Much Ado About Cheesecake: Guest Post by Neil Plakcy

Neil Plakcy:
 
I was brought up to like cheesecake. When I was a child, we used to get New York style cheesecake at a little store called Mother’s, about an hour away from our home in the Trenton suburbs. There was always at least one Mother's cheesecake in the big, free-standing freezer in our basement. They came in square white boxes made of heavy-duty cardboard, with a little plastic window on the top so you could look in and see the tiny ice crystals forming on the top of the cheesecake. The available flavors and toppings were listed next to the window, with a box where the clerk made a check mark with a grease pencil.

New York cheesecake is heavy and rich and has the consistency of a solid block of cream cheese. It has a graham cracker crust, and Mother's put a light dusting of crumbs on top, too, on cakes that did not have cherries or pineapple or blueberries on top. When you took the cake out of the freezer, you had to allow at least two hours for it to defrost properly, but we rarely had the patience to wait that long. The semi-frozen slices we ate stood stiff and straight, and they were icy to the tongue. But if you let the cake rest on your tongue for an extra minute, all the creamy richness would literally melt into your mouth.

When I was a teenager we stopped having to drive to Mother’s, because Helen Wielninski came to work for us. Helen was a heavy-set, big-busted woman in her sixties who came to us once a week in a flowered smock to rearrange the dust. If she was in a good mood, or we were celebrating a special occasion, she brought us a cheesecake, made according to her own special recipe. The cakes were baked in a springform pan, one with a removable bottom and a spring on the side so the pan could be opened. They often had cracks in the middle. Eventually I learned that was because as cheesecake cools, it contracts. If the edges remained stuck to the pan, cracks resulted.

Helen's cakes were just as thick and rich as Mother's, but because they were homemade they had a special freshness that made them seem even better. Helen gave me her recipe when she re­tired, and I made the cake a few times before I left for college.

Once firmly ensconced in college in Philadelphia, I discov­ered the Cottman Diner, a twenty-four-hour haven in the North­east, about thirty minutes from campus. Whenever any of my friends had access to a car, six or eight of us would pile in around midnight for the adventure and the great cheesecake.

I first had chocolate cheesecake at the Cottman Diner. They swirled chocolate syrup into the rich sweet cream cheese, and I realized that there were worlds to explore that Helen had never dreamed of. During my junior year, I bought a springform pan and set up my cheesecake laboratory in the galley kitchen of my dormitory apartment.

There are two ways to make chocolate cheesecake. You can blend the syrup completely into the batter, making the whole cake the color of milk chocolate, or you can swirl a ribbon of the syrup into the cream-colored batter for a marbled effect. Another crowd-pleasing favorite is chocolate-chip cheesecake, but my first efforts, though delicious, were failures. My chips all sank into a chocolatey layer above the graham cracker crust. After several tries, I discovered mini-chips, which were tiny enough to hang suspended in the cake. Further experiments in­cluded the addition of liqueurs into the mix and the use of canned pie filling as topping.

My friend Iris insisted that there was money to be made in my cheesecake. During the spring of my junior year, we targeted two street festivals coming up on campus and started to bake. The play showing at the campus theater where we both worked was Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, so we named our budding venture Much Ado About Cheesecake.

I borrowed a car and drove out to the Northeast, where I bought a twenty-pound log of cream cheese from a dairy. I had to borrow a scale from a drug dealer friend to measure the cheese out into forty-ounce portions. We bought dozens of eggs, pounds of sugar, and crushed hundreds of graham crackers for crumbs.

Every night, when I didn't have too much homework and I wasn't working at the theater, I mixed and baked. I stored the bounty of my oven in the freezers of friends, and bribed them to help with the mixing with the promise of free cake. I narrowed the varieties to plain, cherry, chocolate chip and pineapple, and Iris and I set up a booth at both festivals.

Though it was fun to sit outside and talk to friends, occa­sionally selling slices of cake, it was very time consuming, and so was all that baking. Buying all our ingredients at retail at the local Pantry Pride cut into our profit margin, and I figured out that it would take a lot of cheesecake before we were using enough ingredients to buy wholesale in bulk.

After we counted up the receipts and divided the profits, it turned out Iris and I could make more money at the theater, so I returned to being a recreational baker. The recipe is still great, though, and it is offered here with one warning: baking of massive numbers of these cheesecakes at one time can have grave consequences for your enthusiasm, not to mention your waistline.
 

Helen's Cheesecake with Chocolate Chips

 
Ingredients

1 cup graham cracker crumbs 
1/4 cup melted butter
5 eight-ounce packages of cream cheese 
8 eggs
3 tablespoons flour
dash salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
8 ounces chocolate mini-chips
 
Directions

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Spray the bottom and sides of a 9” springform pan with Pam or a similar spray to allow the crust to release from the sides of the pan, reducing the chance of cracking as the cake cools. I do this even if I’m using a non-stick pan, just to be sure.

Leave the cheese out to soften. Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter and press into the bottom of a 9" springform pan.

Cream the cheese with a wooden spoon, and then, using an electric beater, add in the eggs, one at a time. 

Then mix in the flour, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until there are no more lumps, then swirl in the chocolate mini-chips.

Pour into the springform pan, and bake at 500 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn the oven down to 250 degrees and bake for an additional 40 minutes. Then turn the oven off and let the cake cool in the oven for one hour.

I like this cake best after it has been refrigerated, but if you're too eager to wait it tastes just as good right out of the oven.
 
Notes: 

·       You can buy graham crackers and crush your own, as we used to do, or buy ready-cracked crumbs.

·       I use unsalted butter for all my baking nowadays, but in the past I’ve used salted. I don’t think it matters.

·       You can also top this cake with a chocolate ganache if you like, to make it extra chocolatey.

·       You can also experiment with smaller springform pans by reducing the size of the recipe, or simply making two different versions—one with chips and one without, or one with a chocolate swirl and one with chips. I’d stick with the 500 degree temperature to firm up the cakes, and then reduce the 250 degree time as necessary. But remember to leave the cake in the oven until it has completely cooled to minimize cracking.

***

 

Neil Plakcy is the author of the golden retriever mysteries, set in the Philadelphia suburbs. Semi-reformed hacker Steve Levitan and his golden retriever Rochester nose out the clues to crimes to help Steve’s police detective buddy. The most recent in the series is In Dog’s Image; those who are series completists will want to start with the first, In Dog We Trust. Neil’s website is www.mahubooks.com.
  

CHOCOLATE & DOGS: A DEADLY COMBINATION

It's Halloween weekend, and if you're like me, there is a lot of chocolate in your house right now. Now you might be wondering why I am highlighting my golden retrievers on a Chocolate Blog, but there's a good reason. I've posted before that chocolate is dangerous for dogs. I'm careful when I cook and bake with chocolate, because golden retrievers -- well, most dogs -- will eat anything that drops on the floor, not to mention counter surfing. I only bake with good dark chocolate and that's exactly what can make dogs sick or worse.

Hills Pet Company has a very good article on Chocolate and Dogs that I want to share. I'm also reposting a Chocolate and Dogs Question &Answer about Halloween Candy. It's all good information for Dog Owners who also happen to be Chocoholics. Be safe!

Is Chocolate Bad for Dogs?

Chocolate is poisonous to dogs; however, the hazard of chocolate to your dog depends on the chocolate type, the amount consumed, and the dog's size. In large enough amounts, chocolate and cocoa products can kill your dog.

Why not chocolate?

• The toxic component of chocolate is theobromine. Humans easily metabolize theobromine, but dogs process it much more slowly, allowing it to build up toxic levels in their system.
• A large dog can consume more chocolate than a small dog before it suffers ill effects.
• A small amount of chocolate will probably only give your dog an upset stomach with vomiting or diarrhea.
• With large amounts, theobromine can produce muscle tremors, seizures, an irregular heartbeat, internal bleeding or a heart attack. The onset of theobromine poisoning is usually marked by severe hyperactivity.

A single piece of chocolate should not be a problem. A single piece doesn't contain a large enough theobromine dosage to harm your dog; however, if you have a small dog that has eaten a box of chocolates, you should go to the veterinarian immediately.

Different chocolate types have different theobromine levels. Cocoa, cooking chocolate, and dark chocolate contain the highest levels, while milk chocolate and white chocolate have the lowest. If you’re dealing with any quantity of dark or bitter chocolate, err on the side of caution. The high level of theobromine in dark chocolate means it takes only a very small amount to poison a dog. Less than an ounce of dark chocolate may be enough to poison a 44-pound dog.

The usual treatment for theobromine poisoning is to induce vomiting within two hours of ingestion. If you are worried that your dog may have eaten a large quantity of chocolate, call your veterinarian as soon as possible.

Of course, never consider chocolate as a reward.

And here's another article on Chocolate and Dogs and Halloween: 

It's a Q &A between Neenda Pellegrini and Dr. Sheppard Thorpe, an emergency veterinarian at Puget Sound Veterinary Referral Center in Tacoma about Halloween and Pets that appeared in the Seattle Times.  Read the entire article HERE.

Pet ingestion of Halloween treats can cause vomiting, diarrhea, hyperactivity, pancreatitis, heart arrhythmias, seizures, liver disease, kidney disease, gastrointestinal obstruction and even death.

Dangerous or even fatal chocolate toxicity is rare because knowledgeable owners usually get their chocolate-eating pets into the clinic within a few hours of ingestion. Once the pet arrives, we do what is called "decontamination" -- vomiting is induced and then activated charcoal is administered.

We also see pets with general vomiting and diarrhea from gastrointestinal upset after they've eaten candy, wrappers and holiday decorations. This can be very serious if the pet develops pancreatitis or if the pet becomes very dehydrated.

A quick and timely response makes the treatment much easier on your pet and your wallet.

Question: Why is chocolate dangerous? Is some chocolate -- dark or bittersweet chocolate -- worse than others, such as milk or white chocolate?

Answer: Chocolate contains an active ingredient called theobromine, which is toxic to pets. Theobromine is a stimulant that pets are more sensitive to than people and can cause hyperactivity, elevated heart rate, twitching and tremoring, vomiting and diarrhea and, worst of all, seizures.

Dark chocolate is more potent, having a higher concentration of theobromine, and, therefore, is more toxic. All chocolate (cakes or brownies, milk chocolate, white chocolate, chocolate syrup, cocoa powder) is considered "rich." Although not as serious as theobromine toxicity, foods with high sugar and fat contents can cause serious stomach and bowel problems. Decontamination and quick treatment is key.

Question: What harm can one little candy bar do?

Answer: It depends on the size of your pet, the presence of any underlying conditions and the amount of chocolate your pet has ingested.

A Hershey's Kiss is safe for a 70-pound Labrador retriever to eat but harmful to a 3-pound Chihuahua.

Another problem with "just one little treat" is that dogs can develop a liking to chocolate and soon may be climbing on the table to help themselves to that whole bowl of Halloween candy.

The power of the dog nose can also help them find that wrapped box of chocolates under the Christmas tree or hidden away for Valentine's Day. I know one Beagle who learned to open the pantry, and he loved to eat the brownie mix.

Question: What should I do if my pet accidentally eats chocolate? What symptoms should I watch for?

Answer: Call your regular veterinarian or local emergency/referral veterinary hospital for recommendations.

It helps to have the candy wrapper with the list of ingredients and percentage of cacao or cocoa in the product.

Monitor your pet for hyperactivity, elevated heart rate, vomiting/diarrhea, tremors, twitches and seizures although preventive treatment long before any of these symptoms is the best approach.

Check out www.veterinarypartner.com and look up chocolate toxicity. This website has an excellent chart comparing the number of ounces of chocolate a pet would need to ingest for toxicity. READ MORE HERE.