Mother's Day! I'm a new father and our son owe's his mother a cheesecake. He gave her gestational diabetes so she couldn't eat any sugar before he was born, and he has a milk protein so she couldn't eat any milk (transfer to breast milk) after he was born... put those two together, and we figure he owes her a cheesecake every mother's day for the rest of her life!
Anyway... she likes my cheesecake just fine, but I thought I'd search and see if I could come up with something different. I settled on this recipe for caramel apple cheesecake. I'm not much of a baker, so I have some questions I hope someone can answer:
Thanks, I appreciate the timely input.
- Steven
ps. Ha. Just an anecdote: When I tried to register to post this message, it said my name was taken. Curious, I searched for posts by my username and found out it was me! From a decade ago. Lol, I was just starting on the Internet then and obviously I found it important to track down a forum to discuss something I bought (here's my post. The item I bought/linked to is no longer there. I do still have and use it though!)
Anyway... she likes my cheesecake just fine, but I thought I'd search and see if I could come up with something different. I settled on this recipe for caramel apple cheesecake. I'm not much of a baker, so I have some questions I hope someone can answer:
- The vanilla bean. I *think* I scrape the seeds to use in the cake and keep the shell/husk (whatever you call it) and put that in the apple topping mix for flavor, much like a bay leaf in a soup. So I'm not expecting it to dissolve or anything, right? It doesn't mention the bean again so I just wanted to be sure.
- Graham crackers. It calls for 8 "whole" crackers. I bought some from Wal-mart yesterday and the box has 8 "sheets" that are divided into two major sections with a big score-mark... each of those are then divided into 4 smaller squares (about 1.5" sq). So I'm confused if its 8 small squares (that seems too little) or 8 whole sheets (which is the whole box!)... or perhaps 8 of the half sheets? Or maybe I should just go to a different store where they have a major brand like Honeymade and it will be more obvious?
- It calls for "muscovado" sugar. I understand that's a high-molasses content sugar. I've been to every store in my small town and nobody's even heard of it. Is "Dark brown" good enough? I've also found "Demerara-style" and "Turbinado".
- Similarly, "light brown" sugar doesn't exist here. "golden yellow" does. Same thing? I've also read Turbinado described as "light"
- Apple brandy... OK to just use more apple juice? Neither of us drink at all, so its not like I have some laying around, and the liquor store's cheapest is $35.
Thanks, I appreciate the timely input.
- Steven
ps. Ha. Just an anecdote: When I tried to register to post this message, it said my name was taken. Curious, I searched for posts by my username and found out it was me! From a decade ago. Lol, I was just starting on the Internet then and obviously I found it important to track down a forum to discuss something I bought (here's my post. The item I bought/linked to is no longer there. I do still have and use it though!)