Tale-A-Tale (Part 48): Of Family And A Blissful Oreo Cheesecake

The box of Oreo cookies was screaming rip me, master! since I received it as part of this year’s Eat With Your Family Day campaign. A wonderful gesture, I must say. On that day, employees are encouraged to leave work on time and have dinner with their respective families. So, I guess the cookies will come in as dessert? This annual campaign aims at creating awareness on the importance of bonding between family members and I agree that there’s no better way to it than by sharing a meal together.

It didn’t mean that much to me though, as my meetings with my family have been limited to the weekends when I travel back to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore. But of course, without having to serve overtime on a workday meant that I had some free time to call the folks back home.

Okay, this is getting all too Hallmark-ish.

So, I did rip off the box, two months later. And baked an Oreo cheesecake to share with my family and friends. I guess technically, I did celebrate EWYFD afterall!

Yeah, I know. Many would say that baking an Oreo cheesecake is like a secondary school project because it’s rather simple. But a beginner like me will beg to differ. My objective was simple; to just bake an edible cake. In fact, that’s the question I've always asked my victims as they taste my science projects; whether my stuff was edible or not. I’m not being pretentious but you should try some of my totally-cannot-make-it cakes. Think mud.

I got my recipe from here, Kraft’s official website. Can I just say that the website is amazingly full of simple yet interesting recipes (despite most being repetitious with only the slightest of alteration in ingredients). Searching for the word Oreo alone will generate a result of over 600 recipes! Okay, now I feel commercial. At this point, let me just mention that this is NOT a sponsored post.

The original plan was to bake a Chocolate Bliss Cheesecake but I discovered that the bag of chocolate buttons I intended to use had passed its shelf life. So, only Bliss Cheesecake it’d be then. Using the mortar and pestle pair to grind the cookies for the base was fun but energy-consuming. With that, I’ve excused myself from running that evening. About a cup of sour cream was added, an idea that spurred from the few related recipes I gathered via the search result. I’ve also omitted the vanilla extract, for it was to be served to some Muslim friends also. Extra cookies were quartered and thrown into the cheese mixture, for extra crunch.

We all know and appreciate the fact that size does matter. So, when a 9 inch springform pan was specified in the recipe, anything smaller will result in catastrophe that is not unlike volcanic eruption. Mine was an unfortunate 8 inch. I contemplated for a good minute while the mixer was still running and decided to pour everything into the smaller cavity. The reason being the non-presence of baking/raising flour. It did fill nicely, to about 0.5 cm below the rim. And I felt confident and proud of my logical hypothesis.

You know, sometimes, the ego needs to be bruised in order for us to grow. And grew it did, my cake. Half of the circumference spilt and the cake, despite its rather golden complexion, looked like a mess. Some parts fell onto the heater and generated some smoke as they burned. Bring on the duck or salmon already! But that was not the worst part. After baking in the oven for an hour, it was still wobbly. And I was already late for a karaoke session. I had to prioritize. So, I immediately took the cake out from the oven (hey, I'm just following the recipe) and asked my dad to put it in the fridge after an hour of cooling in room temperature. And off I went to sing my lungs out.

A good 4 hours of frolicking with the microphone over some old and new Cantopop tunes (loved Eason Chan's songs from his H3M album), I was back in the house, hoping to see a chillin', settled cheesecake. In the aftermath of the spill earlier on, it looked rather unpleasant with the broken edges but was now much firmer. Releasing the latch of the pan, I found the cheese mixture bonded well with the cookie base. Cool.

The taste was not too rich and aptly sweet. Rather light too, perhaps due to the inclusion of (sour) cream. My parents liked it, so did my friends.

Self-indulging karaoke session aside, I guess my late EWYFD was well-spent. We should do this more often. And if the economy does recover next year, perhaps we’ll be given something more luxurious. Like roast duck?

On another note, I am both thrilled and sad to announce that MY BAKING IDOL, FatBoyBakes will be conducting his first baking class on 22 August 2009 (Saturday) at The Cooking House, Desa Sri Hartamas. Well, mostly thrilled lah because I believe he's going to bring the house down with his brand of humour and more importantly, practical tips in perfecting bakes. I must say I've learnt quite a lot from his online recipes. And sad because I won't be able to attend his class as I will be in Singapore this weekend. So, if you are game for some educational fun on baking this Saturday (10 am to 2 pm), go sign up for his class now! Click here for more details.

All the best, FatBoyBakes! You'll do more than well, I'm sure.