I’ve been using my fabulous new electric cooker, Trixie, to the outmost of his/her potential. Most recently out of the depths came a really great cheesecake! Can you believe that?
Well, think about it… cheesecakes like to be baked at a low, even temperature, thus the sometimes used water bath, right? I followed a recipe from a slow-cooker book, sort of. It came out, not the best cheesecake I ever made (that would be the final fulfillment of my lifetime of cheesecake wet dreams thanks to Cooks’ Illustrated’s New York style) but a darn good one. It’s uber creamy, straight through. (I love a creamy cheesecake, but I do also love a gradient of texture, from silky creamy in the middle to firm cakey at the edge. And a slightly caramelized graham crust.)
Trixie’s cheesecake, not so much on the gradient, or the caramelized crust. But, like I said, perfectly delicious, and hardly heats up the kitchen at all!
Here’s some other Trix we’ve been turning:
Pasta. A top fave thing to cook in Trixie. Cuz don’t you love eating pasta when it’s hot? But don’t you hate cooking pasta when it’s hot? All that heat and buckets of steam pouring up into your personal atmosphere. Ick. Trixie keeps it pretty well contained, and I’ve permanently 86ed myself from the Gourmands of the world by discovering that simmered pasta can be just fine. I turn Trix on ‘brown’ and put the lid on until the water boils (it starts to hiss out through the pressure valve) then I add the pasta, let it come back to a boil, then turn it to ‘slow cook’ and put the lid back on, with the valve closed for ‘pressure’ (it doesn’t reach pressure of course, just keeps every scrap of steam inside). About 15 or 20 minutes later, even though it falls off of a boil and down to hardly even a simmer, the pasta is pretty much perfect! Good enough I say. And almost no steam except for the cloud when I drain the pasta in the sink.
Chocolate Pudding Cake. This is apparently a thing. An old fashioned cake that makes it’s own chocolate sauce as it bakes…? I found it in a slow cooker book. It was a spare, thick batter, and a lean, chewy cake. Pretty good, not the greatest. But I feel there’s room for improvement. Like of the butter and eggs variety. Though the cake does have to stand up to the boiling water you pour on top before baking.
Oatmeal. For some reason, even though winter is the obvious season for oatmeal, we’ve been on a bit of a kick lately. Maybe it’s the fact of having to buy granola (cuz I can’t bear to bake it). Or the frequent presence of fresh strawberries and blueberries in our fridge. Anyway, couldn’t be easier. Just bring water to a boil on the ‘brown’ setting, add oats and salt and ‘slow cook’ for 15-30 mins. No need to stir, go read your favorite blogs till it’s done.
Dinner every night. Almost anything you cook stovetop Trix can do, with less waste heat, and way less steam. (*Sigh* I’m in love.) The ‘brown’ setting caramelizes an onion perfectly. I mean, better than I usually manage in my cast iron, because the heat is just right. One of the reviews said the ‘brown’ setting was “a joke” but I suspect that person was trying to brown like a 5 lb roast or something. There are limits set by physics for size of pan/quantity of food to brown. I find a medium onion gets just the space it needs in Trixie’s 6-quart pan, or up to 2 lbs of meat.
Sometimes I use the pressure setting, and sometimes the slow cook. I do wish there was something in between, but we can’t very well have it all, can we?
Roasted Garlic. Just did this tonight, and worked a treat. I peeled 3 heads of garlic (whew!) and put the cloves in Trix, with several tablespoons of olive oil. I started it out at ‘brown’ and once the cloves had toasty deep golden color, I turned it to slow cook for an hour. Soft, buttery garlic caramel nuggets. Yum!
Dessert. Because isn’t that what you really want? Many things traditionally baked can be steam baked. List of all your favorite desserts. Now just cross off the ones that have crispy edges. What’s left can mostly be Trixified. I have really enjoyed custard lately, which could hardly be easier. I mean, there are recipes that start on the stove, but you don’t need to. Just whisk together eggs, milk and sugar, pour into half pint jars, and set into an inch of water. Viola!
But, back to that cheesecake. Like I said, slow cooker ought to work fine too. The recipe just called for a sprinkling of graham crackers on the bottom, but I felt it needed a real crust, even if it wouldn’t be nicely golden brown.
Trixie’s Keep It Cool to Make It Hot Cheesecake
(Prepare to the soundtrack of Prince’s Cream)
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- some graham cracker crumbs, 3/4 cup?
- 1 1/2 lbs cream cheese at room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla
- 3 Tablespoons buttermilk (this is my twist)
- 4 eggs
First figure out how you’re going to cook it.
I cut a silicone cake pan to make a (teflon safe) springform pan of sorts. Works fab. The cheesecake recipe said to put it in a souffle dish, set in a couple inches of water, and then you have to carefully parchment, then foil wrap the dish so that the top doesn’t get wet from all the steam. My way was far superior, to be frank, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t work in a regular slow cooker, even with a souffle dish or any kind of oven safe dish for that matter, setting right on the bottom, sans water. What’s the big deal?
Anyway. Mix up crust and pack into your pan. Cheesecakes only need a bottom crust, don’t know why I tried so hard to make the damn crumbs stick to the sides for so long. Completely unnecessary.
Beat cream cheese till creamy, then add the other ingredients, in order, beating till smooth between each addition, and also making sure to scrape the bowl often. Add eggs one at a time, beating between. Hmmm. There’s an awfully lot of beating in this hot, creamy cake.
Scrape batter into pan, on top of crust. Cook however you’ve decided.
Now, here’s the secret to cheesecake. Okay, there’s two secrets. Knowing when it’s done (this took two hours on Trixie’s slow cook, after a five minute ‘brown’ start, but the recipe said 6-8 hours in a regular slow cooker, with the whole double boiler action), because it doesn’t look done when it’s done, etc, etc. consult some other foodie blogger for more info. But with the slow cooker’s low temperature I think it might be a lot harder to overbake.
But, no, what I was going to say was, you have to wait till it’s cool! And I don’t mean room temperature. Room temperature cheesecake is good. Hell, it’s even good hot out of the oven, believe me. But cool cheesecake is transcendent. That means some time in the fridge baby. I’m sure there’s an ideal temperature to eat cheesecake at. Consult said foodie. In the meantime, just make sure it feels cool on your tongue. And creamy.
Did I mention creamy?
Apron Stringz 