Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

From Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

I can not believe how fast time flies. I mean not only did a new year seem to creep up on me, but so did not blogging. I can not believe how long it has been since I have last posted and visited my fellow foodies' sites. My family and I decided to spend a nice chunk of time away from home visiting relatives. Therefore, no sit down and blog time for moi, but food was always on my mind and I actually took my Baking From My Home to Yours book. It was nice and safe in the front seat with me. There is no doubt that our holidays are filled with family and food, along with the rest of the country's. My sister-in-law and mother-in-law laid out several spreads that made us hurt from fullness from the time we woke up until the time we went to sleep. My two favorite dishes were (drum roll, please) my MIL's luscious Coconut Cake and my SIL's creamy and rich Corn Potato Soup. As always, I picked up several good recipes and tips from my MIL and can hardly wait to try them.

In the midst of all the holiday madness, I did manage to bake my TWD challenge, Tall and Creamy Cheesecake. Thank you, MIL, for letting me trespass through your kitchen and dirty a spatula and pan or two to create the delightful dessert. This challenge was chosen by Anne from Anne Strawberry. You can also find the recipe at her site. This was a fun challenge since everyone could start from a basic cheesecake recipe and go crazy, which is what I did. Since, my hubby works on rotation, I let him choose what kind of treats and eats he would like to have while he is home. One, because I love him. Two, because he gets nasty food in Nigeria. This time he chose a Peanut Butter Cheesecake. We seriously love our peanut butter. I substituted 4 oz. of peanut butter for cream cheese, in order to incorporate the flavor. The crust was made with Nutter Butters. I also varied the sour cream and heavy cream portions, using one cup of sour cream and 1/3 cup of heavy cream. I wanted the "tangy"ness of the sour cream, but the smoothness of the heavy cream. I also topped the finished version with a peanut butter chocolate ganache sprinkled with leftover Nutter Butter cookie crumbs. We loved it! It was smooth and burst with a light, but rich peanut butter flavor. Of course, I baked it late and finished it about 11 p.m. Since we headed out the next day, we had to leave it. I know I left it in good hands, though. I will definitely bake this again. I call it my Better-Late-Than- Never Cheesecake!

Well, the vacation is over and there is a sink of dishes and a mess of laundry to do already! I have several posts to put up in the next few days, especially my empanada one that I never got to. I can hardly wait to get back into the swing of things with my blog and catching up with you all. As always, don't forget to head on over to the TWD site and see what all the other fantastic foodies put up, just scroll down to the blogroll.

Next Up: French Pear Tart picked by the Dessert Diva herself, Dorie Greenspan.