Dutch Chocolate Mint Cheesecake

Dutch Chocolate Mint Cheesecake

So many ingredients for a little cheesecake

so easy to mess up.

"There is no such thing as failure as long as it is a learning experience"

The cheesecake wasn't pretty when it came out of the oven, but there is almost always a way to make your product pretty again. Garnishes are always your friend! My eggs were over whipped into my batter so the cheesecake rose then fell, leaving my ending product a sunken cheesecake. With the work of a knife to flatten out the top and my garnish of sour cream mint frosting topped with shaved chocolate transformed this cheesecake.

Crust: 

12 oz. Chocolate Cookie Crumbs

6 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate

6 Tbsp. Sugar

7 oz. Soft Butter

Process and press into spring form

 Cake:

16 oz.  Chocolate

2 2/3  lbs.  Cream Cheese Frosting

2 1/3 cup  Sugar

3 oz. Cream

2/3 cup Cocoa

6 Eggs

2 tsp. Vanilla

2 1/3 tsp. Peppermint Extract

On low speed cream the cream cheese and sugar, add chocolate, cocoa, scrapping and creaming after each addition. Add cream and flavorings. Add eggs. Bake at 300 degrees until done.

Attempts at a pastry cream (culinary school)

It's so surprising how much you can learn in only 2 days with very letle guidance.

Fall term of school I will be in bakery station and the first 3 days I''ve started in costars, alone. This had me nervous when I heard this having never made a custard before. So the weekend before actual class in the kitchen started I made 3 custard pies. Number one was an avocado coconut, which turned out very well. Number two was white chocolate mixed berry also super yummy and turned out great. Third my personal favorite caramelized onion blue cheese and pear.

I thought I had prepared my self for what was to come Monday in class, but not quite, chef Hurley had me doing a completely different method then I practiced at home.

I made pastry cream, half for a coconut cream pie and the other for danish custards. My first batch I screwed up in the step after tempering the milk into the eggs then pouring the mixture back over the heat to thicken, turns out I more or less had scrambled eggs in the bottom of my pot.

I was mortified, it had taken me so long to get to that step and I had to start over. The second time I attempted it, it wasn't as bad, I didn't make scrambled eggs, I did get worried when the starch started to clump up in the same step my eggs had scrambled before, but it turned out I just needed to whisk like crazy so my custard thickened.

My end results turned out great, every last slice of coconut cream pie sold, which means I did something right.