I can’t believe I haven’t written about cheesecake yet!  It is, after all one of the easiest things to make-contrary to popular belief. I was never a huge fan of cheesecake growing up, it was good, but not my favorite, that is until I was shown this recipe in Culinary School. I was hooked, I bought the book that the recipe was in, just so I could have my own copy of the recipe, and that’s saying something, the book cost $60! Thankfully said book has also contained many more recipes, including the one I use for Carrot Cake.  From the book The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg. I have the 3rd edition. There is a 4th out there, but I can’t attest to the contents of it.

I don’t know what “style” you’d call it, I just call it delicious. As with most recipes I find, I’ve tweaked in order to get the consistency and flavors I like. Originally it started by making an Orange cheesecake with a layer of chocolate chips on the bottom (adds texture with out the nuts and who doesn’t love chocolate?) I got rave revues, well I got silence really. Nothing says what you made was delicious until you feed it to an entire room at a party and they fall completely silent while eating. Probably the best compliment a chef could ever get.

So, today I’m making my friend Phillips birthday cheesecake, a blueberry one and instead of making one cake, I’m using my handy individual portioned cheesecake pan (thanks Pashmina!) Only there’s a slight problem. I ground up the graham crackers I had and added my melted butter, but then I got this awful smell. Apparently stale graham crackers are a new-found hated smell of mine, and the taste was twice as bad. I’m on the way to run out and buy more, then the mixing and baking can begin. Happy Birthday Phillip!

New crackers obtained and the rest of the process went off without a hitch.  Phillip had a fabulous birthday, everyone loved the cheesecake (‘Were there chocolate chips on the bottom?!’), and Phillip even had a piece for breakfast the next morning, right before he went to the dentist. “They’re going to clean my teeth anyway.”