Friday, February 24, 2006

Green Tea Cheesecake with Peach Raspberry Macedoine

So I am involved in a project called TeaChef in which each month we are given a different tea to create a fantastic recipe creation from. That sentence was poorly constructed. Ah well! I'm talking about cheesecake, not about grammar! So anyway, this month we had to use Green Pekoe - a fantastic green tea (in case you couldn't tell by the name).

So the first thing I thought was "peaches." I really like peaches. I really like peach flavored green tea. I figured - why not try them together? I considered doing a peach/green tea stir fry (because fruit in stir fry is fantastic, and so is green tea in stir fry), then suddenly I realized I was being silly. Cheesecake. I needed to do cheesecake. Cheesecake is my husband's favorite desert and he's been stressed lately and how cool would it be if I created a peach cheesecake recipe? I mean ... c'mon! COOL!

So I set to work making it. Being the cheesecake fan that I am and being married to the cheesecake addict that I am I have perfected my cheesecake recipe. I think I first got it off of a Philadelphia Cream Cheese package, but I've read so many cheesecake recipes in my time that it's been changed and modified in that way that recipes do. So that's me giving credit where I think credit is due (but I'm really not positive).

So anyway, you're all wanting my recipe, right? It's fantastic. Here goes:

Green Tea Cheesecake with Peach Raspberry Macedoine

Ingredients
Crust:
1/4 cup butter (melted)
5 oz ginger snaps (ground finely)

Filling:
3 tbs green pekoe tea (ground finely)
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese (room temperature)
1/2 cup creme fraiche
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs

Macedoine:
3 tbs green pekoe tea
1 cup water
3 peaches
1 pint raspberries
2 tbs sugar

Directions:

Crust:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Grease 8 1/2 inch springform pan
3. Mix melted butter and ground cookies together
4. Press into bottom of pan (use the bottom of a drinking glass if you want to make it smooth)
5. Bake for 8 minutes, or until browning
6. Let cool (leave oven on)

Filling:
1. Mix cream cheese, creme fraiche, and sugar together.
2. Add eggs one at a time
3. Mix finely ground tea into mix
4. Pour mix into springform pan over crust
5. Set pan inside a roasting pan filled with water to halfway up the side of the springform pan
6. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until you can jiggle the pan and just the center moves slightly.
7. Let cool for an hour then place in refrigerator overnight

Macedoine
1. Heat water to 180 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Place tea leaves in a cup
3. Pour water over tea leaves
4. Let steep 5 minutes then strain out tea leaves
5. Place strong tea in refrigerator
6. Cup up peaches and raspberries into "salsa sized" chunks and mix
7. Sprinkle liberally with sugar
8. Once green tea has cooled to room temperature, pour it over the fruit
9. Refrigerate Overnight

All together now!
1. Cut cheesecake using a thin knife that has been wiped between each cut
2. Place slices on plates
3. Spoon Macedoine over slices
4. Eat while drinking a glass of Green Pekoe tea

Any questions? Don't hesitate to ask! And I know I over simplified everything - this is not my first time creating my own recipe, but definitely my first time writing my own recipe.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, Looks fantastic!!! Lucky husband!!

Tabitha Dial said...

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO... what a cool challenge, making them tea-based recipes.

I LOVE cheesecake. It's what my sweetie is going to make for me tonight-- in honor of my birthday.

And I'm making chili blanco especiale, from the Creme de Colorado cookbook. Page 62.

But I didn't get enough chicken broth-- the ingredient listing is confusing-- and I forgot the tortillas. So back to the store I go-- verra verra soon.

Yummy cheesecake!

Hope school is going well.

Love You!

Marcia said...

I LOVE your orange kitchenaid!! You are so cute.

(But I'm glad my kitchenaid is PINK)

Tabitha Dial said...

I have no kitchenaid. But I have Alex... :-P

The Library Guy said...

Mmm... cheesecake.

The Library Lady said...

I envy you the Kitchen Aid--though I lust after a cobalt blue one myself.

I am a cheesecake purist--I won't as much as put fruit on mine, even for my boss, who likes to tease me that it's OKAY stuff, BUT....

My recipe is the Frugal Gourmet's with the added secret ingredient of lemon juice to give it some zip. Very simple, but it impresses people--I give cheesecake coupons as presents, and no one EVER complains.