Quarantbake Series: Quarantine Cheesecake

WHAT IS QUARANTBAKING?

Hi guys! I realized that in times of a pandemic, my instinct is to panic bake. Yes, I didn’t coin this word, but when I saw it, I realized it is exactly what I am doing. Almost every day, I go down to our pantry, look around and spot previously ignored ingredients and bake.

So, for my dessert to qualify as a quarantbake, it has to satisfy the following conditions:

1. I have very little of it in supply.
2. I have had to substitute something from the original recipe.
3. I used creativity.

Now that I’ve defined what I’m doing, let’s get down to business!

QUARANTINE CHEESCAKE

YOU WILL NEED:

For the CRUST

Any butter-based cookie (in my case, Christmas butter cookies in a tin)

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. sugar

For the FILLING

1 bar cream cheese (the original recipe called for 4 bars)

1 cup sour cream

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar

For the TOPPING

Crushed cookies (again, cookies I just rummaged in the pantry)

WHAT TO DO:

1. To make the crust, you put the cookies in a food processor. You can put the butter and sugar in there as well and mix it all up.
2. Flatten the crust onto a circular pan.
3. To make the filling, put all the wet ingredients in first (cream cheese, sour cream, eggs, vanilla extract). Mix until the cream cheese bar breaks apart).
4. Then add the sugar and mix again.
5. Finally add the flour slowly until all ingredients are incorporated.
6. At this point, you will still have a pretty runny mix, but don’t worry. It will set once it’s baked.
7. Bake in the oven (175 degrees Celsius) for about 20-30 minutes. But It really depends where you’re at. In my tropical country, I could bake stuff in lower heat and still get the same results because it is just so hot. (In the first 10 minutes of baking, I took the pan out and sprinkled the crushed cookies.)

Stick the center with a fork and when it comes out clean, it’s done! Refrigerate because from experience, it tastes so much better when it’s completely cooled.

The upside of this panic baking journey is that my daughter thinks I’m a genius in the kitchen (Hahah! Kids are so easy to please.). But now, she’s thinking of making a game of it and just yanking random stuff from the ref/pantry to see what I’ll do with it.

That’s it! I hope you find joy in baking and a temporary relief from thinking about everything that’s been going on.

Stay home. Stay safe!