chicken bouillon, taco sauce, lime juice, tequila,  jalapeno juice and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface.  Place chopped pickled jalapenos on top of cheese cake and slightly press in.

Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

I used 2, 8 inch foil pans and baked for 20-25 minutes, but if you’re using a spring form pan, bake for 45-55 minutes.

5. Bake 20-25 until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Serve with Jalapeno jelly poured on top, and Fritos!

The original Recipe
Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too – baker’s choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil “casserole” shaped pans from the grocery store. They’re 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

Some variations from the recipe creator:

** Lavender-scented cheesecake w/ blueberries – heat the cup of heavy cream in the microwave or a saucepan until hot but not boiling. Add 2 tbsp of lavender flowers and stir. Let lavender steep in the cream for about 10-15 minutes, then strain the flowers out. Add strained cream to cheesecake batter as normal. Top with fresh blueberries, or make a quick stovetop blueberry sauce (splash of orange juice, blueberries, a little bit of sugar, and a dash of cinnamon – cook until berries burst, then cool)

** Cafe au lait cheesecake with caramel – take 1/4 cup of the heavy cream and heat it in the microwave for a short amount of time until very hot. Add 1-2 tbsp. instant espresso or instant coffee; stir to dissolve. Add this to the remainder of cream and use as normal. Top cheesecake with homemade caramel sauce (I usually find one on the food network website – just make sure it has heavy cream in it. You can use store-bought in a pinch, but the flavor is just not the same since its usually just sugar and corn syrup with no dairy).

** Tropical – add about a half cup of chopped macadamias to the crust, then top the cake with a mango-raspberry-mandarin orange puree.

** Mexican Turtle – add a bar of melted dark chocolate (between 3 and 5 oz., to taste) to the batter, along with a teaspoon of cinnamon and a dash of cayenne pepper (about 1/8 tsp.). Top it with pecan halves and a homemade caramel sauce.

** Honey-cinnamon with port-pomegranate poached pears – replace 1/2 cup of the sugar with 1/2 cup of honey, add about a teaspoon or more (to taste) of cinnamon. Take 2 pears (any variety you like or whatever is in season), peeled and cored, and poach them in a boiling poaching liquid of port wine, pomegranate juice/seeds, a couple of “coins” of fresh ginger, a cinnamon stick, and about a 1/4 cup of sugar. Poach them until tender, then let cool. Strain the poaching liquid and simmer until reduced to a syrupy-glaze consistency, then cool. Thinly slice the cooled pears and fan them out atop the cooled cheesecake. Pour the cooled poaching syrup over the pears, then sprinkle the top with chopped walnuts and fresh pomegranate seeds.

Some variations from Jenny (from JennyBakes):

**Key lime – add zest from one lime to sugar before mixing with cream cheese. Substitute lemon juice, alcohol, and vanilla with key lime juice.

**Cheesecakelets – put in muffin tins, ramekins, or custard cups. Try baking 20-35 minutes, or until still a little jiggly, and cool as before.